I've been on the new job now for about two weeks, and I'm pretty sure I've done more in two weeks than I did in two months in my previous job. At first I thought that maybe it was just the difference between a large company and a small company, but that's not it. It's just working in an environment where you're empowered to make things happen that makes all the difference.
There is a ton of work to do, managing a team, getting new processes into place, managing expectations, coming up with more long-term strategic plans... it makes me wonder why I hung out in a job last year where I got to do so little of that (though it wasn't for a lack of trying). At the moment I'm doing about 70% administrative stuff, and 30% coding, which is for the moment a good mix. I don't see myself as a hard core code monkey in the long run, because I don't enjoy the heads-down stuff the way I enjoy higher level product development.
I'm finding that I have to learn how to balance it all again. I still strongly believe in the convictions I've written about before with regard to killing yourself at work, but enthusiasm can cause you to commit in a way that baseless faith in "the system" and "visibility" and other nonsense that has nothing to do with building cool stuff can't. I find myself answering e-mail late, checking in a little code, researching stuff, all after I've left the office. That enthusiasm is good when it's rooted in the joy of creation, and I realize just how much I've seen people in soulless jobs not having that joy.
Still, I need to balance real life, because I can see getting burned out pretty fast. It's easy to get into the trap of thinking that you just want to get to that one point, but you know, there's always something. It's just nice to feel like you're contributing something to the world again.
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