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I was part of a team that just finished a massive project, or rather the first phase. I am in the throws of learning a new life lesson, and was wondering how the other monks faired in similar situations.

I'm sure others have been here. The pressure was on, things were looking a little grim, alot was on the line, and Perl comes to the rescue. A couple of simple scripts and things could proceed. A few head nods, a quick "good job", and things move on, with much less anxiety. Then something else rears its ugly head, and yet again, a quick 15-30 minutes and things roll on. This time a few more people notice, a few more comments, but you do your best to just do your job and contribute to the team effort. Wash, rinse, repeat for a few weeks.

Towards the end of the project you realize something. You went from having a very small, comfortable scope of work, to being part of decisions left and right. People are turning to you and listening to what you say in a new way. Your word has weight, for good or ill. Some are expecting magic from you on a regular basis. While for you its simply what you do (and not particularly difficult at that), for them its something amazing and worth its weight in gold. Everyone seems to want a piece of your time, and for you to be part of their mini-domain within the project. You get the distinct feeling you are coming apart at the seams, due to everyone pulling in different directions.

So where have other monks been within a situation like this, and how did they cope. I'm a simple geek. The things I did were fairly trivial text processing with Perl, and it was really Perl that saved the day. I'm not sure I like the attention I'm now receiving, but don't want to offend people at this point nor block possible improvements in cash flow. I also don't have enough time in the day to be part of everything that people would like me to be part of. At least, not as a geek/sysadmin/programmer, maybe as a manager type, but that is most certainly not the route I want to take.

All I can think of is the commercial back from the dot bomb era. A bunch of people huddled around a monitor and a counter ticks to one, and they sigh. Counter hits 100 and they cheer and pop the cork off a bottle to start the party. Then it hits 1,000 and they get a glazed and confused look, then 10,000 and the groaning ensues as people scramble to get a plan together to deal with the onslaught of business. What advice can be shared with a poor monk, to help defer and/or deal with some of the sudden success he has achieved?

Edit: Fixed spelling of success.. :P

use perl;


In reply to Handling Success by l2kashe

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