On Abstraction of Process, People, and Ecosystem

Abstraction is a pretty interesting topic. It’s needed cuz huamn mind cannot process big data.

I first learnt about abstraction though programming, by professor Seth Gilbert when he was trying to instroduce Stack to us, during my first Algorithm Class.

Since then.. I was fascinated by the idea of abstraction… and I think it’s good to integrate with the idea of esbi quadrant from the <Rich Dad> Book.

Let the journey start.

Programming - the abstraction of process

So the nature of programming, is the abstraction of process. A program is a combination of Data Structure, and Algorithm. Data structore is the memory, and algorithms is how you manipulate the memory, and how you react to the input.

The cool part about programming is that:

• you need to define every single detail; and every single detail is modifible
• the outcome of the program is predicatible
• the code is also quickly verifible

Business - the abstraction of people

Thinking beyond the code and process, let’s talk about people. Within a organisation / business, different position / roles can be seen as different class (I mean, the concept of class from the traditional Object Oriented Languages), and different people fitting each role, can be treated as an instance of that class, fulfilling the use & function pre-defined.

The hard part about the abstraction of people is that:

• people’s motivation are unpredictable. What motivates one might not necessarily means to motivate another.
• people’s performance are unpredictable. It can be affected by mood, resources, collaberation with other instances, etc
• the result is not quickly verifible. It really takes time to truly understand how a person is.

Investment - the abstraction of ecosystem

Investment is intestrating, it’s like farming: you plant a seed of potential business, and water it with money, provided time and patience, you might get fruitful results as return.. or get nothing.

The process of investment is like building an ecosystem:

• You need to find good seed (potential business)
• Fertilizer is needed, but cannot be too much.. and fertilizer is expensive.
• The immune system of your plant might not be that good.. you need to help clean up the Pests & Bugs.. and the cool thing is that.. bugs always come
• Potentially, you might be able to get huge return with little efforts. But this is not the purpose.. the purpose is to build a self-sustainable ecosystem.