We build awesome here.
I came across this new feature of Google maps the other day that I thought was rather cool. Some places have had photos taken at street level that will then let you “walk” along a street route. Here is St. George Street in St. Augustine, FL. The images were taken using an 11 lens camera mounted to vans so you won’t get to see anything but the ends of St. George Street, since it is pedestrian traffic only.
Pretty cool, Google.
In my last post, I mentioned that I was finding myself a little overextended and needed to stop the blogging for a bit. I am in a little bit better shape now and have started getting things into a rhythm so I am going to slowly start ramping back up again. The decision to hold off, and now to gradually start writing again, is all about my personal priorities and the gray area that separates them.
My priorities, on paper, are pretty simple. My family always comes first – always. My career and job come second, blogging and the Java Users Group comes third, and other personal activities, such as woodturning, come last. While such a list appears pretty simple, there are always gray areas that situations fall into. For example, I thoroughly enjoy and look forward to the time I get to spend with my daughters and wife each night, however at times I have to forego that in order to work a last minute business critical issue or to host a JUG meeting. This is expected and the norm for almost everyone on the planet. Things come up and priorities sometimes shift. The thing that I always try to keep in mind is whether the opportunity cost of the shift makes the action worthwhile or not.
I recently went to visit with clients for a week. In this case the opportunity cost is that I miss out on a week of being with my family, my number one priority. This automatically means that the return from the action, the trip, must be higher to compensate for the opportunity cost. In this case it was. By making the trip I got to know our clients better and started to build report. In addition, I got immersed in the project and got moving much quicker than if I had skipped the trip. The ROI here is that I made the right move from a career standpoint – the customers will be better served, which will ultimately reflect well on me.
So I helped my number two priority but hurt my number one – how can I possibly compare the two when they are so distinct? Enter the gray area. The nature of priorities is that they are often interconnected. Since I am not independently wealthy, the success and comfort of my family is directly tied to my performance in my career. My career has a subtle but existent tie to blogging and the JUG. My personal activities determine my stress levels, which have a direct correlation on my job performance and family life.
Once we take this into account we can reanalyze the situation and see that while I did directly hurt my number one priority, my family, by taking the trip this was only in the short term. Because the potential of furthering my career has a direct impact on my family there is an indirect benefit that comes from me pursuing priority two, work, in lieu of priority one, family. Because my family is indirectly benefited by my other priority it made it acceptable in this case.
As another example, with this switch to a new role I felt that I was going to be strapped for time anyhow and something had to give. In this case blogging fell out because the return I get from it isn’t high enough to warrant skipping family time. Now that things are slowing and the dust is beginning to settle a bit I am slowly starting to reintroduce writing to my daily/weekly regiment. However, if a higher priority comes up it may very well fall out again.
Priorities are odd little beasts that invoke as much emotional response as they do logical. I guess the real goal at the end of each day is to be able to look back and see that you have acted in a way that it serves your priorities in the right order, either directly or indirectly.
I learned a lesson a long time ago and something that happened the other day made me think of it.
I have always been fortunate enough to be one of those people who can pick up a new skill and become proficient in it very quickly. Because of this skill I learned a lot about a whole lot of different things. I never considered myself an expert in but a couple things but felt that I knew a lot about a large array of subjects.
When things came up that I “knew” were wrong I would voice my opinion on how it needed to be done. This, in itself, wasn’t a problem. What was a problem was how I went about stating my opinions. I stated them as if they were fact and as if they were the only right way to do things. At times I was right – there was only one correct way. Many other times I just gave one of many possible solutions. Either way I felt, but never confirmed, that I had formed a reputation for being the office know-it-all. I don’t remember what it was but someone said something to me one day that caused me to rethink my attitude. So I decided to step back and analyze myself and figure out what I was doing wrong.
The conclusion I came to was simple for many people but was a virtual epiphany for me: my being right about something doesn’t negate the possibility of someone else being right in a totally different way.
I started trying to make it a point to handle my disagreements differently and have found that, over the years, it has made a world of difference in my personal and work relationships. Before, if I disagreed I would simply state why it wasn’t right and give the “correct” way. Now, even if I feel that the solution is totally wrong I try to ask questions. I still slip up – after all I’m human – but try to avoid resorting to old haunts.
Asking questions does two things at once: it helps me to understand the mindset of the person I am talking to and it helps to illustrate an alternate route. Many times I will find that the questioning leads to an understanding of the original design, solution, or idea that causes it to make much more sense to me. Other times it will solidify the idea that the concept is wrong.
At times I still find myself being a bit abrasive. However, I try to always think back to my hard learned lesson and approach things in a more diplomatic way. In fields like software, where there are countless solutions to any problem, not boxing your self – or others – into a single solution will generally prove to be a blessing.
