It’s been over 20 great years…
I’ve been in client-facing consulting for over 20 years. I started on the University Helpdesk in 1993 - and loved the client time, but was busting to use my programming skills. I took a job in R&D on Web tech and I’ve never looked back. Counting it off, I’ve been in Enterprise/Web Development for at least 20 years. Man, I must be old!!!!
That’s a long time to be hacking on enterprise software, in a mainly Government environment (with a few years hiatus for various Startup projects), so this year, with my wife back at work as a Clinical Psychologist, and with my recruiting company providing a steady (small) passive income…
I’m taking a gap year!
(Or a Sabbatical, if my parents ask)
“Life is short. Do stuff that matters.”
Or so the startup quote goes. And I think that’s right on.
I’ve worked on lots of great projects in my time, and they’ve given a bunch of users a bunch of joy. That feels great!
But I’ve also worked on a lot of software which, for one reason or another, never saw the light of day.
Mostly because it didn’t matter.
Paid or not, enough of doing things that don’t matter!
Investing: Sharpening the Saw
Our space moves ricidulously fast. Unless you’re Venkat, there’s just no way you can stay up-to-the-minute in every area of tech.
But every now and then stuff comes along that looks super interesting, but you can’t really sqeeze it into your current day job. It just doesn’t fit the org’s technical direction or other org constraints.
So there’s always after hours? True. And I’ve build some cool open source that way. But there’s only so many “after hours” that you can overload without impacting hard on family and lifestyle. And when you’re super jazzed about some cool tech, it’s really hard to slog through a day job that doesn’t stoke those fires.
So why not explore some of that cool stuff during business hours?
Enter the Venn
So this year for me, it’s all about the sweet spot, people.
What if you could couple that exploration of new tech and passion for teaching with “doing stuff that matters” for others?
Like…
- Injecting passion into struggling teams through free events
- Writing about and interviewing people that are smashing it, and sharing those stories to help others who are hitting walls
- Developing resources that empower people for a more enjoyable working life?
Oh Baby! You have my attention!
And the $ aren’t even that important. Doing stuff that matters trumps everything else.
2016: Learn. Teach. Wonder. Share.
I wrote about my 2016 plans back in January - and it’s really coming to pass.
flickr photo shared by Austin Kleon under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-ND ) license
In an awesome twist of events, my next “change the world” gig in this season is at my kid’s school. When I mentioned to the IT co-ordinator that I was a programmer and happy to help out this year with whatever is useful, she gasped, and pointed me at their new “Code School” project.
I’m current working on learning Scratch in preparation for that. Imagine writing code for primary schooler with lego blocks! It’s awesome.
Let the Adventure Begin
This next season is going to be awesome.
Can’t wait to share!