Psychophant's Rants
13.7.10
Priorities
I really wanted to find the time to keep writing this blog. Twitter (that I have also stopped for a few months while I found a new rythm to my life, one that allows me once again to spend time musing on a computer) made me realize that 140 characters are an appetizer, something to make me start but never enough to say what I want to. So more twitter meant a ressurrection for the blog.
Then the real world intervened and my musing time evaporated, faced with critical work, numb exhaustion and the need for mindless relaxation rather than mindful ones.
I have mentioned before a big project, possibly my work life project, the kind of thing to look back when I retire and feel that I did make a difference. It is not simple research, or development, because we are a small company and as product manager, I am responsible for practically everything. From making sure the reaction goes as it should, even without the right controls, to answering quality concerns, or addressing the valid IP concerns, and then dealing with customers, which means a lot of different people with many different positions and priorities.
That feeling that this is it is what has made me abandon most of my leisure activities, contacts with the world, and sane sleep patterns. Add a certain mistrust on management, that they may be willing to let the ball fall for a second time, so I need things to be better than good.
At the moment we need to control every reaction process, that normally are spaced along the day, seven days a week. We have almost developed an automatic method, but at the moment we need a human analyst, and if everything went well, nothing else. If it did not go well, which happens quite often, we have to make several difficult decisions, all very quickly. So even though now there are plenty of qualified analysts, I still need to be at hand, in case something goes wrong (roughly once a day).
From a relaxed, fix my own schedule, work at my own pace, job, I have acquired a lot of responsibility, with a tight planning, strict control, direct intervention (we need green light before the truck leaves the company).
The worst however is the physical and mental exhaustion. So much that a break visiting customers in France (5000 km in six days) was almost a pleasure, allowing me to recover and become almost human.
But you can get used to most things, so a few weeks ago I started to read books again, and now I can even find the time to write here. We will see how the quality of life goes from here. Or at least how I feel with three weeks of holidays in August. Japan may be exhausting, but I think I will be really relaxed, this time. ¶ 6:09 PM
I really wanted to find the time to keep writing this blog. Twitter (that I have also stopped for a few months while I found a new rythm to my life, one that allows me once again to spend time musing on a computer) made me realize that 140 characters are an appetizer, something to make me start but never enough to say what I want to. So more twitter meant a ressurrection for the blog.
Then the real world intervened and my musing time evaporated, faced with critical work, numb exhaustion and the need for mindless relaxation rather than mindful ones.
I have mentioned before a big project, possibly my work life project, the kind of thing to look back when I retire and feel that I did make a difference. It is not simple research, or development, because we are a small company and as product manager, I am responsible for practically everything. From making sure the reaction goes as it should, even without the right controls, to answering quality concerns, or addressing the valid IP concerns, and then dealing with customers, which means a lot of different people with many different positions and priorities.
That feeling that this is it is what has made me abandon most of my leisure activities, contacts with the world, and sane sleep patterns. Add a certain mistrust on management, that they may be willing to let the ball fall for a second time, so I need things to be better than good.
At the moment we need to control every reaction process, that normally are spaced along the day, seven days a week. We have almost developed an automatic method, but at the moment we need a human analyst, and if everything went well, nothing else. If it did not go well, which happens quite often, we have to make several difficult decisions, all very quickly. So even though now there are plenty of qualified analysts, I still need to be at hand, in case something goes wrong (roughly once a day).
From a relaxed, fix my own schedule, work at my own pace, job, I have acquired a lot of responsibility, with a tight planning, strict control, direct intervention (we need green light before the truck leaves the company).
The worst however is the physical and mental exhaustion. So much that a break visiting customers in France (5000 km in six days) was almost a pleasure, allowing me to recover and become almost human.
But you can get used to most things, so a few weeks ago I started to read books again, and now I can even find the time to write here. We will see how the quality of life goes from here. Or at least how I feel with three weeks of holidays in August. Japan may be exhausting, but I think I will be really relaxed, this time. ¶ 6:09 PM
