23rd February 2006

I’m sorry

posted in General |

This all comes about because of a truism in my life. Sometime in my high school years, I realized that I had a lot to do. And if I was going to nail all of it 100% all the time, I was never going to be able to relax and enjoy life. So at that point, I pretty much made the decision not to clean up all the loose ends, not to put the frilly edges on, not to .. .well you know, complete the job.

I was reminded of this by Mrs B, who pointed out (about a trivial task) that I had done a “half-assed job.” About a week later, some work I did (not the mail server) went to hell in a handbasket because I hadn’t done all of the little pieces around it. Then this qmail installation came about; and I planned and plotted, and I was convinced that I was going to nail it 100%. Boy have I been wrong.

The biggest problem with this is that I’ve been seeing this same attitude with my daughter, Miss B. Some of her school projects have been an exercise in “how quickly can I get this done and go watch television” and not so much doing a great job on her display. I know, I know, she’s nine and it’s to be expected. But do you have any suggestions for coaxing her into doing a more thorough job?

I’ve done a little better by being very specific about the expectations I have for her on a particular project, and making sure she meets them.

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There are currently 4 responses to “I’m sorry”

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  1. 1 On February 25th, 2006, Linda Amar said:

    I’ve had days like this. System management is always this way. Any time you put a new anything into an existing system, especially one that’s been around a while, something else is bound to break. You fix that, and something else goes down. Pretty soon, you can’t tell where to step next. The best thing to do, for me, has been to sleep on it and give it another shot the next day. If your boss can’t tolerate this sort of thing, he knows nothing about systems, and he’s going to have a hard time replacing you with someone to whom this does not happen.

  2. 2 On February 28th, 2006, mom said:

    Wow! Aren’t you being a little hard on yourself? Your wife (the person who really knows you) says you’ve been struggling trying to figure this out & it’s been a totally new experience for you. It seems to me that the learning curve has been mighty steep! There seems to be little cause for you to call yourself names…besides, if you are an incompetent boob, what does this say about your mother?

  3. 3 On February 28th, 2006, rustifer said:

    That she’s the mother of an incompetent boob?

  4. 4 On March 1st, 2006, Rob said:

    How much training, exactly, did you get for this marvelous software? There’s no free lunch. You pay for training eventually, in the classroom or on the job.

    You, sir, are one of the smartest cookies in the cookie jar. You can mangle my mail server anytime.

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