Working from Home - Day 40

The best part of not having a client that I need to support is that can add to the value I provide. I have learned to divide my time between things that will provide value soon, and those that will make me more useful in the future. I try to spend sixty percent of the time on improving future skills, the rest on current skills.

Software development is simply problem solving. We have some set of tools that we bring to problems. After thirty years of practice I have worked with most of the technologies in existence. The most important thing in any problem is finding the actual issue that a client needs solved. The first step is finding a common issue that I can fix right now, then we can work on the problem that they really have.

Today is my father’s birthday. He has seen some great days, Victory of Europe Day which coincides with his birthday. He made it through the Korean War, transitioned to the Seabees, the naval construction battalions. He made it through Vietnam, and other conflagrations that I do know about. I know he was gone a lot, but he was there when it mattered.

I learned how to adapt to my situation from my old man. When I reflect on his nature, it comes down to dealing with the situation in front of you. Plan for the future, deal with the present. He pushed my brother and I to succeed, especially when life is uncertain. I have learned to look for opportunity when challenges come up.

I have found that many of the younger people that we hire despair when work does not go as expected. I have learned to be suspicious of weeks that do go as expected. I used to simply say that life does not unfold as one hopes. Now I try to get the person to sit with the disappointment, and look for alternative paths.

I love language, I love English, the first language that I learned. I heard German from my maternal grandmother when I stayed at her house as a youngster. I heard Italian and Greek in my childhood neighborhood. When I was old enough to drink (almost) I learned some Gaelic in the saloons of Price Hill. My childhood was spent reading, my education was complete when I learned how to listen and tell the story to others, in their point of view. I give you On Being with a deeper view on the story.

If you enjoy the story as much as I do. I recommend Praire Home Companion for an organic introduction to providing a story can help most of us through the bumps of life. The protagonist has been derided in the press, and his life is complex. I hope that context explains most of human life. I know that I have forgiven much, mostly because I hope for the same.