Playing to your strengths...?
So, it's 2.41am on a Wednesday (i.e. work day) morning... and I've been awake since 11.50pm. Since I'm guessing I dropped off to sleep around 9.30pm... you do the sums. ;-) I'm not too bothered, though, because this has been a very productive and enjoyable few days, work-wise (at least, from my perspective) and if this is part of the price I have to pay for that, then so be it.
If I had to characterise the times when I feel happiest at work, it is when I am being "creatively productive", by which I mean that I am breaking new ground (for me, for my employer, ideally both) in terms of what I am producing with the technologies I specialise in. Typically, this is when I'm working on new product development, e.g. prototyping new products or proving new technologies. "Non-creatively productive" (or cranking out what my boss sometimes refers to as "monkey work", i.e. detail-oriented but not particularly intellectually stimulating work) is fine from time to time, but increasingly I don't have the concentrated focus to do such work for long periods (i.e. weeks at a time). This has particularly been the case over the last few months; when I would have to classify a fair proportion of my time as having been "non-creatively non-productive".
As a conscientious employee, that really bothers me. For an employer, I rather imagine I can be somewhat of a trial; by turns innovative, productive and frustratingly ineffective. Put it this way; I'm glad *I* don't have to manage me! ;-)
However, recognising the realities of a situation at least allows you to focus on turning that situation to your advantage; so we decided that (at least for now) I would step away from direct development responsibilities and focus almost exclusively on prototyping and new product development. I say "almost" exclusively, because I'm still on hand to offer design guidance, performance optimisation advice and to act as a "sounding board" for my colleagues.
I think (I certainly hope!) that this is proving beneficial to my employers, because I certainly feel it's working for me. Sadly, I'm not at liberty to divulge specific details in a public forum like this (my colleague James made the point in this post that while blogging we must be mindful of our responsibilities; specifically, in this case, not inadvertently giving away Intellectual Property Rights). The educator in me wants to share the benefit of what I'm doing freely with the community; the employee in me recognises that my employer would probably rather I didn't give away what they pay me to produce! Which is fair enough.
Anyway, I'm having quite a ball at the moment; on the one hand, using my specialist technologies in ways that I haven't before now (and, it would appear, in ways that others haven't) and on the other, dusting off skills I haven't used in a long while (e.g. hacking together a "quick and dirty" user interface in Active Server Pages) because I don't want to distract the people who normally tackle UI issues. To be honest, it's so much fun that it seems overkill that I'm actually getting paid to do this! (Note: that's *not* an offer to cut my wages!) It's "show and tell" in a week or so, so I'm looking forward to letting my colleagues take a peek at what I've been doing.
On a non-work note, my friend and colleague TJ fitted a new CD radio in my car Lottie last week, and I cannot adequately express how much difference this has made to my commute. Freed from the dreck that is (in my opinion) UK commercial radio, I can listen to music (*my* definition of music) and also use the time to listen to podcasts which I've downloaded and burnt to CD-Rom. If there's one technology innovation that's made a step change in my habits this year, it's podcasting. Even though I don't have an iPod - although I rather covet an iPod Mini; in pink, naturally! ;-) But I think I'll wait for a wireless iPod, ideally with iPodder (or similar) embedded.
Hey ho, 3.58am, might as well do some work!
This blog has been migrated to new software on a different server (http://www.multidimensional.me.uk) and comments on this post on *this* blog are now closed. All existing comments have been copied to the equivalent post on the new blog. If you still wish to comment on this post, please use the equivalent post at: http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/
If I had to characterise the times when I feel happiest at work, it is when I am being "creatively productive", by which I mean that I am breaking new ground (for me, for my employer, ideally both) in terms of what I am producing with the technologies I specialise in. Typically, this is when I'm working on new product development, e.g. prototyping new products or proving new technologies. "Non-creatively productive" (or cranking out what my boss sometimes refers to as "monkey work", i.e. detail-oriented but not particularly intellectually stimulating work) is fine from time to time, but increasingly I don't have the concentrated focus to do such work for long periods (i.e. weeks at a time). This has particularly been the case over the last few months; when I would have to classify a fair proportion of my time as having been "non-creatively non-productive".
As a conscientious employee, that really bothers me. For an employer, I rather imagine I can be somewhat of a trial; by turns innovative, productive and frustratingly ineffective. Put it this way; I'm glad *I* don't have to manage me! ;-)
However, recognising the realities of a situation at least allows you to focus on turning that situation to your advantage; so we decided that (at least for now) I would step away from direct development responsibilities and focus almost exclusively on prototyping and new product development. I say "almost" exclusively, because I'm still on hand to offer design guidance, performance optimisation advice and to act as a "sounding board" for my colleagues.
I think (I certainly hope!) that this is proving beneficial to my employers, because I certainly feel it's working for me. Sadly, I'm not at liberty to divulge specific details in a public forum like this (my colleague James made the point in this post that while blogging we must be mindful of our responsibilities; specifically, in this case, not inadvertently giving away Intellectual Property Rights). The educator in me wants to share the benefit of what I'm doing freely with the community; the employee in me recognises that my employer would probably rather I didn't give away what they pay me to produce! Which is fair enough.
Anyway, I'm having quite a ball at the moment; on the one hand, using my specialist technologies in ways that I haven't before now (and, it would appear, in ways that others haven't) and on the other, dusting off skills I haven't used in a long while (e.g. hacking together a "quick and dirty" user interface in Active Server Pages) because I don't want to distract the people who normally tackle UI issues. To be honest, it's so much fun that it seems overkill that I'm actually getting paid to do this! (Note: that's *not* an offer to cut my wages!) It's "show and tell" in a week or so, so I'm looking forward to letting my colleagues take a peek at what I've been doing.
On a non-work note, my friend and colleague TJ fitted a new CD radio in my car Lottie last week, and I cannot adequately express how much difference this has made to my commute. Freed from the dreck that is (in my opinion) UK commercial radio, I can listen to music (*my* definition of music) and also use the time to listen to podcasts which I've downloaded and burnt to CD-Rom. If there's one technology innovation that's made a step change in my habits this year, it's podcasting. Even though I don't have an iPod - although I rather covet an iPod Mini; in pink, naturally! ;-) But I think I'll wait for a wireless iPod, ideally with iPodder (or similar) embedded.
Hey ho, 3.58am, might as well do some work!
This blog has been migrated to new software on a different server (http://www.multidimensional.me.uk) and comments on this post on *this* blog are now closed. All existing comments have been copied to the equivalent post on the new blog. If you still wish to comment on this post, please use the equivalent post at: http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/
posted by Koan @ 3:59:00 am
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