One Man's Junk...

We've all heard the saying "One man's junk is another man's treasure". I think it's all about perspective. Perspective is something I've been thinking about lately.

I am a web programmer, and I get people asking me at work to do "small" tasks for them all the time. "It's just a small request", or "Just something really simple", they say. I think the funniest (and yet sometimes the most frustrating) part is that something that seems so simple on the surface can actually get quite complicated (and that's even before the "feature-creep" - the inevitable requests for add-ons that weren't in the original project description). On the other hand, sometimes things that seem really difficult or complicated are actually very easy. There have been loads of times that I find out that someone has been doing something the hard way because they assume that for me to create something to help them will be a huge task, when it's really a pretty simple thing.

It gets tough, though when people assume that something is simple, especially when that person knows a little about technology and programming. My boss is one of those. He will ask me to drop everything and throw together some "quick and easy" project for him, because he doesn't think it will take too much time. I remember one time he came to me just before lunch and explained a new project, which seemed kind of simple on the surface, but I knew was more complicated "under the hood". Not to mention the fact that it was something I'd never even tinkered with before, so I knew there would be a bit of a learning curve anyway. After talking about the specifics of the project a bit, he said, "So, do you think you could have a working version by this afternoon?" At first, I just looked at him, trying to figure out if he was joking. After a couple of seconds, I realized he wasn't. Because he thought it was a simple thing.

So after some experiences like that, I have learned that when someone comes to me with a "simple" task, it is best to be forthcoming with them about the difficulty of the task. They may not need a lesson in programming to understand all the detailed mechanics of it, but it's helpful to them to know what they are really asking for. When I first became a programmer, I didn't really know how to handle this kind of thing. I would just say "sure, I can do that" (while I'm thinking "and you want this done by...when?) and then do the best I could to get things done. Even though I'm not perfect at it, I'm learning to let people know up front some of the simpler and more challenging aspects of the project that I can see (because I think like a programmer).

Now, with all that being said, I realize that this translates to just about every aspect of life. To really make things work, you may not need to HAVE someone else's perspective, but you need to be able to try to SEE someone else's perspective to understand better where they are coming from. Simple assumptions often cause the biggest problems in relationships with others. So many misunderstandings and conflicts could be avoided if we just understood each other's perspective a little better. And guess what, that requires COMMUNICATION - something I'm working on.

One note, while I'm on the subject of communication. I'm pretty sure that the quote at the beginning of this post really describes my blog. My thoughts are my treasure (one of them, at least). To the rest of you, probably junk. And you know what? I'm ok with that.