Tai Chi and the art of Software Development

3 Principles and the lessons they've taught me

We are all multi-dimensional beings. The more we leverage our unique blend of traits, the more we can bring to the world. In my case, alongside being a fractional CTO and a dad, I also practice and teach Tai Chi.

Tai Chi is a martial art with an emphasis on fluidity and balance. It’s counterintuitive, in that its core principle is about yielding. It’s not about being strong or fast, because if we rely on this we will always be defeated by those who are stronger and faster than us (and there’s always someone stronger and faster out there). It’s about cultivating internal, rather than external power, and using skill rather than simple physical ability.

The impact of this practice on my life has been profound. How it has shaped who I am today would be a series of articles, let alone how I approach my work. But I thought it would be interesting to share some of the principles of Tai Chi¹, and how I think they can be applied to how we approach and think about building our products.  Here are the first few.

1. Suspend the head

In physical terms, this principle is about staying upright, keeping a straight spine, and not leaning. When we lean, we are off balance, and easy to topple over. Most of us do this when we walk - we tip forward, and let our feet ‘catch’ us as we move forward. Tai Chi teaches us to move with control and balance - to move consciously.

For me, this aligns beautifully with the core concept of Agile (and, of course, actual agility). By avoiding leaning, we can take a small step without overcommitting. I can place my foot, sense uneven ground, broken glass, or someone trying to kick me, and easily withdraw it and move it somewhere else with a minimum of fuss. When we think about working small slices of value, continuous delivery, leveraging experiments and feature flags, and doing just-in-time planning, we avoid overly committing to features and projects that have no guarantee of success and allows us to be far more flexible in dealing with change.

2. Sink the chest

This is a subtle one, as trying to ‘sink’ your chest by rounding your back is not something most of us are used to. One of the ways I’ve learned to understand this principle is to consider the people to whom this system was originally taught: young male martial artists. These fighters would habitually puff their chests to exude strength, and so this move deliberately inverts this behaviour, emphasising again the focus on yielding and internal strength rather than raw muscles.

In the world of technology, staying humble and avoiding being unnecessarily showy is always an advantage. It helps us work more effectively and collaboratively with others while also avoiding ploughing unnecessary time and resources into projects that you might want to succeed, but which simply aren’t delivering results. It keeps us grounded and avoids the pitfalls of egoism that so easily lead individuals, teams and whole organisations astray.

3. Loosen the waist

The waist is a part of our body we might think we know, but which in reality very few of us are connected to. It took me years to be able to learn how to turn my waist without my hips also moving.

In Tai Chi, it is said that we are rooted in the feet, generated by the legs, directed by the waist, and manifested in the hands. The waist connects our lower body, where some of our largest muscles are (compare the size of your legs to the size of your arms!) and allows us to channel and direct that power in our upper body. 

For me, this is a profound example of first-principles thinking. Where are the largest muscles in the human body? The legs. Well, let’s use those to generate our force, rather than our arms! Sounds simple, right?

It is - but try moving your arms using only your legs and your waist, without using any force in your arms at all. It’s simple, but not easy.  I’ve been practising for years and still struggle with it (let alone trying to do it in a combat situation). We’re generally much more comfortable and familiar with doing things with our hands and arms.

Look at your business, product, or even simply your approach to your job. Where are your strengths? Are you fully leveraging them? Are you continually developing them? Or are you doing what’s easy, what’s comfortable, what’s become routine? Are you willing to strip everything back and look again with a fresh perspective? Are you willing to kill your darlings, and focus on what works? If you’re not, you’re getting lost in your hands, when the real power is trapped in your legs. 

Until next time

I’ll leave it there for now. I hope you enjoyed a slightly different take on things today. If you’d like more Tai Chi principles and what they can teach us about building things with technology, either like this post or let me know in the comments!

1. I practice and teach Yang-style Tai Chi, and follow Yang Cheng Fu’s 10 Principles.