Gentleman Modeler

I had a bit of a crisis of confidence a little while back... a couple of months ago... a bit hyperbolic, I know, but I asked myself... Basically, what the hell am I doing?... Really, what do I know about modeling?  Have I got any business writing a blog about this?

The internet is full of ignorance.  Am I just adding my ignorance to the sum total.  Am I making things a bit better, or am I just making things worse?

In my day to day work I draw diagrams illustrating various aspects of a solution.  These serve a purpose, they generally get the job done, but they do not represent models.  I lack confidence that these diagrams meet a strict definition of a model.  I use UML, BPMN, ArchiMate, and whatever else is required, but I hardly consider myself an expert in any of these graphical languages.  I don't know anybody who is an expert in these languages.  I get by, and I hope that what I produce is helpful.

I do believe that modeling is the one thing that can lift modern IT, in all of its incarnations to the next level.  There is great satisfaction in putting a diagram in front of people illustrating a complex solution, or problem, and watching them, as each of them gets the understanding that they need.  You could write thousands of words and not get that response.  People would finish reading a textual description, and even if they understood it, they would be exhausted, bored, or wondering why they bothered.  In this situations, a picture is literally worth a thousand words.

Apart from the functional aspects of diagramming, or modeling, maybe there is an element of creativity involved.  For those of us, who are commonly schooled in the subjects of maths, science and technology, diagramming offers us an excuse to produce something with aesthetic appeal.

I can't claim to be an amateur, except in the strict sense of the word, that is, that it is done for the love of it, but my humility only goes so far.  So I started thinking of the term "Gentleman Scientist", for which I had positive connotations.

I looked up what the term Gentleman Scientist describes and the term is officially described as referring to an independent scientist, not associated with any organisation, who is self-funded, but who would ordinarily do the same type of work as a normal scientist within an organisation or institution.  This doesn't quite describe me.  I'm not a scientist, clearly.  I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable and I'm not self-funded, in the sense that I still need to hold a job and can't dedicate myself to this full time.

Another connotation of the term comes to mind, when referring to what sometimes happens in astronomy; At times a home hobbyist in looking at the stars comes across a new celestial body.  These people often are knowledgeable in their field, but not experts.  They often spend a lot of time looking over existing or old discoveries, and reveling in what has been done before, while being hopeful that they can one day stumble onto something of value.  Also when you think about it, there is something of the obsessive about looking at the stars hoping to find a new one.

So maybe that is it, that that would give a fair description of what I'm doing here.  A Gentleman Modeler; someone, slightly obsessive, who stumbles in the dark, while revisiting non-original material with the hope of coming up with something novel, useful or of interest.  

But also, and keeping things grounded, it makes for a great alternative, when compared to watching TV, or keeping up with the news.