We Switched Roles

We switched roles 🔄

Another round of managerial duels took place at the “я-ИТ-ы” community for IT executives this weekend. I have written about them more than once; here is my previous post.

This time, an AI called Mikhail Zaborov matched me with the experienced Олег Ганичкин. Евгений Басюк volunteered to be my second.

As we prepared for the duel, Евгений suggested trying something for fun: I would attempt to end my round early and use the remaining time for an additional round. In this third round, I would:

• Choose the role of company president;
• Give Олег a chance to explain his view of the situation;
• Once I understood his position, turn everything on its head: use my authority as president to convince Олег that everything should have been done the other way round.

As usual, things did not go according to plan. The draw favoured Олег, and he chose a fairly predictable pair of roles but assigned them in an unexpected way. I had been counting on using those roles when it was my turn, not his. I had to adapt to his setup instead of imposing my own. Олег quickly got what he wanted and brought the round to an early close.

Seriously? That was exactly what I had wanted to do!

I realised that I was unlikely to end my own round early, so I went all in and immediately began playing out the scenario Евгений had proposed. Олег, now holding the initiative, proceeded cautiously and offered a compromise. In response, I hit him with a relentless barrage of arguments and demanded decisive action.

Олег seemed slightly taken aback. Instead of agreeing, he went on the defensive. I kept pushing, inventing more and more arguments on the fly that supposedly supported my position.

Only towards the end of the round did Олег recover from the pressure and ask what, exactly, I was proposing. At the start of the third round, Олег’s second called a time-out. Евгений and I worked out that our opponent would probably continue with the same setup, so we quickly came up with an answer to Олег’s question.

That was exactly what happened. Олег kept the same roles in the third round, and I presented the solution Евгений and I had devised. Everything was going well, but in the final seconds I made an ambiguous remark. I have now caught myself making that same mistake at the end three times in a row.

In the end, the judges did not know how to score our duel because we had played roles that were the exact opposite of those described in the scenario.

I will not keep you in suspense: I lost. And deservedly so.

But I had an incredible amount of fun. Thank you to Евгений for suggesting the scenario, and to Олег for a magnificent sparring match.

Hand on heart, I would never apply that much pressure in real life. But that is what a duel is for: it gives you the chance to try out something new.