The way it's meant to be

Lists. I've got lists on the brain. Lists of things to do, lists of people to see, not to mention something else I've been meaning to write on the subject of lists, prompted by a recent product announcement from Apple. Even my current project at work involves manipulating lists in a web browser, and promises to be terribly cool once it's complete - far cooler than anyone is expecting, so it should be received well if I can complete it on time. Unfortunately that doesn't look likely, despite the fact that it's impinging on all my other thoughts for the moment and I spent a goodly portion of this evening working on it as well. It doesn't happen to me terribly often, but when I come across a problem I can really dig my teeth into it becomes an overwhelming obsession. In many ways what I'm trying to achieve is wholly unnecessary - I could easily produce a simpler tool that will suffice, but... well, this where my argument breaks down a little. There are many perfectly valid reasons for going down the route I've chosen to go down. The whizzy features I'm developing aren't merely for show, but they'll make a big difference to the usability of the thing. Tasks that would be otherwise tedious become fast and simple. But that's not really why I'm doing it - the fact that it will be used at all has become almost incidental to me. I can envision the end product in it's shining platonic perfection, you see, and I just cannot accept any alternative. It's right, it's right that it should be like that. It's the way it supposed to be, and once I'm done it's the way it will be. Compromise is unthinkable.

It's not an easy point of view to explain to a manager - this much I've discovered in the past - but fortunately I don't have to explain myself until it's late. I've got until Monday, though it's not a huge project which buys me only a degree of latitude.

I'd better get a move on...