Most startups don’t need rockstars

I was just speaking with a surprisingly enlightened CEO of a tech company, who shared an interesting claim, which I surprisingly quickly agreed with:

Most startups don’t really need rockstars.

If we agree that “rockstars” is a ridiculous term used to describe engineers who can solve hard technical problems, this claim may sound depressing to most engineers. It would have sounded depressing to me, too, only a few months ago. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

The modern day tech culture was built on the success of companies like Microsoft, Apple or Google. These companies employed (and hopefully still do) genius engineers who have found previously unimaginable solutions to insanely hard technical problems. These engineers are true rockstars, whom all other engineers, myself included, admire and look up to. Their technological breakthroughs have also made technology so mainstream, that it’s become hard to imagine that any modern business can operate without employing said technology and, consequently, us — engineers. Everybody needs technology, so everybody needs us. “Everybody needs us!” — this is our hidden leitmotif and we certainly feel like rockstars while playing it in our heads.

But it is true. Everybody does need us. And they are prepared to do what it takes to get us. They are prepared to call us “rockstars”, to promise we will be solving hard problems, to throw money, stock options and perks at us, so we know they mean business. But in reality, most companies are not Microsoft, Apple or Google. Hell, maybe even Microsoft, Apple and Google are not Microsoft, Apple and Google anymore. What do I know? What I do know is that most companies don’t need to solve insanely hard technical problems to make (tons of) money. They just need to develop an app. Or a social network. Or run some Hadoop jobs to crunch some numbers.

Innovation is necessary but it’s not necessarily a technical one. In most businesses, innovation is in the product domain. For example, even though Amazon’s online store is certainly an example of technical innovation, most of the innovation that led to its success is purely operational. 37Signals have succeeded with Basecamp not because David Heinemeier Hanson invented Rails (although it helped) but because they nailed project management.

Could it be that we, engineers, have become spoiled brats? And could it be that we are being treated as such? “Tell the princess she is the smartest, most beautiful in the world and get her a new toy”. We are known to judge business culture and advertising culture and X culture as being full of it, but maybe our culture — tech culture — is no different.

I am not trying to say engineers should be less ambitious. But lets try to be more realistic. Take a good look at your career and answer a simple question: Are you solving hard technical problems? Insanely hard technical problems? Are you, really? Most of us aren’t, at least most of the time.

But maybe we are solving hard non-technical problems? The hardest problem I solved at Celtra was to hire a team of rockstars. It required many skills but most of them aren’t technical. And you know what? This is perfectly OK. Engineers are good at abstract thinking and this trait doesn’t come handy in programming only. There are tons of business, organizational, creative or operational problems you may be able to solve. Solve hard problems if you can, even if they are not technical. Sure. Why not?

On the other hand, if you’re spending years doing plain old CRUD, developing yet another CMS, doing yet another 3rd party integration, styling yet another set of tabs, buttons, dialogs or charts and Sunday evenings make you a little depressed… well, let some other engineer do that. The business will be fine without you, trust me. Maybe it doesn’t need technical innovation. Maybe it’s just you who needs it.

Maybe you’re a cannon who should find a bigger fortress to demolish. A ninja. A rockstar. Or maybe you’re not. Either way, you won’t know if you don’t try to find harder problems to solve. There are companies where business depends on technical innovation, on solving hard technical problems. God bless them. Just have in mind that there aren’t that many of them. At least not as many as we are being told.

Elegance

Elegance is an important concept for me. This is how Wikipedia defines it:

Elegance is a synonym for beautiful that has come to acquire the additional connotations of unusual effectiveness and simplicity. It is frequently used as a standard of tastefulness particularly in the areas of visual design, decoration, the sciences, and the esthetics of mathematics. Elegant things exhibit refined grace and dignified propriety.

It is a mixture of simplicity, consistency, passion, honor, discipline, goodness and probably many other things. But, to be honest, it is probably hard to define, measure or attach importance to. Why should buttons be closer, wires longer, lines aligned? Why should names contain only one word when several words cost nothing and say so much more? It is easy to overlook or even skip elegance intentionally. But I feel that every great product is rooted in elegance.

Elegance should be everywhere and not just in front of the user. Elegance is not a technique. It’s not an approach. It is a value. A moral standard, if you will. It sets the bar high for everyone on your team, forcing them to demand more from each other. Enough is not enough anymore, even when the reason says it is. Elegance is the road that leads to the perfect product.

But it’s hard to teach elegance to an adult. Really hard.

Mama Petrović

Skype account moje majke me je podsetio da je danas njen 73. rođendan.

Mama Petrović je relativno zadovoljna baka. Odgajila je i obrazovala dva zdrava, prava i, što je najgore, ambiciozna deteta. Ta dva ambiciozna deteta su učinili ono, što je u poslednjih 20 godina, kažu, učinilo oko pola miliona ambiciozne dece u Srbiji: odselili su se iz iste. Deca joj danas pričaju brat-bratu jedno 4-5 stranih jezika, a ona je ostala sama u jednom velikom, praznom stanu u Beogradu i počela da puni police fotografijama, te da se, pod stare dane, prilagođava tehnološkim trendovima. Uvek je online, iPod joj je uvek pri ruci. Slušalice je malo nerviraju jer joj non stop ispadaju iz ušiju (što je veoma smešno gledati preko kamere).

Kada su je jednom prilikom na aerodromu zamolili da se izuje, belo me je pogledala. Pružio sam joj ruku i počeo glasno da se smejem. “Kad sam ja poslednji put letela, ovoga nije bilo”, promrmljala je, šetajući polako bosa kroz detektor za metal.

Vidan je i napredak mame Petrović na području lingvistike. Npr. kada ponavlja za prijom italijanske reči: “Kako bre isto kažu ‘dobro jutro’ i ‘dobar dan’? Kad se to oni bude?”. Ili kada s loptom u ruci strpljivo pokušava da razume unuka: “Šta mu je bre ta ‘žoga’?”. Napredna je to baka.

Nego, pade mi na pamet da ne razmišljam dovoljno o njoj. Moj cenjeni mozak ovih dana razmišlja o startupima. A šta mama Petrović zna o startupima, moliću lepo? Ništa! Je l’ zna ona možda koliko je teško ideju sprovesti u delo? Koliko je teško naći JavaScript programera? Koliko WebKit ume da bude pokvaren i podmukao?

Pre 20 godina je mama Petrović, viši radiološki tehničar, gajila dvoje tinejdžera u jednom opštem ludilu, pod ekonomskim, sportskim i kulturnim sankcijama, pod režimom najvećeg kretena u istoriji Srbije, tokom (za sada) druge najgore hiperinflacije u istoriji sveta, trudeći se da im nekako objasni da je normalnost, u kojoj rastu, sve samo ne normalnost.

I hvala joj na tome. Sve i ako mi jednog dana uspe da prodam neki startup za milione (što mi se, iskren da budem, čini sve manje bitnim), to će biti onaj teg, koji će me držati s obe noge na zemlji. Da ne pomislim slučajno, dok ispijam koktele s nekim “uspešnim” ljudima, da mi je mesto iznad oblaka.

To je najbitniji poklon, koji nam je mama Petrović dala. Sumnjam da ćemo mi njoj moći da damo bitniji od iPoda.

Srećan rođiš, kevo.

Integration trap

Almost every product needs to be integrated with some other product. But many startups fall into something I call the “integration trap”. As they try to pick up traction, they dedicate more and more resources to integrating with other, already successful products. Since resources are always limited, especially in early stages, this means they pay less attention to adding real value to their product. Integration is often a necessity but believing it adds value to your product is dangerous.

Imagine you owned a restaurant. Integration, in your case, might be to build a parking lot, making it easier for your customers to visit. But if your food and service suck, the parking lot will remain empty. Integration is like opening doors to users (and business). But it doesn’t guarantee anyone will walk through that door (even if they promise they would).

If your product creates value for users, they will want it. That’s the “capital T” Truth. If they love it, they will find ways to use it, even if it’s not integrated with Facebook, Salesforce, WordPress or SAP. If your food is the best in town, customers will literally crawl through the windows of your restaurant and think it’s cool. And then you will build that parking lot not to add value to your restaurant, but to not be an asshole to your loyal customers.

I strongly believe that integration efforts should always be under strict control. In many cases, you should pay no attention to integration at all if your product is in an early, pre-traction stage. Once you feel that integration has become a necessity, adopt an attitude of fighting it first. Make it prove itself before you commit to doing it. And keep in mind that a much bigger portion of your efforts should always be directed towards innovating and adding real value to your product. Integration efforts often have this dangerous lure because figuring out what you need to do to integrate with Google may seem much easier than figuring out what you need to do to make masses of people love your product — even more so if someone is holding a cheque in their hand and telling you that Google integration is the only thing between you and that cheque.

Celtra barely does any integration nowadays, but it used to be a regular part of our development. The nature of mobile advertising is such that, unless you’re Apple, integration is literally unavoidable. But what I think we did well is that, even at the peak, no more than 10% of our team was dedicated to integration. What eventually started happening is that customers were willing to switch to SDKs we were already integrated with, just because they wanted to use AdCreator. Looking back from this perspective, I believe we can thank our bold, sometimes even risky attitude for avoiding the integration trap. We simply never considered not integrating with some other product as dangerous to our business as not adding value to our own product.

O imigraciji in spremembah

Silicijeva Dolina ima dve ključni sestavini: pametne ljudi in kapital. Ko se v Sloveniji pogovarjamo o visokotehnoloških podjetjih oz. startupih, pogosto slišim, da imamo veliko pametnih ljudi, le kapitala ni v zadostni količini. Kdor pozna ekosistem Silicijeve Doline, se najbrž tudi zaveda, da po nekih skritih zakonih trga, pametni ljudje in kapital vedno stremijo po nekem ravnovesju: več kot je pametnih ljudi, več je kapitala in obratno. Če se nam zdi, da v Sloveniji nimamo dovolj kapitala, potem namesto državnih subvencij predlagam bolj dolgoročno rešitev: uvoz pametnih ljudi.

A dobrih inženijrev, zdravnikov ali biokemikov nam ne bo v kombiju pripeljal ukrajinski kriminalec. Pametni ljudje danes imajo izbiro. Vsak izobražen, ambiciozen človek je priložnost za nekaj velikega in zato se za njih danes poteguje cel svet. Da bi jih prepričali, da pridejo k nam, moramo najprej ustvariti okolje, ki jim bo privlačno. Vstopna točka v to okolje, pa je imigracijska zakonodaja. Kako ta zakonodaja izgleda v Sloveniji, kako pa drugje, vam bom povedal na podlagi lastnih izkušenj.

Kako izgleda nekreativna imigracijska zakonodaja, ki zavira razvoj visokotehnoloških podjetij? Primer je Slovenija.

Ne glede na to ali boste kot tujec v Sloveniji čistili pisarno za 500€ na mesec ali v njej programirali za 2000€ na mesec, vas čaka enaka zakonska procedura za pridobitev dovoljenj za bivanje in delo.

Kako je ta procedura izgledala v mojem primeru?

Da bi sploh lahko dobil delovno dovoljenje v Sloveniji, je moral Zavod za Zaposlovanje preveriti, če slučajno obstaja kakšen brezposeln programer s slovenskim državljanstvom, ki bi lahko opravljal moje delo. Vsak, ki se je v življenju vsaj enkrat srečal z IT panogo, zelo dobro ve, da programer danes ne dobi službe, samo če je noče ali je v zaporu, s tem, da je primanjkljaj na trgu tako velik, da bi se zelo verjetno tudi za programerja v zaporu našla kakšna služba na daljavo. Ker po dveh tednih iskanja ZZS ni našel brezposelnega programerja v Sloveniji, sem dobil dovoljenje za delo.

Jaz, inženir računalništva, sem v Decembru leta 2005 čakal svoj slovenski vizum pred konzulatom v Beogradu. Konzulat Slovenije takrat še ni imel čakalnice, tako da sem dobri 2 uri stal zunaj, pozimi, kot deklica z vžigalicami. Spomnim se, da mi je še preden sem prišel na vrsto zmanjkalo baterije na iPodu in sem v nadaljevanju poslušal pogovor gradbenih delavcev, ki so prav tako čakali na svoje vizume.

Ko sem dobil prvo dovoljenje za delo, je bilo le-to vezano le na enega delodajalca, s čimer mi je bila onemogočena mobilnost na trgu dela. Prvo dovoljenje za bivanje, ki je bilo vezano na dovoljenje za delo, je bilo veljavno samo 4 mesece. Že po treh mesecih v Sloveniji, še preden sem si kupil pošten pralni stroj, me je čakala nova procedura podaljšanja dovoljenj, a tokrat za velikodušnih 8 mesecev. To pomeni, da sem se že v prvem letu bivanja v Sloveniji z birokratskimi procedurami srečal kar trikrat. Bom še omenil, da tujcu s prenehanjem dovoljenja za bivanje prenehajo veljati tudi zdravstveno zavarovanje, registracija avtomobila, ter mali milijon drugih dokumentov. Uporabite svojo domišljijo in si predstavljajte kako potem izgleda “leto dobrodošlice” v deželi pod Alpami.

Poseben odstavek bom namenil problemu združitve družine. V Beogradu je namreč takrat ostala moja žena, Milena. Slovenska zakonodaja preprečuje združitev družine v prvem letu bivanja tujca v Sloveniji. Posledično je bilo moje prvo leto v Sloveniji za Mileno in mene čustvena šok terapija in prvi resen preizkus najinega zakona. Po enem letu in še eni birokratski proceduri je Milena sicer dobila dovoljenje za bivanje, ampak ne tudi dovoljenja za delo. Ko je še živela na Balkanu, je Milena študirala in delala, njena nova EU domovina pa je od nje zahtevala, da sedi doma in čaka, da mož pride iz službe. Posledično se je v drugem letu mojega bivanja v Sloveniji najino psiho-finančno stanje še dodatno poslabšalo.

Sedaj pa pavza za razmislek: V svojih prvih dveh letih v Sloveniji sem bil vodja razvoja na Interi. Takrat je bila Intera v startup fazi. Razvili in lansirali smo nov CRM produkt, ter pridobili prve naročnike. A se vam ne zdi zanimiv ta kontrast med mojo ambiciozno in kreativno službo, ter birokratskim peklom, ki sem ga istočasno preživljal?

Če si tujec v Sloveniji, sploh z začasnim bivanjem, so zate mnoga vrata zaprta: kredita na banki ne dobiš, skoraj ničesar si ne moreš kupiti na obroke, celo naročniškega razmerja ne moreš skleniti. Kot tujka z začasnim bivanjem je morala Milena plačevati šolnino na fakulteti. Šolnina za tujce je znašala okrog $1500 letno, po novem zakonu pa je nekajkrat dražja, kar bo najbrž učinkovito ustavilo prihod študentov iz tretjih držav v Slovenijo. Vizionarska poteza, ni kaj. Šele po petih letih bivanja v Sloveniji, ko sva z Mileno slovenski jezik že obvladala do te mere, da se je najin maternji jezik dejansko poslabšal, sva dobila stalno bivanje v Sloveniji. Stalno bivanje je sicer olajšalo par stvari: npr. končno imam telefonsko številko na svoje ime, Milena pa je dobila pravico do dela, so pa mnoge druge življenjsko pomembne zadeve, kot je npr. stanovanjski kredit, še vedno ostale zapletene.

Za slovensko državljanstvo lahko zaprosi tujec šele po desetletju neprekinjenega bivanja v Sloveniji. Da bi ga dobil po redni poti, se mora najprej odpovedati trenutnemu državljanstvu, s čimer si seveda povzroči cel kup zakonsko-administrativnih težav v prejšnji domovini. Naša mlada družina, ki vključuje dve fakultetno izobraženi osebi in dvoletnega otroka, ki se je rodil v Ljubljani in povabilo na kosilo že razume v obeh jezikih, po dobrih sedmih letih v Sloveniji še vedno nima državljanstva.

Kako izgleda kreativna imigracijska zakonodaja, ki spodbuja razvoj visokotehnoloških podjetij? Primer je Irska.

Leta 2007 sva z Mileno čisto znorela zaradi najine situacije v Sloveniji in se začela zanimati za Irsko. Kasneje sva se premislila in ostala v Sloveniji.

Irska je prav tako majhna država, njen hiter razvoj pa se je, podobno kot slovenski, začel v zgodnjih devedesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja. Ključna razlika med Slovenijo in Irsko je kreativnost zakonodaje oz. irski pogum, da zakonodajo iz preteklosti prilagodijo izzivom prihodnosti.

Če si tujec, ki želi asfaltirati ceste na Irskem, te čaka nič kaj dosti bolj prijazna procedura kakor v Sloveniji. Če pa si inženir računalništva, te čaka nekaj povsem drugega. Za poklice z visoko dodano vrednostjo in primanjkljajem na trgu delovne sile, ima Irska imigracijsko zakonodajo, ki se jo da primerjati z rdečo preprogo.

Če irski delodajalec ponudi inženirju računalništva iz tujine letno plačo, ki je višja kot 30.000€, mu njihov zavod za zaposlovanje izda delovno dovoljenje, ne da bi sploh preverjal, če obstaja kakšen Irec, ki lahko to delo opravlja namesto njega. Ircem je namreč jasno, da je na takšnem poklicnem nivoju to absolutno nepotrebna zakonska ovira. Prvo delovno dovoljenje in posledično tudi dovoljenje za bivanje veljata kar dve leti. Po dveh letih je takšen tujec že upravičen do stalnega bivanja, po petih pa do državljanstva.

Ovir pri združitvi družine v primeru visoko kvalificiranih tujih delavcev na Irskem ni. Družina tujca se lahko skupaj z njim preseli na Irsko in takoj ima tudi pravico do dela. Tudi če zaenkrat pozabimo, da je ločevanje pravice do bivanja (življenja) od pravice do dela precej nehuman ukrep, poskusimo biti vsaj toliko pragmatični kolikor so zagotovo bili irski politiki: Izobraženi ljudje so ponavadi poročeni z izobraženimi ljudmi. Verjetnost, da bo žena inženirja računalništva bolj koristna za irski trg kot žena gradbenega delavca je precej visoka. Grdo se sliši, ampak tako pač je. Ali se potemtakem Ircem res izplača postavljati takšne ovire pred visoko kvalificiran kader, če ga le-te samo lažje prepričajo, da namesto Irske izbere kakšno konkurenčno državo, ki ga prav tako potrebuje in mu je pripravljena ponuditi precej toplejšo dobrodošlico? A se nam ne zdi, da v tem primeru tovrstne zakonske ovire gospodarstvu prej škodujejo kot koristijo?

Spremembe so edina konstanta. Razen v Sloveniji.

Slovenska imigracijska zakonodaja je od nekdaj prilagojena izključno nekvalificirani delovni sili, ki so jo v glavnem potrebovala sedaj že neobstoječa podjetja za vizionarske gradbene projekte. Zato smo v Sloveniji navajeni, da nas beseda “tujec” spominja na Bosanca, ki v rokah drži lopato. V Silicijevi Dolini jih ista beseda najbolj pogosto spominja na kitajskega programerja. Ampak še bolj kot zastarela, nepremišljena, nekreativna in škodljiva zakonodaja, me moti dejstvo, da je bilo po številnih letih v Sloveniji sprememb bore malo. Danes poznam tujce, ki se borijo z istimi problemi, s katerimi sem se jaz boril 7 let nazaj. Že 4 leta se pogovarjamo o krizi, ampak je vse še vedno bolj ali manj enako. Sprememb v resnici ni. In če hočete mojo definicijo slovenskega problema, je to še najbolj blizu. Evo, še enkrat, za konec:

Vse je še vedno bolj ali manj enako. Sprememb v resnici ni.

Laugh

You won’t regret making laughter your main goal in life.

Not the artificial one that certain drugs seem to induce (when I told a friend that laughter is my main goal in life, he said he had something that can help me reach that goal quite easily).

After I met my wife, I remember I was laughing every day with her. After about a year, I laughed so hard I fell down on my knees and proposed. I was only 24 but didn’t care. Laughter was all the proof I needed to know I was doing the right thing.

And having a kid indeed proved to be one of the most stressful things one can endure, both physically and psychologically. But my naughty little toddler has been making me laugh so hard for the past two years that I usually forget stressful situations the very next second. Laughter assures me we’re doing well.

Not unlike my family life, my career has been an emotional roller coaster. Some days are extraordinary. But not every day is like that. Not every day is inspiring. Sometimes I feel I’m losing my motivation. But while I can still laugh, I know I can still enjoy it. Even when my forehead is pressing against the keyboard, I raise my head, see some random Hungarian words on the screen and laugh. Laughter tells me there may still be something there worth trying.

Everything is fine while you’re still laughing. But if you ever stop, don’t worry. It’s not so much a silence, as it is the sound of change.

On scorpions and frogs

The most important lesson I learned about people was told by a scorpion:

The Scorpion and the Frog is a fable about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid of being stung during the trip, but the scorpion argues that if it stung the frog, the frog would sink and the scorpion would drown. The frog agrees and begins carrying the scorpion, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked why, the scorpion explains that this is simply its nature. The fable is used to illustrate the view that the behaviour of some creatures, or of some people, is irrepressible, no matter how they are treated and no matter what the consequences.

I have never questioned this lesson, only my ability to recognize scorpions. I never blame anyone for not changing their nature. I blame myself for not recognizing it.

I apply this lesson to any part of my life where I deal with adults — e.g., friendship, marriage or recruiting. Lets stick with the less personal subject of recruiting: Part of my job is to interview people whom I have never met before and decide whether they are a good fit for my company. I don’t expect them to become a good fit. I expect them to be what they are. I simply try to do us both a huge favor by seeing it. Not hiring the wrong guy is often better than hiring the right one. Understanding the nature of our candidates is, to me, of far greater importance than evaluating their technical skills. My contention is that our business depends almost entirely on the collective nature of the people we have on board.

There are no absolute values here. On a professional level, I don’t consider any nature right or wrong. But we are in a business of crossing rivers and hiring a scorpion can endanger our business. That’s it. Not that there’s anything absolutely wrong with scorpions, it’s just that we happen to need frogs.

An ex boss of mine once told me that I have a disruptive nature. “Good when you need to change something”, he said, “bad when you want to keep the status quo”. So I joined a startup, where change is mandatory. Status quo can be good when it works. There are many environments where this is the case. Banks, for example. A friend once asked me why I wouldn’t work for a bank. “The pay is better and the job is less stressful”, he posited. “It is not in my nature”, I replied.

InterVenture

Moj zelo dober prijatelj Marko iz švicarskega podjetja InterVenture me je prosil za eno zanimivo uslugo. V Beogradu namreč nujno potrebujejo Ruby razvijalca. Tako kot povsod na tem svetu, tudi v balkanski prestolnici zabave je primanjkljaj programerjev. Zato bi Marko službo rad ponudil tudi kandidatom iz Slovenije, ki bi bili pripravljeni nekaj časa živeti in delati v Beogradu. Za razliko od številnih drugih poklicev, plače programerjev v Beogradu so dokaj visoke in pogosto primerljive s slovenskimi. Kakor mi je povedal Marko, za pravega kandidata je InterVenture pripravljen ponuditi kompenzacijo, ki je — to the best of my knowledge — na višjem nivoju kot pri večini slovenskih IT podjetij.

Če kakšnega Ruby razvijalca iz Slovenije zanima služba v mestu z najboljšim nočnim življenjem in najslabšim javnim prevozom, več informacij lahko dobi na tem linku. Spodaj je fotka InterVenture pisarne v Beogradu, ki sem jo naredil, ko sem bil lansko leto pri njih na obisku.

InterVenture office, Belgrade

Če pa bi radi ostali v najlepšem mestu na svetu in vam Ruby ni pogoj za službo, vas pričakujemo na Celtri, seveda.

Immigration rhymes with discrimination

Discriminating someone based on their race, religion, sex or sexual orientation is mainly unacceptable today. Yes, there are still cases, but they are mostly isolated and usually in conflict with the law. But if you look back in time at certain points in history, not only was discriminating against other human beings acceptable, wide spread and perfectly legal — it was considered “the way that things are”.

We would be fools to think that there isn’t much discrimination left in the modern culture. I’m sure it’s still here. It’s just that we consider it “the way that things are”.

My definition of discrimination is simple: Denying rights to human beings due solely to the properties they obtained involuntarily.

I offer you one example from today’s world that fits this definition, but isn’t generally considered discrimination: immigration laws. Most citizens of developed nations consider immigration laws a necessary measure to protect their economic well being. I admit it’s hard even for me not to admit that it’s just “the way that things are”.

But just like I wonder how in hell could have people ever considered fair that someone couldn’t sit at the front of the bus because of the color of the skin they received at birth, I am 100% certain that, one day, my child or my child’s child will ask me how in hell has it ever made sense to us that someone shouldn’t be able to choose where to live because they were born in a certain place.

Motika vs. meč

Cincinnatus je z motiko neusmiljeno udaral po zemlji, ko se je na cesti ob njegovi posesti ustavil voz. Na vozu so sedeli njegovi sosedje. “Cincinnatus! Cincinnatus!”, zavpili so, “Rim napadajo!”. “Kaaaj? Riiim!?”, glasno je odvrnil Cincinnatus in nemudoma odkorakal v hišo. Motiko je prislonil na steno, v roko pa vzel meč. Na glavo si je dal čelado in odločno odkorakal do vozu, na katerega se je brez besede usedel. Voz je nato speljal naprej proti Rimu. Cincinnatus je bil 82 let star.

Zgodbo o staremu Cincinnatusu nam je povedal Richard “Lefty” Hall, učitelj svetovne zgodovine. Dvomim, da obstaja generacija gimnazije St. Clairsville, ki ne pomni kako je majhni, sivi človek dogodek ponazarjal z metlo v roki in loncem na glavi. Ko je zgodbo končal, smo še nekaj časa ostali tiho. Naslonjen na metlo, učitelj je naš molk izkoristil, da nam pove še naslednje:

Velike nacije so tiste, ki vedo kdaj je čas za motiko, kdaj pa za meč.