Elf Blood

Hola amigos y amigas! (note: I offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of my Spanish)

As part of super-secret-project-x (which you might be figuring out by about now), I’ve been giving some thought as to what it is that I enjoy doing, both as a job and outside of work.

The key thing about my personality is that I am first and foremost a creative person. But what, exactly, does that mean? Well, so far as I figure it it means that I’m happiest when I’m directly producing something myself. That may be a picture, a painting, a document, a piece of code; as long as I am responsible for the making of said thing, I am very happy indeed.

I think that’s what people mean when they say things like ‘engineering is a creative industry’. While I still have my reservations about bandying that phrase about (parents and teachers, please, don’t say this if you’re trying to coerce somebody who wants an artistically creative career into a technological one; they are unlikely to thank you for it), I’m beginning to understand the actual meaning of it. Many jobs that do not immediately leap out as ‘creative’ choices do actually hold considerable potential for those of a mind to produce something of their own.

Of course, it all depends on the business in question; While I, as a primarily artistic creative type, have been fortunate enough to work in a team that permits a reasonable amount of development work for me to stamp my mark all over, others I’ve seen are not as fortunate. Design engineering itself can fall into this, where design is less about creating something new and more about piecing together standard bits into a single solution and is often dictated by politics of varying flavours.

What’s my point? I… Guess I don’t have one, really! Other than maybe that it’s very possible to find bits of your job that you love doing, even when the job isn’t where you ultimately want to be. Hold on to those things, for they shall keep you sane!

Anyone else in the same boat as I, finding ways to fit your work responsiblities in-line with the things you love outside of work?

M.