Me and Time Management Don’t Mix
I have never been good at time management….or, for that matter, staying focused on much of anything for more than 15 minutes. The only exception to that is:
- Watching Scrubs/Seinfeld/Bugs Bunny
- Watching my kids at events (band, soccer, swimming, basketball, etc)
- Date with my wife
- Sitting at Starbucks people watching and listening to music
- Coding an application
Number 5 is the focus of this post. I am a computer programmer by education. To be honest, it wasn’t my first career choice. My first love was with medicine, chemistry, anatomy..all those things that lead to a career in the field of medicine. However, due to financial constraints, I had no more than 4 years of college to get in, get my degree, and get out into the work force. Any extended amount of education just wasn’t in the cards.
No big deal. One must adapt to survive. Thus, with some help from a nice guidance counselor, I found my way down the path of computer science. I did well in college, enjoying the challenges of solving problems using technology and usually some twisted logic from my brain. Had some awesome professors that helped keep me interested and enthused.
Once out of college, I landed a pretty nice job in a smaller city, but in corporate America. NOT the place I envisioned….but again, one must adapt to survive. At the time, like now, jobs were scarce. 25 years later, I am still there (fodder for another post).
Fast forward those 25 years. Computers have changed a lot, but the problems they need to solve remain. I have changed a lot too….but I still love finding ways to help people solve their problems by leaning on technology. However, when you have been with a company for 25 years, their expectations for you “mature”….at least they do where I’m at.
You are not supposed to solve those problems….you are supposed to “coordinate”. Let others do the heavy lifting. To me, this means, let others roll up their sleeves and do the rewarding stuff.
With this in mind, I am trying to tweak my career. Add a technical spice back into it. Get back into some sort of current flow of technology. Yea, I know. CP/M really isn’t used anymore.
Soooooo……I am in search of the most logical pool to dip my toe into, keeping in mind that this effort cannot cost me more $$$ or be something I must dedicate continuous hours to learning. I must be able to lay it down for days, then pick it right back up and continue on.
My thoughts:
- Ruby and Rails. Free, current, straightforward, lots of online tutorials, seems to be pretty cool stuff.
- Python and maybe Django. May of the same pluses as RoR.
- Objective C/Cocoa. I use a Mac and thoroughly enjoy it. However, my last time using C was likely not long after it was created. Not sure it is a sweet walk in the park to learn in the manner I have in front of me. The upcoming Mac store has me intrigued. But I think this one is best left for those who have more time than me.
Am I missing anything? Am I simply being a crybaby?
BTW: Every time I end a post with questions, I think back to Harvey Korman in Blazing Saddles. As he formulates a plan to get rid of Rock Ridge he asks the camera where he could find a man to drive everyone away. Then says, “why am I asking you?”
BTW2: If you search Google for Harvey Korman Blazing Saddles and go in about 4 pages, you get lots of nasty stuff. Go figure.
