Not sure where (or when for that matter) I stumbled on this article, but after cleaning up tons of tabs in Firefox I thought I’d share this:
We came to refer to certain types of accomplishments as “black triangles.” These are important accomplishments that take a lot of effort to achieve, but upon completion you don’t have much to show for it – only that more work can now proceed. It takes someone who really knows the guts of what you are doing to appreciate a black triangle.
It’s a convenient shorthand metaphor. So feel free to steal the term. And when progress seems a little slow because you are doing a bunch of hardcore architecture work, just remember – it’s a black triangle.
And steal it I shall! I can definitely see myself using this metaphor in the future.
