Neanderpundit

Sorry about the hiatus, it’s been crazy around here.

Pratchet talks about the motivating factor in human evolution being not greed, nor sex, nor power, but boredom. I am of the opinion that he his correct, at least for me. I get bored so fast it’s not funny, and this has certainly been a driving factor in my life.

I have always known people who were driven to one thing or another, guys heavily into team sports, into music, into outdoor motorsports, whatever. I’ve also known a lot of people who put all their energy into being a lawyer, or a doctor, or a specific type of engineer.

I get bored far too quickly for any of that, and frankly, I’m incredibly lazy.

Now, there are people who know me who are now doing this:

via GIPHY

While I do a lot of work, and I am energetic enough when motivated, most of the time I just want to goof off, find something interesting to read, or sleep.

As a consequence of this, I have not lived up to what some might consider my potential. Lord knows, I heard that often enough growing up. Pretty much everything I have accomplished in my life has been accidental, there was never a master plan for me to be one thing or another, life has just sort of happened to me.

I have sought out some things to do, and a little luck and some hard work has taken me a long way, but there are times when I wonder if I had applied myself to a specific thing, if I might have become a real leader in one field or another.

And then I look at the people I know, who have. And most of them are unhappy. A lot of people I know got into IT, and are very good at it, and their lives are hellish messes of dealing with the technical difficulties of morons, day in, and day out. I know people who became geniuses with one type of technology or another, just to watch that technology disappear. Some of them adapt to new technology, some do not. Some end up broken.

I’m happy and I’m lucky. I have never specialized. I can turn my hand to anything, and I do. During the course of a week, I will train someone how to use a laser, design some sheet metal for a machine modification, put a fixture in a machine and locate it to micronic accuracy, troubleshoot the problems with a recalcitrant cell control, and talk a confused customer in off a windowsill. I am the best at dealing with people who are angry and upset, and I have had customers who got violent with me.

So while I have driven my destiny a good deal less than it has driven me, I cannot complain. I will not leave an earthshattering legacy, but I will leave behind a large variety of small jobs meticulously done.

Well, the secret is sort of out. A supplier that we have been working with for many years has, in the most recent years, begun to cause us a good deal of trouble because of their changing attitude about how business is supposed to be done. We will see the backside of them fairly soon, and we have begun dealing in the products of a new manufacturer, who has a much better attitude about the relationship we will develop together.

 

I don’t talk about work, so I won’t name names, but that is what this has all been about. Now it’s all new, and all good. I’m frankly more excited about this than I have ever been about anything in my career. I anxiously await new developments, which I suspect will be coming fast and furious in upcoming months.