In computer engineering, the dualist terminologies, ’’front end’’ and ‘’back end’’, are often used to describe the workings of a model. The front end is the face of the model; it is what people experience when exposed to the model. The front end is meant to be attractive. However, the programming of the front end takes place in the back end where several codes are written and crude and unstructured data are refined and harmonized. The back end is usually very dirty, rough and full of thorns. Sometimes it is bloody and gory. No one goes about flaunting their back end — it is nobody’s business. However, when people are enchanted by the front end, it’s usually all thanks to the back end.
The truth of the front end and the back end extends to the complex web of economic and socioeconomic life. As it is above, so it is below.
As it is within so it is without. Nothing manifests on the surface without its equivalent input to the state of the internal mechanism. Therefore, from the macro to the micro, the principle embodies all actions and reactions, causes and effects, inputs and outputs and so on.
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Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe puts it in proper context in his analysis where he recounts his early job as a tech nerd in a Nigerian bank. Young Ndubuisi Ekekwe and a couple of his techie colleagues would normally be on the night shift, locked in the engine room, writing codes and doing serious programming to ensure that the bank was all set for operation the next day. According to professor Ekekwe, the alertness and efficiency of the technical team in the stark night were very pivotal to the operational success of the bank in the following day and the sacrifices were usually quite worth the generous remunerations and bonuses.
Many times we are carried away by the beauty of the front end, forgetting the processes and the labour that must have gone into the back end. That mama who owns the flourishing restaurant down the corner of your street certainly understands the truth of the back end of her business. She knows, at least by experience, that diligently administering her recipe in the confines of her kitchen is as important as her customer relations and marketing communication. I like the way Tosan Jemide, an award winning cake maestro, puts it in his book ‘’Sugar Icing: A Story of Grit & Glory’’:
The cake-making industry is often associated with the sweet and glamorous. It is an industry built around celebration and merry-making. A cake is a beautiful thing to behold, delicious and delightful to eat. What no one sees, however, is the mess that happens in the kitchen during the baking process. All too often what people see is the finished product of hours of hard work, and this is also true of our lives.
When I first thought of the interplay of the back end and the front end in social relations some time ago, I was waiting for the Uber (Taxi) I had ordered online to pick me up at a petrol station in the heart of a big and popular market in Ibadan. There, before the Uber arrived, I had a picturesque view of the commuters and the confluence of different endeavours in the market. I thought to myself there’s more to this beautiful display than what could be seen immediately.
Essentially, all remarkable beauties and achievements worthy of note do not just happen except there are codes written and programming done at the back end. The codes could be mathematical, biological, social or spiritual. Like the computer software feeds on mathematical codes, human behaviour, personality and inclination can be traced to genetic codes and social or psychological programming. There have also been instances where individuals achieve results by virtue of understanding and deploying spiritual codes. Recall that as it is above so it is below and as it is within so it is without.