Working Thoughts - Thoughts on Working

There was a book review in the WSJ the other day about Late Bloomers. Looks like it could be an interesting book, but what I found interesting were a couple of quotes from the book:

Janet Evanovich discovered writing in her 30s, then spent the next 10 years piling up rejection slips. In her 40's, she spent two years drinking beer with "law enforcement types, learning to shoot, and practicing cussing."

Pretty interesting way to prepare for a job. It certainly worked for her - she's a best selling author now. I was intrigued enough to check one of her books out from the library. Easy read and they have a bunch of them on the shelf. I'll work my way through the rest of them since I've read all the Robert Parker novels they have.

Also in the book review there's a quote from Bill Walsh of the Super Bowl champion 49ers:

In my whole career I've been passing men with greater bravado and confidence. Confidence gets you off to a fast start. Confidence gets you that first job and maybe the next two promotions. But confidence stops you from learning. Confidence becomes a caricature after a while. I can't tell you how many confident blowhards I've seen in my coaching career who never got better after the age of forty.

I've worked for a few of those guys over the years both in education and in the welding fields - especially in the education field.

I came across an interesting video at Budget Machining about the philosophy of working. The video is about 12 minutes long but it presents an alternative take on the work smarter rather than harder idea. I don't know that I've ever thought too deeply about this but I think it goes a ways to explaining why I took the new job. Check it out if you're interested in the philosophy and reward of manual labor.

The nice weather came and went. I got up Monday morning and it was already 70 degrees, going up to 78 by about 10:00. However, it cooled off to about 55 by the early afternoon with a bit of rain thrown in. I was able to get out on the both the bicycle and the motorbike, though. The Enfield still has less than 100 miles on it but the weather has to improve one of these days. I did pick some rhubarb and made a couple of loaves of rhubarb bread. Good weather for baking. I've got lots of rhubarb - maybe make a couple more loaves for the freezer later this week while the weather is cold and rainy still.

Only one more day left at the college - yippie-skippie!