I feel this. I used to have a job that involved popping difficult problems off the ‘hard problem’ queue, solving them and moving on. No one bothered me, I knew the set up and all was good. But it didn’t pay well, and now I manage people who get to have all the fun while I chase 30 minutes of focus in an 8 hour day.
I look after the strategy team for the CISO of a financial services company. I do enjoy my job, but I’ve swapped debugging IT systems for debugging organisational systems, and there’s a frustrating amount of baggage (financial reporting, process reporting, people managment) that you have to carry to get to that table.
I used to do IT Support in a 24h call centre and I did the night shift regularly.
I would get more work done than any other four employees in a shift by listening to 160bpm techno and smashing energy drinks all night.
Those seemingly endless hours of absolute hyperfocus and flow are something I miss.
I also hated the job but I fucking love problem solving and still miss it, despite not missing the pay rate!
I feel this. I used to have a job that involved popping difficult problems off the ‘hard problem’ queue, solving them and moving on. No one bothered me, I knew the set up and all was good. But it didn’t pay well, and now I manage people who get to have all the fun while I chase 30 minutes of focus in an 8 hour day.
Can I ask what you do for a job?
I look after the strategy team for the CISO of a financial services company. I do enjoy my job, but I’ve swapped debugging IT systems for debugging organisational systems, and there’s a frustrating amount of baggage (financial reporting, process reporting, people managment) that you have to carry to get to that table.