Let’s start with brief timeline for some context:

ca. 300,000 years ago : Our species Homo sapiens first evolved.

ca. 3000 years ago: First philosophers emerged on this planet(with Thales in west and Confucius,Buddha in east).

ca. 70 years ago : First software program was executed known as Manchester baby.

In the last 70 years, we as humans have evolved significantly in every aspect. We started from the agricultural revolution. Then we moved to the industrial revolution. We advanced to the digital revolution. Now we are in the AI revolution. The average meantime between each revolution has been lowering.

There are so many parallels we can draw from the first few philosophers and their concepts. These parallels can be related to software engineering /technology which emerged three Millennia after the first recorded philosophers.

One of my favorite philosophers Thales said : ”The best way to create the future is to create it”. This is particularly true in the field of technology. Critical thinking, innovation, and proactive development have led us to have tools like this laptop (I am typing on). The internet which is helping you read this post from anywhere in the world. Amazing, isn’t it.

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If Philosophy(Love of knowledge) and Technology were to meet, here are the top 5 things which all software engineering or technology leaders can/should learn from philosophy:

• Epistemology (Nature of knowledge)
  • Originator: Plato and Aristotle (Greek fellas during 6th BCE).
    
  • Concept : It is the study of how knowledge is created, validated and applied in real world problems.
    
  • Example: The Invention of wheel. This one is debatable. The wheel is said to be invented 3000 years before the first recorded philosopher Thales was born. The wheel was not a random invention. It was the process of accumulating knowledge on how to move heavy things at that time. It involved noticing logs and conducting experimentation by testing different designs.
    

• Pragmatism
  • Originator: Charles Sanders (19th century AD).
    
  • Concept : Pragmatism is seeing the truth as it works in practice. Simply said to truly understand an idea, one must consider the outcomes when its put into practice.
    
  • Example: Amazon’s ‘two pizza teams’ approach illustrates pragmatism. Small, autonomous groups are empowered to test small scale solutions. They iterate these solutions until perfection. These groups can be fed with just two pizzas.
    
    
• Systems thinking and Design philosophy
  • Originator: Ludwig von Bertalanffy(20th century) & Vitruvius(1st century BCE).
    
  • Concept : Holistic analysis of all interconnected components of a system as biological systems. Design philosophy is just combination of user centricity, simplicity,ethical responsibility and delight as pillars of good design.
    
  • Example: Rocket science is one of the amazing and complex feats of engineering done my homo sapiens. SpaceX is great example where system thinking is used to coordinate rocket design, launch gear and reusable tech. in a iterative manner. Apples first iphone was game changer when design philosophy was applied to create a minimalist product with user centricity.
    Micro services architecture in Software is another example of design philosophy.
    
    
• Metaphysics
  • Originator: Andronicus of Rhodes(1st centure BCE) when he compiled the work of Aristotle.
    
  • Concept : A branch of philosophy concerned with the fundamental nature of reality, being and existence.
    
  • Example: A bit hard to correlate but in essence any technology change is art of becoming. Through tech. change new realities became reality. The development of the internet was not merely a tool. It fundamentally changed how Homo sapiens connected, communicated, and perceived themselves.
    
    This aligns with metaphysics. Technology is both a cause and effect of transformation. It is tied to our reality, being and what we aspire to be.
    
    
• Stoicism(Resilience and Reflection)
  • Originator: Zeno of citium (3rd century BCE).
    
  • Concept : It simply means emotional resilience through alignment with nature and reflection.What we can control, i.e our decisions, efforts VS what we cannot such as external events.
    
  • Example: Many digital transformation and migration programs for system-critical applications offer an apt example. Stoic practices are adopted to keep composure during high stake missions.
    
    
• Leadership philosophy (and my favorite).
  • Originator: Confucius (3rd Century Chinese philosopher).
    
  • Concept : Leading by moral example and fostering collective growth as a whole is what leadership philosophy is in nutshell.
    
  • Example: Servant leadership is a modern version of this concept and was coined in 1970s. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella integrates confucian ideas to promote empathy and collaboration in the tech giant he leads.
    
    In an ideal world, a transformative leader inspires the team with a shared vision. They motivate them to innovate and exceed expectations. They also emphasize being ethical. This helps move the needle in right direction not only for organization, society but humanity as a whole.

To wrap up, there are many takeaways. As technology leaders, we can seek these from a 3000-year-old subject: philosophy. We can apply them to this newborn infant, software engineering/technology which is 70 years old.

By applying Stoic resilience and reflection, tech teams can build stronger, adaptive and cultivate a culture of thoughtful, sustainable innovation.
While philosophy does offer essential frameworks which can further be fine tuned and adapted to modern technology enhancement. Ethics as a concept from philosophy for eg. can absolutely help us to tackle dilemmas like AI bias, usecase and privacy.

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PS: Philosophy as a topic is something I never understood (or rather hated) all my life. Maybe because, I come from a STEM background or I think about every problem with science-driven facts and scientific lens.

Nevertheless, during the last few years, especially after the pandemic or maybe due to midlife crisis :). I fell in love with philosophy as subject. Having reading 10’s of books, podcasts etc on philosophy i couldn’t agree more with Socrates when he said:

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

Tip: If you have ca. 500 hours to kill, here are two resources i highly recommend to learn philosophy 101:

• Podcast ‘Philosophize this’ by Stephen West.
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Book by Yuval Noah Harari.

//Until next time,
Keep learning – keep hustling.
Chakshu Arora.