Going the Extra Mile for Something You Really Dislike
Today I've been pushing on the Hemlock project to add in some new functionality before the Q/A Team gets backed up with other releases and the changes in Hemlock are delayed another month's expiration. All this is not really new, but it brings up a point that a friend made about parenting teenagers.
Such is the life of a parent, I guess. It's a challenge of character to not allow your children's idiocy/lack of appreciation ruin your relationship with them so that in 5 years when they're surprised by how much you have learned, you can start having a civil, adult relationship.
And as I was pushing very hard today for these new features in a project that I really dislike a great deal, I realized that this, too, is a test of character and commitment. It's easy to put in the "extra effort" when you're excited about the outcome. It's easy to be the parent of a grateful kid.
But show me how much "extra effort" you give to a project that you never want to use, and would send into The Daily WTF if it weren't for the fact that people at your place of work would recognize the horrible code and know it was you that sent it in. Show me how hard you're going to work on something that gives you a headache just keeping track of the useless unit tests and what goes where.
Yeah, my friend is right... being an adult is a lot about a test of character. I'm glad I can say that I was able to pass this particular test.