So, I caught some of the Stearns vs Putintseva match the other day. Or maybe I just saw the results, I don’t remember exactly. Point is, seeing those names just got me thinking.
It wasn’t really about the tennis itself, you know? Good match, I’m sure. Both players really grind it out, right? That’s the thing that stuck with me. The sheer effort, point after point. It just threw me back to this situation I had a while ago.
That project that nearly broke me
We had this project at my old place. Seemed straightforward enough when we started. Just needed to integrate a couple of systems. Easy peasy, right? Wrong.
First, we found out the documentation for one of the systems was basically useless. Like, totally out of date. So, we started digging into the code ourselves. Spent days, maybe weeks, just trying to figure out how the darn thing actually worked. It felt like wrestling an octopus.
Then, the requirements started changing. Every few days, someone higher up would have a ‘bright idea’. Little tweaks, they called them. But each tweak meant we had to undo stuff we’d already built and tested. It was maddening. We were just running in circles.
It got really frustrating. We were putting in long hours, weekends too sometimes. The team was getting burned out. I remember getting home late one night, totally exhausted, and just thinking, ‘What are we even doing here?’ We were just pushing this rock uphill, and it kept rolling back down.
- Trying to piece together broken information.
- Dealing with shifting goals from management.
- Seeing the team’s morale just sink lower and lower.
Honestly, it felt a lot like watching a tough tennis rally. You’re hitting the ball back, they’re hitting it back, you’re running side to side, just trying to stay in the point. Except in our case, the court felt like it was made of quicksand and the net kept getting higher.
In the end? We got something delivered. But it wasn’t pretty. It was late, over budget, and full of compromises. Nobody was really happy. Not the clients, not the team, definitely not me. It took a lot out of us, and for what? A system that barely did what it was supposed to?
So yeah, seeing names like Stearns and Putintseva, players known for their fight, just brings that feeling back sometimes. That feeling of being deep in the trenches, just grinding away, not even sure if you’re making progress. It’s a tough place to be. Makes you appreciate the wins, even the small ones, a whole lot more, I guess.
