Flashes of Panic

I like my job, really I do. Often they come to my office and put up intriguing little problems like, “Would it be possible…?” and “How would we…?”

And then every now and then we’ve got fifty-eight chapters of soul-crushing boredom, fishing files out of here and inserting them into presentation slides there. Honestly, sometimes when I think of the sheer volume of PowerPoint slides we’ve inflicted on the world, it makes me feel like a drug dealer. We’re just giving the people what they want, of course.

But it’s not so much the PowerPoints—I’m sure they’re quite good, as slideshows made for classroom use go—but just the complete and utter desolation of challenge in the work. I think I faced more interesting problems in the summer when I worked retail. I long for something that has some challenge. New software, new problems. It occurred to me that a wiki would be a really cool way to document all the stuff I do as a reference for when I’m gone; that’s hanging just out of reach and looking tantalizing.

Even optimizing the applications we’ve got now and making it better would be an interesting challenge. Even figuring out a way of automating something otherwise boring and repetitive would be an interesting challenge. This is un-automatable hand application of cherries to chocolates, and not even ones I’d want to eat.

Now playing: Other Side from Golden Age of Radio (Bonus Disc) by Josh Ritter