I describe myself as an IT Manager, but that\u2019s not all I want to be. I started out as a developer, and still love to code. Career progression now means I lead a team of five people (not including me, and now temporarily plus-one as we\u2019ve a graduate trainee on placement) and they all do IT, so for the pedantic, that\u2019s what I am. I\u2019m lucky enough to work in a place where I can spread my wings into new areas while still doing what\u2019s generally considered to be \u201cleg work\u201d. My aspiration is to be a solutions architect \u2013 to take an instruction like (for example) \u201creplace this payroll solution\u201d and do the research into what\u2019s there now, what needs to change, why are we doing this, what are the possibilities, what\u2019s the business impact and which one do I recommend, followed by planning and managing implementing that solution. Grown-up shit, yeah. I\u2019ve got fingers in several such pies at work, most of which are at the stage of documenting stuff I currently don\u2019t know a great deal about.<\/p>\n
From time to time, it feels \u201cbitty\u201d and unsatisfying.<\/p>\n
A hang-over from the work I was mainly doing before \u2013 before my two application support technicians were in place and before we got on top of the shit-sandwich backlog we were handed in the form of several-hundred unhandled support problems \u2013 is that some mornings are soaked up sorting out support problems. This morning was one of them. There were only 3 things on my list, but each one took flippin\u2019 ages. Plus, one of the things required concentration, and this morning was the morning for Asking Jude A Question. Sidebar: I\u2019m happy to be asked questions, indeed it\u2019s an important part of being a product owner, it just disrupts my train of thought for a good 10 minutes or so, and one of the things I was working on was difficult<\/strong>. Indeed, one of the Buddhist-philosophy-development tasks I\u2019ve set myself is, at times like this, to not mind<\/strong> when someone comes and interrupts me with a question. Because the distraction of minding<\/strong> makes the interruption take up even more time & energy than it would otherwise. I\u2019m on week 2, and I\u2019m finding that this approach is indeed helping.<\/em><\/p>\n I found myself delaying lunch while I finished off the last one \u2013 it was so close \u2013 so close<\/em> \u2013 and then it was done.<\/p>\n This, at least, is satisfying \u2013 it\u2019s clear when it\u2019s done, I can tell the relevant people their problem is sorted, tick on the to-do list, what\u2019s next? However, it\u2019s still getting from a point of broken to not-broken \u2013 bringing the world back to not-broken rather than improving the world at all.<\/p>\n Sidebar: As I write that, I\u2019m reminded of a trope used a lot in the first season of Silicon Valley<\/a>\u00a0“making the world a better place<\/a>“. WHAT HAVE I BECOME?<\/em><\/p>\n