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Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Thomas David Baker 1:17 pm

'People protect themselves from frustration by deciding not to care. So you end up with people whose attitude is, "Well, I showed up for work today. That's all I have to do. If I can't make progress, that's not my problem; that's the bosses problem.'"
-- Richard Stallman in Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation1

RMS is actually talking about frustration with non-free (speech not beer) software but it describes Adam's problem perfectly. Adam clearly felt frustrated. And if you're frustrated you can either not care or become very annoyed or remove yourself from the situation. He took the latter option.

You can see in C&W Think Tank one of his efforts to become unfrustrated.

I'm not saying I agree or I care but when I read that this morning I really understood it's essential truth. And I strongly relate it to Adam's decision to quit. He wanted very much to care but was finding it increasingly difficult to do so (remember when he used to go meet little user groups and they loved him? What happened to that?) Could he have done more is of course the counter-question.

1. Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation is a talk RMS gave at New York University and is printed in Free Software, Free Society.

Comments:
Could I have done more? Almost certainly so. I think there is an old adage that says something like "you get out of something what you put into it". I could have put more effort in, of course. But each time you try something and it fails, or doesn't go to plan, then it gets harder. CWThinkTank is an example of this - I decided that this was a good thing to do, set it all up, sent out invites and the only people who ever posted there were me, yourself and Clyde. Some of my team actually _declined_ the invitation to join. Weren't even willing to give it a go. There are thousands more examples, of which you’re well aware, but I don’t want to turn this post into _another_ b1tchfest.

Each time something like this happens, it gets harder and harder to care. And I really do want to care about my work and my job. It makes me happier and more contented, I learn more and I have a better time.

I guess for each individual, it comes to a level where the frustration just gets too much. I don't like not caring and I could no longer face putting effort in to trying to improve the situation. So I started looking for a new job. And I found one which is absolutely brilliant (although ask me again in 6 months time ;-) so for me it was an easy decision.

On a wider note, I think that quote is true of so many people on our team, all of whom at some point used to care. Again, I don’t want to b1tch too much here, but you know how frustrated everyone gets with Cable & Wireless. It’s no surprise that they’ve all stopped caring. And I think you’ll see more and more people reaching the point where they feel they have to leave because the frustration finally gets too much. And I think that’s a shame, because for a while back there, we nearly had a kick-a$$ development team ;-)
# posted by Blogger Adam : 30 November 2004 at 14:15
 
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