I write HR applications, strangely, for a living. I did this kind of work once with a tight-knit, small, lean team back in 2001-2004. That, I will say, was an i

I write HR applications, strangely, for a living. I did this kind of work once with a tight-knit, small, lean team back in 2001-2004. That, I will say, was an intense and awesome experience. We solved some amazing problems: workforce planning, inventory management, salary deductions, even adoption and foster care program management. Fast forward to where I am today, writing HR applications on a much larger scale, and the funny thing is we're solving the same problems we 'solved' years ago, just in a different, more enterprisey (read: slow, buggy) way. Its both sad, and amusing to watch from a distance. That said, even the most boring of application will give you a rush when you hit a breakthrough. I once got excited over finishing a brute force solution to a problem in college. Sure, it was inefficient, but I wrote it, and it worked.