Drsql.link

Of all the people in the world who like or dislike me, I think I may be the one that hates me the most. Not in that “self-loathing, I hate everything (or really anything that large) about myself because I am terrible” or something. Nope, just because I often do lazy things in the present that make more work for myself in the future.

Hey future me, here’s an idea.

As an example, I make a lot of notes to myself that say things like “write an editorial about AI”. Clearly when I had this idea, I had a big idea to make use of it, and probably a lot more context in mind from something I read or heard. Maybe I was thinking about writing about people using AI to write (both negatively and positively, either way.) Or perhaps how AI is pervasive now in everything we do and it probably helps as much as it hinders.

But no, I just said “write an editorial about AI.”

So here I sit, staring at my iPad keyboard, wondering what the heck I was thinking when I wrote that note rather than typing that idea furiously. And like any writer with a deadline would (self-imposed or not), I decide to write about this instead of AI, because that is where a lot of good ideas come from… other lost or bad ideas.

I suppose at least I am following my own advice I gave back in my previous editorial entitled Don’t Let That Idea Get Away and trying to write things down.

Treat future you well, and it sometimes helps others, too

In all things you do, (not just note taking,) think about how it will affect you in the future. When you do, you will find you write better notes, keep adequate records/documentation, do better work, and set future you up for success.

What is interesting is that the future you you expect to exist, may not exist, certainly in the same form. You may have thought that the things you were working on were going to your task as long as you wanted them. Sometimes you change your mind and do something else. Sometimes your mind is changed for you.

So the future you envisioned may actually end up be a different person altogether. At your office, or even your home, you may never see the benefit of your good work. You may stay at the same company for 40 years, or you may be gone the next week.

As an example, say you are writing code that you don’t (currently) have to support or be on call for. Obviously, your colleagues will pay a price for your mistakes if your code has a lot of untested, buggy features, and sadly not horse drawn buggy features which are so popular in some cultures.

Then comes the day when there are some changes and you are the one supporting that code. Whoops.

Always do your best for everyone’s sake, even your own

No matter, your hard work will likely be appreciated, whether you see it or not, and whether anyone says “Good work.” Sometimes in small ways, sometimes in large. Sometimes by others, and sometimes it won’t even be specifically noticed that it was your work.

It may just be you, recently assigned to the team that has on-call duties for the system you helped build, and you and your new teammates are sleeping through the night, not dealing with bugs that you created when you created them.

Sometimes though, you do get another blog out of the lost original idea, so that isn’t the worst thing I suppose. Next up, I have a note that says “record a podcast about databases”. Piece of cake.