So tomorrow is the final release candidate build for
the product I've been working on. And it's been a bit
of a nightmare release, in which the developers 
basically reinvented the entire infrastructure and
philosophy of the product. Because hubris runs high
(and somewhat deservedly) among this particular set
of developers, they always overestimate what they 
can squeeze into the release and underestimate how
long it will take them to do so. This means that 
Documentation bites the big one. 

I won't go into the particulars, but suffice it to
say that I've worked 191 hours over the last two weeks. 
Not hardly yer average French 35-hour workweek. 

But I finished. Praise the Lord and pass the Lagavulin.

I have never missed a software deadline. Not once, in 
almost 30 years in the business. I just do DO missing 
deadlines, or causing them to slip. 

Writing documentation is a service profession, like
waiting tables or fixing other people's cars. Only
trouble is, writing doc has been likened to "Trying
to fix a tire on a moving car." The software keeps
changing, as you're trying to write the definitive
guide to what it is, what it looks like, and how
to use it. It would drive a lesser man crazy.

No comments here, please.  :-)

And the funny thing is, it was a heckuva ride, and
a heckuva lot of fun. I really GET OFF on doing a 
good job. 

Whatever you may think of him or say of him, I owe
a lot of this 'tude about work to Rama, Dr. Frederick
Lenz. Dude taught me that hard work was the next best
thing to samadhi. And that if you do your work well 
enough, it can actually lead to samadhi. Your work
becomes, in essence, your Way.

Some people make a distinction between their "work
lives" and their "spiritual lives." They have what
they call Day Jobs. I have a Way Job.  


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