A lot of what people think of as "technology" is actually this knowledge. Your friend has lots of experience. There's people they know and trust to do certain tasks. Those people know other people who know how to solve this or that problem. They know their gear and are constantly experimenting with new gear and getting to know it.
You could gather all the "technology", all the equipment, all the cables and boxes and speakers and ropes and everything else, and hand it off to a smart, motivated young crew of complete newbies, and the "techology" wouldn't work. The show would not make it, and it's possible people would even get badly hurt or killed trying.
This is the real catastrophe when a team gets nuked and the jobs sent somewhere else, anywhere else, doesn't even matter. You can transfer the code, you can transfer the infrastructure, but you can't transfer the lived experience. Our so-called elite managers understand that this is why they can't be replaced but lack the courtesy to extend that understanding to the people who work for them, that everyone everywhere who does anything non-trivial ends up building these same networks of lived experience that are the real ability to achieve.
Putting on a show isn't about knowing that steel is made of carbon-infused iron; it's all the networks of lived experience that have developed to the level that they can achieve something like a major stadium show, safely.
The term “tribal knowledge,” is used as a pejorative, in tech architecture, but I have found it to be the “magic ingredient” to really successful endeavors.
I worked for a corporation that is over a hundred years old, and is absolutely dripping with “tribal knowledge.” They regularly accomplish stuff that is considered nearly impossible.
But “tribal knowledge” basically means that you need to keep employees around for a while, and also, stay at a job for a while, which is sort of anathema, in today’s tech culture.
I see this misunderstanding all the time. A manager (people manager or project manager) gets bent out of shape because person X can do something and person Y with the same job title can't do it. Sometimes this is for bad reasons: poor documentation practices, or person X protecting their turf or their job security by hoarding information. But just as often it's because person X has a ton of relevant knowledge and experience that is a great asset to the company, and person Y maybe has less experience, or their experience and knowledge are concentrated in a different area. Often the fault is with the people or project manager, who is failing in their responsibility to understand and manage the company's talent effectively.
You could gather all the "technology", all the equipment, all the cables and boxes and speakers and ropes and everything else, and hand it off to a smart, motivated young crew of complete newbies, and the "techology" wouldn't work. The show would not make it, and it's possible people would even get badly hurt or killed trying.
This is the real catastrophe when a team gets nuked and the jobs sent somewhere else, anywhere else, doesn't even matter. You can transfer the code, you can transfer the infrastructure, but you can't transfer the lived experience. Our so-called elite managers understand that this is why they can't be replaced but lack the courtesy to extend that understanding to the people who work for them, that everyone everywhere who does anything non-trivial ends up building these same networks of lived experience that are the real ability to achieve.
Putting on a show isn't about knowing that steel is made of carbon-infused iron; it's all the networks of lived experience that have developed to the level that they can achieve something like a major stadium show, safely.