Boring Old Bread and Butter Work
Today a customer (ex-developer-turned-manager who sub-contracts work to me) asked me if I was getting bored of the project we're working on yet. Being brutally honest I said "yes, I've always been bored of it" and went on to tell the following story, by way of explanation:
At the beginning of a meeting last week with a potential new client — who knows me through this site — the would-be client started off by apologising for approaching me with what I'd probably see as boring work, compared to what I often talk about here.
I explained that most of what I do is "bread and butter" work and all fairly boring. The flashy exciting stuff you see me talking about is rarely client-related and is merely to keep me entertained and aware of what's going on out there. In a few years' time the cycle will probably mean that these emerging techniques are what I call boring and I'm messing about with even funkier trickery.
If you've ever thought about approaching me with work don't worry about whether or not you think I'll find it interesting or not. With a mortgage and dependants this isn't what's important.
Boring work pays bills.
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Jake
Even <a href="http://www.codestore.net/store.nsf/unid/BLOG-20051020?OpenDocument">Notes client development work?</a>
LOL
As I said in the post - only if it's "in the Maldives or something" ;o)
Amen.
There are other things to be learned and honed besides technical skills, and boring work is an excellent teacher in these cases... like tact, mediation, time management, QA.... all the things that don't really wind up merrily tromping through your dreams (like tag libraries and server setups) but still make us better business people, and hence more able to butter said bread. :-)
Not bored knackered.... I really had no idea house renovation would be so tough, many thanks for your support / help Jake (you refered me to your house project web log a while ago), I have an IT project I would love to complete but I am so tired after a days slog I just want to go to bed!
Cheers Jake,
;o)
Amen Jerry.
Reminds me of the opening chapter of Julian Barnes' "History of the World in 10.5 weeks" which (AFAICR) starts off with the narrator in heaven. They start playing golf to pass the time. In due course they are doing 18 hole in ones... then 18 in 1 and so on.
As a teenager I was once condemmed to bagging up potatoes in a shed out the back (where my long hair would not offend). In the end I could bag up a day's worth in 2 hours which left me plenty of time to pick the best strawberries out of each punnet which I shared with the bored horny honeys...