THE BOX MODEL

The Amateur

When I first began writing software (12 years ago), much of the fun was in debugging code, trying to figure out why something did not work the way I wished.

There was no greater pleasure than spending hours or days fixing a complex problem and taming the code to my will.

And there was no greater frustration than realizing that the code would never work, that I would have to start over with a new approach.

Looking back on those years, I now know that the joy of debugging is a characteristic of amateur programmers.

The Professional

A professional programmer takes no joy in debugging.  He knows that spending more than 5 minutes debugging code is a clear sign that his approach was flawed from the start.  He takes a certain pleasure in ruthlessly deleting giant swaths of code in favor of some new idea.

The Takeaway

So when I see admissions offices promote complicated approaches that might result in small increases in applications or deposits, it feels so abhorrently wrong that I immediate distrust it.

I can’t help but think that if the best they can do is make such minor improvements, then it’s time they change their recruitment approach entirely.

Blogging, text messaging, Facebook, podcasts, variable printing, personalized e-mails, etc.

When part of a larger strategic vision and done with a deliberate purpose, these approaches can be effective.

But when done to wrangle some tiny competitive advantage, they are completely inadequate.

When you reach that point, when you start believing small tweaks will have "big payoffs," then it’s time to stop.

At that point, you’re debugging a failed approach, and it’s time to start over.