The Pain of Being the Engineer on the Train Wreck
Today has been a particularly sad one for me. It started out wonderfully, but soon after noon I was talking to my manager about the upcoming work I needed to be doing, and while it's normally an interesting feedback loop, this time it was just plain depressing.
You see... I'm the engineer on the train that's now purposefully headed for disaster.
It may not be certain doom, but it's very bad ideas, and rather than listening to someone with nearly as many years of experience as his age, he's decided that this is what he wants. I've tried to dissuade him. He's not interested. He wants what he wants, and I can appreciate that "gung-ho" kind of attitude, but I've been down this road before, and I'm not really convinced that this is the right thing for us to be doing.
But it's not my decision. It's his.
So I'm sitting on a project that I have no sense of confidence in. None. It'll be a mess no matter what I try to do because it's just too much data. But he's convinced that there exists a way for me to pull another rabbit out of my hat.
I've spoiled him. Spoiled rotten. I've pulled off too many things like this for him to think of the "reasonable". He goes straight for the "unreasonable", and will settle for the "impossible" if I fall short.
It gets a little old.
OK, a lot old.