digitalBush

It's getting colder out and we got the dog his first sweater.  Please note that I am typically against dressing animals up, but this looks fairly normal, doesn't it?  At least we haven't starting dressing the animals up for Halloween.  Bring on the snow!

I drive 32 miles to work one way which takes me approximately 45m - 1h 15m depending on road conditions, construction, etc.  Now I know that people drive longer distances or have commutes that take longer.  To those that do, I must say that you are insane. 

At first I didn't really mind the drive.  It gave me time.  I had time to explore the deep innards of who I really am.  It gave me time to cool off when I was upset and time to think intricate problems through.  It gave me approximately 2 hours per day of time.  That's 10 hours per week or 480 hours per year (discounting holidays,vacation, etc).  For those of your that care, that's 20 freaking days out of the year I spend sitting my ass in the car.  After driving this same route for 2.5 years, I'm out of things to think about. 

With all of this seat time, I get to witness strange things.  I've also grown to loathe certain attributes of some of my fellow commuters.  So, consider this my introduction to a series of posts I'd like to title "Rules of the Road".

As I look back over the short career that I've had, I'm realizing that I've come a long way with my factual knowledge and with my business knowledge. In college the emphasis was on factual knowledge, and as I'm seeing now, even that was limited. What was lacking was what I'm referring to as business knowledge.

Business knowledge is something I can't quite describe, but I know it's what comes from experience in the field. It's the kind of stuff you pick up by writing code that other people will use. Let me tell you, real world people are far more critical of your work than your professors ever were.

Other people using your product still doesn't qualify as business knowledge. There's two last components in my mind that complete this equation, and that is time and need. In the real world, everyone wants something yesterday. The cliche' says that time is money, so every moment that your projects hangs out there is another dollar not in your superior's pocket. Sure, there were deadlines in college, but they were there simply because you have a finite time in each class and that the professor needs a way to track your progress. Your professor didn't need you to write a linked list structure or a quicksort algorithm by friday in order to sell a major client. He or she presumably knows how to do these things already, that's why they have the role of teacher.

Now, I want to tell you about a place called businessland. It's a place far far away from reality where mythical deadlines exist and where magical workers can produce large projects overnight. Sorry to burst your bubble folks, but this is reality. Reality is they (those people in the suits) don't understand what you are doing, they just want you to do it. They also can't understand the complexity of what they are requesting, they just want it completed.

It's not all as bad as I make it out. I don't work in a sweatshop writing code with a guy standing behind me whipping me and yelling "code, code, code..." in a methodical fashion. What I want to convey is that there's a certain pressure that doesn't exist until you get out there. Every day I'm faced with new challenges and every day I must respond to the best of my ability. Each day I deal with these various pressures, I learn more. I learn how to manage my time and how to deal with other people. I learn shortcuts as I gain familiarity with what I'm doing. All of this combined is my business knowledge. It's what helps me suck less every year. I still have a long way to go.

Last week, a guy in my business complex broke the mirror off of my car. He ran into it with his hip and it just popped off. I come back from a 2 mile run to find my mirror and a note laying on my windshield. I called him and we settled it like civilized human beings. I purchased a new mirror from the local parts store and he wrote me a check for it. Problem solved.

I can't help but think how many people would have just run away like a coward. I know a few people who have had scratches or dents come upon their car without someone owning up to it. I keep speaking in terms of autos here, but this applies to life in any aspect. If you do something wrong at work, own up to it. If you get a bad grade on an exam, just own up to it. There's no need to pretend like it didn't happen, because it did and someone will eventually find out about it. Just do the right thing, people will respect you more for it.

Ashley and I had the opportunity to catch their concert here in Nashville. We came away from the concert half deaf and blind with a smile on our faces. I must say that TSO Rocks.