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.
