4 ms·

This is why I've learned to give only as much as employers expect and occasionally 5 or 10% more. All my best ideas stay with me, for my own projects. I've ma

This is why I've learned to give only as much as employers expect and occasionally 5 or 10% more. All my best ideas stay with me, for my own projects. I've made the mistake that the company's and mine interests were the same far too often and gotten burned by it. The problem I'll run into is how to align my interests and those of my employees when I'm running my own shop, but I'll worry about that when I need to. Right now it is too soon for those sort of worries.

deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
h34t 19y ago
If you limit the ideas or energy you give to your job, I think you'd better be prepared to give those ideas & that energy to your own project quite quickly and in a concrete way. If your "independent dream project" is too far away on the horizon, you might just get in the habit of holding yourself back from your job, and get used to the idea that you're the type of person who does mediocre work -- and the people you work with may also think of you as mediocre. So the cost of protecting yourself from being burned can cost you in [1] change of personal habits & [2] reputation among those you work with & know your track record. Even in times I've been burned with work/life, I've never regretted the effort I put into doing my best at whatever I set my mind to. I've wished I could have foreseen bad events, but not wished I'd tried less hard. I like trying hard... it's fun; I don't just do it for money. Other people can take away the rewards that I may have been entitled to, but they can't tell me that my efforts were mediocre.
- joe24pack 19y ago
  At my present day job, I don't have to hold my ideas back because they are only tangentially related, if at all, to my employer's line of business. I give my day job only as much energy and enthusiasm as I need to get the work done well and in a timely manner. As far as personal habits go, keeping motivated while working more or less piecemeal on my pet project is difficult, but I've managed to work through worse.

deleted 19y ago

[deleted]

h34t 19y ago

If you limit the ideas or energy you give to your job, I think you'd better be prepared to give those ideas & that energy to your own project quite quickly and in a concrete way. If your "independent dream project" is too far away on the horizon, you might just get in the habit of holding yourself back from your job, and get used to the idea that you're the type of person who does mediocre work -- and the people you work with may also think of you as mediocre. So the cost of protecting yourself from being burned can cost you in [1] change of personal habits & [2] reputation among those you work with & know your track record. Even in times I've been burned with work/life, I've never regretted the effort I put into doing my best at whatever I set my mind to. I've wished I could have foreseen bad events, but not wished I'd tried less hard. I like trying hard... it's fun; I don't just do it for money. Other people can take away the rewards that I may have been entitled to, but they can't tell me that my efforts were mediocre.

joe24pack 19y ago
At my present day job, I don't have to hold my ideas back because they are only tangentially related, if at all, to my employer's line of business. I give my day job only as much energy and enthusiasm as I need to get the work done well and in a timely manner. As far as personal habits go, keeping motivated while working more or less piecemeal on my pet project is difficult, but I've managed to work through worse.