The Setup

Recently I changed jobs. The reason was because I discovered something that I wasn’t fully aware of.

Being a believer

I have talked in the past about Knowing Thyself. Understanding what motivates you is important to set yourself up into a good situation, personally or professionally.

Professionalism is always there on my daily approach (or at least I would like to think so), and the desire to create great un-wasted quality systems (do what is required, not what you fancy).

But I have know for some time that for me is more than that: I want to be a believer. I want to be fully engaged with what I am doing.

Within a product company, that means loving the product.

Of all the code that I have written, the only one I truly loved was the one at my first company after university. And I think that was mostly because I spent years working with and on it, definitely not due to the quality of what I was doing. No other product that I have worked on have come close to that level (even when I have liked the idea of a few).

Maybe that is why I have so much difficulties doing code on my spare time. As I don’t have the love for the projects that I try to build, I don’t muster the strength to do it. Which contrasts with the development that I do for work, where I end working more than required without giving it a second thought, I am just enjoying it. Or even contrasting with the fact that I read programming books, read blog posts and watch videos very often. Is not like I do nothing programming related on my spare time.

A new discovery

Towards the end of last year I had this moment of illumination where I realized that on a consultancy company I am the product (I knew that, but the implications were not fully processed on my mind). And, well, I love myself (most of the time), therefore there is already an alignment. I am automatically a believer.

I don’t care about the product that our clients do, but I care about doing a great job. I care about using the right technology based on the requirements they have and what they actually can support. And I care about leaving them happy with what I have done for them.

No project love?

Is there no project that motivates me? I think there could and will be. Maybe is something that goes more in line with some of my off-work stuff. Maybe is just staying long enough in a single project.

Of all the ideas that I have had about building some software there is one idea that I keep coming back to and that is linked to something I like to do (presenting). It has been in my mind long enough, and I have given it enough though, that I must be close to be fully enthralled with it.