I’ve never worked in an environment that I would call user experience friendly. That doesn’t mean I’ve had bad employers or clients. In fact, I’ve been lucky over the years to work at some pretty great places. But if you mapped my resume based on how highly each organization valued user experience expertise, the spectrum would be narrow and range from “somewhat tolerant” to “nearly hostile.”
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I feel sorry for control freaks. I’ve been mistaken for one in the past, and while I admit that I enjoy a good, fully developed process now and then, I’m not driven by any powerful urge to control the world around me. In fact, I think chaos can produce some interesting opportunities.
One of the many things about fatherhood that I haven’t adjusted to yet is that sometimes you’re the one who’s supposed to know the right thing to do. The kid’s nose is drippy, should we keep her out of day care today? Should we let the her watch Batman cartoons? Should we force her to eat something other than the chips, Chicken McNuggets and parmesan cheese she wants?
Most poetry goes right over my head and it’s not until somebody explains it to me that I really enjoy it. I’m not proud of this, but what are you going to do? I guess I love the idea of poetry more than the reality of it. It seems like poetry uniquely intertwines emotion and imagery and format and syntax. I love the idea that poets describe things in a way that couldn’t be described in any other way. And I think that not all poets actually write poetry.
I’ve been lucky enough to work with really smart, talented people over the years, so you’d think my exposure to mediocrity (other than my own) would be rather limited. But it turns out that staffing with mediocre professionals is just one way to produce lukewarm work. Here are three other heavily trafficked roads to hell:
Are you good at your job? How do you know? Have you ever worked for someone who had no appreciation for the exact things you do particularly well? If so, I bet your annual performance reviews were a real adventure.