Libre, I'm TRULY sorry that you never found something to help you enjoy your work.
Well, let me clarify.
There were things that I clasped on to, to get me through.
The first was mechanical drawing.
That was what appealed to me about the career in the first place.
I always enjoyed drawing - but I don't have much talent in that direction. Also I like complex looking inventions, technical things, etc.
I found that in mechanical drawing, I could do really cool drawings WITHOUT the requisite artistic talent because I was using drawing instruments. I excelled at it right away.
But then it got boring after a few years and a few years after that it became a rarity - computer drafting was taking hold all over. And I did not dig working on CAD systems - it lacked the craftsmanship of a manual drawing. So I grew out of it and became a design supervisor.
In that capacity, I got very excited about a new way of dimensioning - a technology called GD&T.
That is the second thing that got me through.
The acronym stands for Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing. Maybe some of you are familiar with the standard. I recognized its incredible power right off and made myself into a GD&T guru. That held me for a long time as I was working in aerospace/defense and the standard is widely applied in that industry.
But when I changed jobs and migrated to the diamond and jewelry industry my GD&T expertise was no longer relevant.
That's when I really got into Access. I designed the jewelry company's software in Access. Took me a few years but by then I went Access crazy. Any function I could think of, I found a way to do it in Access.
I migrated back to mechanical design after the jewelry company, but it was in window shades instead of missile launchers. No mechanical drawing, very little GD&T, but a lot of time to play with Access. They saw I was good at it and mostly left me alone. That's gotten me to this point.
But you see, I gravitate towards rather esoteric specialties - classical guitar, mechanical drawing, GD&T, Access. I am driven to excel at things that most people have only a nodding acquaintance with, if that.
Without those things I don't know how I would have survived. As it is I dream most of the day away anyhow. Dreaming of retirement, of playing music and golf, not getting up early, not having to be anywhere.
Yes the grass is always greener but as you pointed out, if you never go over the fence you just never know what the grass there is really like. And I don't much like fences anyway.
As to retirement, I'm a few months away from that myself. Unfortunately, in my case there is a health issue that prevents me from knocking on that same bit of wood that you referenced, Libre.
Well, I hope that improves for you, and I should add that my own bit of wood has a few notches in it as well, and in fact a few pretty big chunks missing - but still I feel good (for my age) and I'm not getting out the rocking chair just yet.
Frothingslosh said:
Libre, as long as it's not a scientific discussion, using the colloquial 'theory' is perfectly valid.
We jump folks who use the colloquial in scientific discussions because in a scientific setting, 'theory' has a very different definition.
Now back to reading your post.
Okay then - glad I didn't run afoul of the nerd's code then. Thanks, and read on!