Get angry and make stuff happen

I really like passionate people. Even if you’re wrong, you’ve got enough energy to care and to fight for what you think. Just the same, I can’t stand apathy. Have an opinion, dammit.

Some of the best meetings I’ve been in involved raised voices. It’s not because we’re calling each other stupid, it’s because we have ideas and we’re defending them and attacking others, trying to let the best solution rise to the top.

If you presented a solution to a meeting and it was shot down and you just said, “ok,” then I’d think that either you didn’t put a lot of effort into your solution, or you didn’t care, or both. None of those are good.

Earlier this week, a buddy at work approached me about a UI thing I’d been working on. Now, I’ll be the first to admit, UX is not my strong suit. I don’t think like other people. I love vim. My shell is in focus more than a browser. It’s just how I roll.

Said buddy started talking about how I’d laid out some things, and suggested another way to do it. I disagreed, because the change seemed superfluous to me. The other guy thought it made things more consistent and simpler. We disagreed. Voices got raised. It was clear he was angry. He even tossed a bottle opener (yes, we have bottle openers in my office, because it’s awesome, and because real developers like beer) in frustration.

Which is awesome. I went away unchanged, but I think the other guy got enough fire out of it that he’ll end up redoing it and making it probably awesome for most users. It’s a lot more fun to work with people who care about their work and actually want to put in the time to do things right.

If you get 8 hours of sleep a night, you’re spending at least 30% of your waking hours at work. If you have a commute or different hours, it might be closer to 45 or 50%. If you don’t get angry or passionate about what you’re working on, you should quit. As far as I’m concerned, you’re not doing good work*.

* Unless you’re Spock. But you’re not.