Red Squirrel Reflections Dave Hoover explores the psychology of software development

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Teaching and the Ideal Job
Sunday, September 7, 2003

At Tina's recommendation, I'm reading The Courage to Teach in preparation for our work together on reflecting teams and project retrospectives. Parker's book has been affirming thus far, touching on a sensitive topic for me: staying true to yourself in your choice of work.

"A vocation that is not mine, no matter how externally valued, does violence to the self -- in the precise sense that it violates my identity and integrity on behalf of some abstract norm." (page 30)

The book has me imagining the same future that was dancing around in my head as I read A Pattern Language. I imagine working from my home, or a residential office very close to home, on various software development projects and consulting for various teams. More importantly, though, would be the involvement of youth in this work, local teens and college students interested in apprenticing at Red Squirrel. I could imagine myself being a good teacher in that sort of environment.

And this fits nicely into a conversation I had last week with an old football buddy, who described his ideal job as one which would allow him to work from home so that he could spend more time with his kids along with providing him the freedom to spend time on his other passions. It wasn't the description I was expecting from him and it caught me off guard. But as I've mulled it over, I see the advantage of this lifestyle if it can be attained.

What is the value of financial success if you miss the majority of your children's childhood? What is preferable, taking a family vacation every year to Hawaii or eating lunch with your kids every day? Would you rather make that big salary and sleep in an enormous house or grow your family and your career, living in a humbler home? These are important questions I need to keep in mind.

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