Putt's Law
Origin
Published in 1981 under the pseudonym "Archibald Putt" in "Putt's Law and the Successful Technocrat". The author is believed to have been an ex-IBM tech management consultant. Putt compressed the tech-firm hierarchy tragedy: engineers know the work but lack authority; managers have authority but lack knowledge. The gap between is the essential conflict of every tech project.
Meaning
A common scene in Korean tech firms: developers sigh that managers don't know why this is needed; managers sigh that developers don't know why this takes so long. Both are right. Both see different truths. Putt's Law points to the value of the "translator" who bridges them.
Lesson — Meeting Eastern Classics
Analects: "One who knows is below one who loves; one who loves is below one who delights." Confucius's three stages — knowing, loving, delighting. Putt pointed to the tragedy of organizations where knowing (engineer) and loving (manager) are split. Only when they meet does delight begin.
"二" is two horizontal lines — the simplest number and the original division. Zhuangzi: "Heaven, earth, and I are born together; the ten thousand things and I are one." Putt's Law shows the organization where 二 has not returned to 一. The translator restores the unity.
