The building of ships

Last time I left a job, I added to my series of ramblings on Poetry and Business with a short note on Le Petit Prince.

Now that I am changing again, I feel drawn to Saint-Exupéry’s writing once more. The passage below is from Wisdom of the Sands. The translation is from me and I apologize for its poor quality which leaves out some important nuances of the French text: my English is just not good enough

As I read it, I think of Criteo, the company I am leaving and its vertically integrated technology stack. Is there any better incarnation of the ship-building metaphor below than a modern tech company ? (related: why do companies exist?). Criteo is the place where world-class infra engineers meet world-class machine learning scientists so that world-class sales people can deliver the best product for the marketing professionals who work with us. An as I read the abstracts on complex auction theory, or as I follow from afar the handling of a production incident, or witness the mastery in a customer pitch, the first instinct is indeed to marvel at the expertise.

Advertising for the Open Web is Criteo’s mission. And if the ship’s gift to the blacksmith is love of nails, then similarly, Criteo’s gift to me has been Product Management. I joined the company with little to no experience in that field. Since Criteo competes with the best companies in the world, fast learning was mandatory. I am leaving now actually semi-capable in the discipline.

So many thanks to all my colleagues for being the best at your jobs you could be. We built a pretty nice ship together, and I was fortunate to learn alongside you. Best of winds to Criteo

En ce qui concerne donc mon voisin, j’ai observé qu’il n’était point fertile d’examiner de son empire les faits, les états de choses, les institutions, les objets, mais exclusivement les pentes. Car si tu examines mon empire tu t’en iras voir les forgerons et les trouveras forgeant des clous et se passionnant pour les clous et te chantant les cantiques de la clouterie. Puis tu t’en iras voir les b?cherons et tu les trouveras abattant des arbres et se passionnant pour l’abattage d’arbres, et se remplissant d’une intense jubilation à l’heure de la fête du b?cheron, qui est du premier craquement, lorsque la majesté de l’arbre commence de se prosterner. Et si tu vas voir les astronomes, tu les verras se passionnant pour les étoiles et n’écoutant plus que leur silence. Et en effet chacun s’imagine être tel. Maintenant si je te demande?: ??Que se passe-t-il dans mon empire, que na?tra-t-il demain chez moi???? tu me diras?: ??On forgera des clous, on abattra des arbres, on observera les étoiles et il y aura donc des réserves de clous, des réserves de bois et des observations d’étoiles.?? Car myope et le nez contre, tu n’as point reconnu la construction d’un navire.

Et certes nul d’entre eux n’aurait su te dire?: ??Demain nous serons embarqués sur la mer.?? Chacun croyait servir son dieu et disposait d’un langage malhabile pour te chanter le dieu des dieux qui est navire. Car la fertilité du navire est qu’il devienne amour des clous pour le cloutier.

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Regarding my neighbor, I found it is not fruitful to audit his empire for facts, statements, institutions, objects, but for slopes only. For if you audit my empire you will meet the blacksmiths and find them forging nails and building a passion for nails and singing the praises of nail science. Then you will meet the lumberjacks, and find them felling trees and building a passion for tree felling, and building up intense excitement at the lumberjack festive hour, which is the first crack of the tree’s majesty putting a knee down. And if you meet the astronomers, you will find them building a passion for stars and listening only to their silence. And indeed, everyone pictures himself this way. And yet if I ask you “What is happening throughout my empire, what will be born tomorrow?”, you will answer “Nails will be forged, trees will be felled, stars will observed. So there will be nail stockpiles and wood stockpiles and star observation logs”. Nearsighted and without distance, you did not recognize a ship being built.

And yet none of them could have told you “tomorrow we will be sailing the sea”. Each one thought he was serving his own god and had only imperfect language to praise the god of gods, which is the ship. And the ship’s gift is to become love of nails for the blacksmith

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PS : for my American friends who have read so far, and who might be intrigued to learn that Saint-Ex wrote more than The Little Prince, I recommend to start with Flight to Arras.

?PPS : To those who are thinking that I am delusional and that advertising is not nearly as noble a mission as sailing: you are wrong. I would be happy to debate you. A coming post maybe

#businessandpoetry