This Is What You're Doing for the Rest of Your Life

Penelope Trunk is always an interesting (sometimes infuriating) read, and this post really hits it out of the park. She's tapped into the great zen truth of being a grown up: this is it. You're already doing what you're doing, and if you don't enjoy it, you should probably go in a new direction.

It's all process. Reaching a goal is transitory at best. The bulk of what you're doing is what you do to get there, and it better be stuff that you enjoy, that feels worthwhile to you, that has meaning in and of itself. It's awfully zen, and it's a way to find the joy in the every day.

I get this feeling when I'm doing monkey programming -- you know monkeying around with someone else's system or code to make it stronger, better, or just different enough to satisfy my customers' needs. The time just seems to go away, and when I finally make things work it's so exciting for me. I know it's nerdy, but it's true. Is monkey programming a true discipline? I don't know, but it seems to work for me.