August 2015
Me: Hey dude, how's it going? Whatcha doin'?
Dude: Playing with Docker, cool stuff. Sniffing around, trying to figure out things.
December 2015
Me: Hey dude, how are things? Doin' anything interesting lately?
Dude: Playing with Docker, neat thing. Hard to grasp, but very promising.
April 2016
Me: Hey dude, what's up? Cooking something up?
Dude: Playing with Docker, truly impressive plaything. Amazing potential & seems getting mature.
August 2016
Me: Hey dude, long time no see. What are you up to these days?
Dude: Playing with Docker, amazing tech with steep learning curve. Evolves so swiftly, I can not keep up with the changes ...
Oh, for fuck's sake - in 12 months he could pretty much re-write it all from scratch, how long does he plan to keep "playing with Docker" ...
Stuff above is just an example of recurring pattern I keep seeing far more often than I'd like to ... I'd so, so, so wish people would stop "playing" without a specific purpose & set themselves some basic, tangible goals (with mandatory internal "checkpoint" dates) instead:
- something they can measure against ("Am I get closer to the goal? Or not?")
- something that would help them keeping focus
- something clear enough to provide a motivation ("What?! I won't do THAT? No. Freaking. Way. I won't give up!")
It's so, so, so, so much better than either aiming for mythical (& deceptively undetermined) "nirvana" (perfect, flawless solution w/o any frailties or defects) or not aiming for anything in particular, just fooling around & wasting time ...
People who suffer from this syndrome don't realise how pathetic it is ... From their perspective - they keep themselves busy, still fiddling around with something that seems useful, but ... someone who has little contact with them, once every few months or so, sees that they are literally stuck - making no progress at all (unless in making excuses).
It's even worse if a person considers himself "passionate" ... One of the key facts about being "passionate" is that this word doesn't fit with "occasionally" or "sometimes" ...
If you can't come up with any reasonable goal, why don't you start with a problem you'd like to solve? Find something painful, that makes you wanna rip your own heart out with a dull spoon & try to get rid of it in smart way. Look for real problems as sometimes we tend to confuse symptom with a cause. Once you got the little bastard down under your fork, make sure you dissect it carefully into as tiny pieces as possible, to solve it in a controlled, iterative way piece by piece.
You know, no yak will shave itself on his own in the end :) Pretending (& fooling yourself) that you're making a progress while the facts are you're still in the same place should at least make you thinking, right? Whereas, doing something meaningful by solving (even minor) real issue is a tremendous boost of morale & encouragement for putting more effort in future.
Just. Get. Some. Shit. Done.
Make your effort count.
Pic: © patpitchaya - Fotolia.com
