There comes a time when you have to admit to yourself that you are a walking cliché, and learn to live with it, rather than imploding into a vortex of angst and worrying about being a unique snowflake, who somehow defies easy pigeonholing or lazy stereotyping.
As much as I'd like to believe I'm unique and special, if you define me by what I spend my money and time on, right now I am well, well beyond the geek event horizon:
- 50m lens on a DSLR? Check?
- Macbook? Check.
- iPhone (as of today)? Check.
- Hand wavy new media related livelihood? Check.
- Comedy hipster facial hair for Movember? Check.
To be honest, if I'm going to conform to one lazy stereotype or societal role, this one is at least attractive to me.
Right now, I only work on jobs that interest me, and working with clients who I believe in.
I set my own hours, and work as hard as want to on what I want to, and I if I there's no client work that seems immediately interesting to me, there's no shortage of interesting projects to work on, where I can learn at my own pace, and feel that what I'm working on will pay dividends in future in terms of skills I can use professionally, or satisfy a primordial 'hack the world til it works properly' urge within me.
The downside here is that I the very idea of a work-life balance seems utterly, utterly quaint to me. Work feels like play to me, and this play is sometimes in danger of consuming me. It's challenging, frustrating, and at times, I feel like total idiot for heading out and trying to set up a company, instead of working in a larger organisation where I have more mentorship, stability and free time to have a life outside of my core interests.
But no matter how strong these feelings are, I've yet to go back to working for someone else. I very, very rarely find myself exasperated with the actions of people I work with - my main frustrations are at my own lack of effectiveness, and the feelings at the end of a day, that I've let myself down by not concentrating hard enough on a task at hand, or letting myself get distracted by something interesting happening at the Hub.
So why am I writing this in public and sharing it with all and sundry?
Plenty of good reasons. So many times before, I've found myself second guessing what people expect me to be like, and without realising, changing my behaviour to fit that projected image of myself that I think they have of me, to the point where I barely recognise myself or my actions.
Writing this blog regularly will give me a chance to see where I might have been emotionally when looking back in the future, and help make sense of my actions and feelings, and help me define the professional persona that I present in my work.
Anyone who wants to work with me will almost definitely be googling me or sifting through the exhaust stream of data that I leave behind as I interact through the web before employing me; I intend to use spare time in November and December optimising this presence, so it's easier to find the things I'm proudest of first, before finding an out of date CV or social networking site profile from 2002.
Well, doing this and client work at the same time...
If I want to do this properly, and invest in my own skills adequately , I won't be able to take on any more work until the end of Janurary at this rate. This isn't an easy decision to make.
But in the long run, it feels like it'll be worth it.
So hopefully, this blog will help you get to know me, and if you're wondering what it'd be like to to work with me, give a better idea of what to expect from me.
And with that, I have 6 minutes to get to sleep before one am, for the first time this week.
Night all.
On admitting geekdom and late nights.
There comes a time when you have to admit to yourself that you are a walking cliché, and learn to live with it, rather than imploding into a vortex of angst and worrying about being a unique snowflake, who somehow defies easy pigeonholing or lazy stereotyping.
As much as I'd like to believe I'm unique and special, if you define me by what I spend my money and time on, right now I am well, well beyond the geek event horizon:
To be honest, if I'm going to conform to one lazy stereotype or societal role, this one is at least attractive to me.
Right now, I only work on jobs that interest me, and working with clients who I believe in.
I set my own hours, and work as hard as want to on what I want to, and I if I there's no client work that seems immediately interesting to me, there's no shortage of interesting projects to work on, where I can learn at my own pace, and feel that what I'm working on will pay dividends in future in terms of skills I can use professionally, or satisfy a primordial 'hack the world til it works properly' urge within me.
The downside here is that I the very idea of a work-life balance seems utterly, utterly quaint to me. Work feels like play to me, and this play is sometimes in danger of consuming me. It's challenging, frustrating, and at times, I feel like total idiot for heading out and trying to set up a company, instead of working in a larger organisation where I have more mentorship, stability and free time to have a life outside of my core interests.
But no matter how strong these feelings are, I've yet to go back to working for someone else. I very, very rarely find myself exasperated with the actions of people I work with - my main frustrations are at my own lack of effectiveness, and the feelings at the end of a day, that I've let myself down by not concentrating hard enough on a task at hand, or letting myself get distracted by something interesting happening at the Hub.
So why am I writing this in public and sharing it with all and sundry?
Plenty of good reasons. So many times before, I've found myself second guessing what people expect me to be like, and without realising, changing my behaviour to fit that projected image of myself that I think they have of me, to the point where I barely recognise myself or my actions.
Writing this blog regularly will give me a chance to see where I might have been emotionally when looking back in the future, and help make sense of my actions and feelings, and help me define the professional persona that I present in my work.
Anyone who wants to work with me will almost definitely be googling me or sifting through the exhaust stream of data that I leave behind as I interact through the web before employing me; I intend to use spare time in November and December optimising this presence, so it's easier to find the things I'm proudest of first, before finding an out of date CV or social networking site profile from 2002.
Well, doing this and client work at the same time...
If I want to do this properly, and invest in my own skills adequately , I won't be able to take on any more work until the end of Janurary at this rate. This isn't an easy decision to make.
But in the long run, it feels like it'll be worth it.
So hopefully, this blog will help you get to know me, and if you're wondering what it'd be like to to work with me, give a better idea of what to expect from me.
And with that, I have 6 minutes to get to sleep before one am, for the first time this week.
Night all.