I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering, which, even though I’ve done zero mechanical engineering since 2022, has had a great deal of influence on how I think and perceive the world around me.
Let me explain.
Engineering, at its core, is largely deterministic. When you solve an engineering problem, you can boil things down to an equation or a set of equations. And when you feed inputs to the equations, you get a reliable and repeatable output. Repeatable is the key word here.
Now, I’m not saying software development is like math equations, but there are some striking similarities—software code largely performs in a very predictable, reliable manner. When you write an anchor tag, you can say with absolute confidence that every person on the planet will see a link on their page. It’s canon.
Marketing on the other hand is definitely not deterministic—at least at the scale I’m dealing with for Conncord and my personal brand. There are far too many variables to account for—branding, design, copy, target audience, social media algorithms… it’s impossible to boil things down to a set of equations. Feeding the same inputs into marketing will not yield the same output for two different people. Hell, it might not even yield the same output if the same person tried it at two different times. Nothing is repeatable. Marketing is non-deterministic.
I struggle with that fact.
It affects my motivation. I’m conditioned to thinking within deterministic systems, and when a system doesn’t behave the way I expect it to, it makes me question my approach.
Which, for marketing, is bad because marketing is a long-term game. It takes a lot of trial and error to figure out market positioning, target audience, branding, copy. I know this because I’ve helped multiple businesses figure this out for themselves. But it is very different when you’re doing it for yourself. Something about being too close to the problem.
To be honest, I didn’t know why I was inclined to write this article when I started writing it. But now it’s clear to me—it’s a self-reflection. To help me internalize this shortcoming so I can attempt to overcome it.
Moving forward, I’m going to constantly remind myself that marketing and building a brand is a long game, and I just have to keep at it even if there’s no direct, instant feedback loop like I’m used to with engineering. I knew this already, but typing this out serves as a strong reminder to myself. I hope this helps you too, dear reader.
Here goes nothing.