The internet is filled with things. Here is one of them.
Black Triangles2023 Dec 26
What is a project milestone which appears insignificant to the outside world but which insiders understand to be the most important achievement in the entire cycle? That, per this author, is a 'black triangle,' named after the time their video game development team cheered a simple black triangle being rendered to screen. It wasn't the triangle they were cheering, exactly, but rather that the 3d engine was, for the first time, drawing that triangle.
It's a different situation, but I feel there are parallels with the IT world, how some infrastructure is flashy and draws attention, whereas others are just as essential but entirely without sex appeal. I remember, when working at a school, arriving in the building one day to find that a donor had sponsored the naming of the classroom robot charging station, a nothingburger shelf with a power strip and some robots on it. This, while meanwhile I was in the midst of upgrading the school clock-PA system without the funding of donors, budget eked from wherever I could scrape it, despite this being a system which saw far more day-to-day improvement in school operation than the ephemeral collection of robots. But such stories likely abound in every profession.
What is a project milestone which appears insignificant to the outside world but which insiders understand to be the most important achievement in the entire cycle? That, per this author, is a 'black triangle,' named after the time their video game development team cheered a simple black triangle being rendered to screen. It wasn't the triangle they were cheering, exactly, but rather that the 3d engine was, for the first time, drawing that triangle.
It's a different situation, but I feel there are parallels with the IT world, how some infrastructure is flashy and draws attention, whereas others are just as essential but entirely without sex appeal. I remember, when working at a school, arriving in the building one day to find that a donor had sponsored the naming of the classroom robot charging station, a nothingburger shelf with a power strip and some robots on it. This, while meanwhile I was in the midst of upgrading the school clock-PA system without the funding of donors, budget eked from wherever I could scrape it, despite this being a system which saw far more day-to-day improvement in school operation than the ephemeral collection of robots. But such stories likely abound in every profession.