I think, therefore I write. (我思,所以我写。)

Cogito ergo scribo

Monday, October 18, 2010

Late but made it

Right after the previous post on Saturday morning, i went to bed and woke up at 11am+. I continued working and working and working... until 7pm+, I finally got everything done and emailed it out. So we missed the deadline by a day but we made it nonetheless!

Actually on Friday, our team was under tremendous pressure, as we knew that we were not able to get the work done in time. I had completed my part of performing system testing and sent the findings to the pretty girl subordinate, but she was still working on the other portion and hence I asked her to concentrate on what she was doing while i would help to debug and fix the program.

So, it was back to being a programmer for me. I started out quite slowly, as I haven't been coding for quite a while and had forgotten most of the programming syntax. But then, once I got the hang of it, I couldn't stop myself until I produced the "perfect codes".

Uh huh, I am such perfectionist that after having studied the codes that the previous programmer had written, I wasn't happy with it. I restructured the program and rewrote some portion of it (where the bugs were). That was also why it took me such long time to fix it. Between delivering a piece of mediocre work on time and delivering a piece of excellent work late, I've chosen the latter. So you can see, I'm obviously not suited to be a project manager at all, who should always has project timeline as the top priority. I think I fit in the profile of a researcher or analyst better.

The pretty girl subordinate also stayed up till 4am+ to finish up her part of the work. She will be on leave for this entire week, as she's going overseas for a vacation with her hubby. I wanted her to have a good rest before her trip and not to worry about the work at all, so i told her that i would take care of the rest. That was why i continued to struggle on my own until 7pm yesterday.

YM asked me in the comment of my previous post about how i actually kept myself awake through the night. First of all, i gotta say that i did not take any coffee at all; caffeine has never been the thing that i used to keep myself awake through the night. To me, it's only one cup of coffee per day, or perhaps two cups on very rare occasion, and that's it. I've been able to stick to this policy of mine so far without problem.

Secondly, i did not feel sleepy at all that night. Seriously, my eyes did hurt after staring at the screen for hours, and i did feel slight heaviness in my head as well due to sleep deprivation, but i wasn't sleepy and didn't even yawn once. This was a little bit different from the previous round of staying up till 4am to complete writing a long document. For that task, i yawned so much that my eyes were all teary.

So what was it that keep my awake and focused on my work? The answer is: passion.

Don't get me wrong. I've mentioned before that i do not have passion for my current job anymore, and it still stands. Yet, i do have the passion in this piece of task because i love problems solving. It is like solving a puzzle and i get great satisfaction when i manage to get it pieced together. The program bugs and imperfect coding were like the puzzle, and making the program worked was like me finally completing putting the puzzle together. That was probably my drive for staying awake and getting the work done.

My colleague and i had also talked about this before too, that we gotta love what we do and only then we can do it best, willingly and happily. It all boils down to whether or not we do have the passion and drive in what we are doing. If we do, we will strive for it, we will get the joy out of it, and eventually we will shine too.

So, the morale of the story is, as many wise people would have told us - do what you love and love what you do. It's just too bad that not everyone in this world is that fortunate to be able to achieve that, and i'm unfortunately one of those who's stuck in a job that i do not love.

Labels:

Passion! fully agreed.
Apart from this, as we're not working alone, but usually a team, good team-mates are also very important. If u r the only one who's having passion in the team, no matter how pasionate u r, it'll be burn out in the end.

geez, when i first read the word "hang", i thought the system hanged, glad that i misread .. happy to know you able to deliver a great work! congratulations! it's rare to have boss to opt for perfection than sloopy job, but sometimes you have to weigh the risk if it is worth for the delay too. but 1 day is not really long, and you deserved a pat for the excellent job - WELL DONE! (too bad i'm not the person to assess you lor, but sure your boss will give BIG credit for the hardwork) i have to respect you for able to sustain with just 1 cup of coffee since morning. if it was me, i would have dozed off, especially when i got stuck and my brain got "hang". and respect you to be able to pick up programming back after being rusted, it must be your 3rd language after english and mandarin :). sigh, if only i got boss like you who would not dump all the mess to me and fix them alone ... agree that passion motivates, but it depends also the environment and team members, and if the piece of work is "acknowledged". you have a great team member who swims with you (so jealous), perhaps you shouldn't address her "subordinate" but as "colleague" to ride the storm together without ranks :). "love what we do and only then we can do it best, willingly and happily.". okay, i'll have that as my screenshot flying text :)....

lastly, really sorry for unable to post drawing for this week (and postpone several others too :( ) - i got caught by the perfectionist bug of yours. i simply can't post it without good coloring it and at the same time being sloppy in another "cover" job if i don't work until 10pm :(. gee, i'm giving excuse .... anyway, take care of your health, you should get more rest first before the next assignment. if you are sick (like me now work until cough already as no one helps me to fix the mess ), you would not be in your best form -lor. i guess my "all the best" mantras are effective after all. :) cheers. pinpin is the BEST!

oh yeah, by the way, why don't you look at different angle that managing is a puzzle and coordinating team members to achieve goals and targets as a kind of problem solving. came across articles in The Star on leadergonomics, imagine one day pinpin be like mourinho managing her team like chelsea or inter milan, from zero to high performance team and no more sulky of her job :). cheers.

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Saturday, October 16, 2010 @ 11:15 am: Unfinished
Friday, October 15, 2010 @ 2:09 am: Before and after
Thursday, October 14, 2010 @ 9:02 am: Yawn
Thursday, October 14, 2010 @ 5:36 am: I hate my hair
Thursday, October 14, 2010 @ 3:51 am: On the cab
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 @ 5:24 am: Stressed
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 @ 1:53 pm: Bad hair day
Monday, October 11, 2010 @ 4:18 am: 10 10 10
Saturday, October 09, 2010 @ 4:52 pm: About the volunteering
Saturday, October 09, 2010 @ 2:57 am: Volunteering