jr conlin's ink stained banana

Earlier tonight, i saw some folks get the rug pulled out from under them.

Not literally, thank carpet glue, but more figuratively. Having been in that position far too many time in the past, i can't say i was particularly surprised, but it still sucks to see it happen. Oddly, like most such events, the folks involved almost never see it coming, and when the fated hammer does fall, they often get rightfully angry about it.

Heck, i did too before. i was so focused on hitting the mark, pulling a rabbit out of a hat that i completely lost focus of the fact that the magic show in question wasn't worth it.

That's kind of the thing i've learned over the years regarding any project with a major deadline:

1) Will i complete it before it's ready?
Not just a few minutes, but at least a few days so that i can remember any bug that may be in there. If i'm still working on something with less than 24 hours before showtime, i'm doomed to failure. (Been there too.) Showing stuff because it's there is one thing. Showing stuff because you're confident it works and does amazing things, quite another. Plus the extra time can go into getting the patter right.

2) Will it be a spotlight or a footnote?
Years ago, i killed myself to get something running and ready for an expo where we were presenting. i worked without sleep for weeks testing, coding, recoding, retesting, and polishing right up until the show (i was young and had yet to learn #1). My team stood up, gave their 15 minute demo, and got completely ignored before the next group who had a 60 minute demo and was a major sponsor. Nobody at the show remembered what we did (regardless of how amazing it was) because it wasn't a focus of their attention. A few months later, we were the focus and absolutely wowed folks there with the exact same demo. Different audience, different interests.

3) You'll be there again.
i'm not really in the position to say "yes" or "no" about any project. That's the domain of people generally smarter than me. i know that because they're well versed in rules 1 and 2 and lots of others i don't even think about. They are the ones in control of the rug, and if they're good, they know when it needs to be pulled, regardless of what the folks who happen to be on it think.

So, knowing what i do, why did i stay at work until 9:30 working on getting something ready? Because that's part of my job now. i needed to get some stuff working so that they could show off what they had. Plus some stuff needed to be on my machines.

And because this time i thought we could really do it.

If it wasn't for that darn rug suddenly leaving….