Dave's Blog

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 8:15:30 PM

Haste makes waste, and patience is rewarded.  

I was reminded of this once again recently as I picked up a 
morning coffee at Starbucks.  There are always a lot of people at 
this particular store, but the line moves quickly.  On this 
morning I had ordered "a grande nonfat latte for David," and was 
waiting for the six orders before me to go by.  Another man came 
in, acting nervous and anxious, and he crowded the pick-up 
counter.  As I watched my order come up, he grabbed it and dashed 
out the door!  My first reaction was that someone had just stolen 
my coffee.  But I gave it a little more thought, because he had 
been there for a couple of orders, and seemed very certain when 
he picked up the order for "David."  Perhaps his name was also 
David, so I waited to see if another one would come up in a few 
turns.  Sure enough, "David" was called again a few drinks later.  
I took the coffee and headed for the office, wondering whether it 
would actually be a grande nonfat latte.  I took a sip and 
discovered ... a grande nonfat gingerbread latte!  I'm sure the 
other David was disappointed, but I was pleased!  

I reflected on the fact that my patience had rewarded me with an 
even more flavorful latte than the one I had ordered, and how the 
other David had, in his haste, walked away with less than he had 
ordered.  How similar that was to software design in the business 
world!  Many of my contracts in the past seemed to devolve into 
me going around after other contractors and cleaning up their 
work.  A lesser-paid contractor or employee would do a job 
hastily, and the management would enjoy the delivery of less than 
they had ordered.  I, a higher-paid contractor, would then be 
asked to set the task aright, to finish the other persons' jobs.  
It was an improvement from the feeling of being a temporary 
general helper, but it did take me a while to get used to the 
role of the clean-up man.  

I was rewarded for my comfort in the role, as a recent contract 
was exclusively that of clean-up man.  All manner of permanent 
employees and contractors, architects and programmers, had 
delivered a commercial product that did well as a prototype, but 
did not do quite as well under the strain of commercial use.  My 
role was to follow up and tidy up the system.  Of course, this 
was as a technical consultant, with a very nice billing rate, and 
as a resident hero for the business.  Their haste created their 
waste, and my patience rewarded me.  

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