Operational Parameters 1

This is one of my basic philosophies of life:

“There ain’t no need to do a job
If I can’t do it right
I may not be gettin’ rich
But I’m sleepin’ good at night“

We set standards for ourselves, not always consistent across all enterprises. The quote above is completely applicable to my day job. I am not interesting in writing software unless I can do it as best I can. (Things around the house are another matter).

The paragraph above was written while I was still pushing bits for a living. Since January 1 2022 I retired from that endeavor and found myself in a different space. I still believe in the mantra presented above. This is not to say that I am always successful – I have learned there is such as thing as “This isn’t going to work” or “Put this away before you totally break it”.

I remain fearless about wielding a screwdriver to see what’s going on inside a misbehaving something or other. I look at a thing which is not working as it should or as well as I think it should and my brain loads and runs the “what can I do about this?” code. I find myself even more in “challenge accepted” mode – the weirder and/or obtuse the problem is, the more I want to tackle it.

This song by the late Texas songwriter Guy Clark puts it very succulently.

“Jack Of All Trades”
by Guy Clark

Now I don’t mind workin’ hard
You can’t burn me down
They ain’t made a job
That I can’t work my way around
Sometime I do it for the money 
Sometime for the glamour
Sometime I use my head
Sometime I get a bigger hammer

I worked on the railroad
I worked in the fields
I’m a steeple jack and it’s a fact
I drive anything on wheels
I can frame a house drive pilin’
Pour that wet concrete
Take a weldin’ rig and build a bridge
And I can do it in my sleep 

[Chorus]
I’m the jack of all trades
I love every lick I get
If I ain’t got the job done son
I might not want to quit
I’m the jack of all trades
That makes me the boss
You gonna get your money’s worth
No matter what it costs

I don’t work assembly line
Doin’ the same ol’ thing
Same ol’ shop the same ol’ clock
Playin’ the same ol’ game
I don’t want no desk job man
It don’t suit my clothes
I don’t need no engineer
Just show me how it goes
Hmm hmm show me how it goes

[Chorus]

There ain’t no need to do a job
It I can’t do it right
I may not be gettin’ rich
But I’m sleepin’ good at night
Some call me a gypsy
Some call me a flake
But I’ll kiss your ass if I don’t earn
Every dime I make

[Chorus]