10am and on. That moment of relief if, just minutes before dialing in again, a close look reveals a communication strategy that might even work out and leave crucial work on someone elses table. Dimming window blinds, having some of the chocolate from the kitchen, moving on cautiously, as if any new insight might break to pieces at the slightest shake.
9am and on. Between rocks and hard places. Unsure what's more challenging - steering around pitfalls of communication or pitfalls of technology: The need to solve issues while interacting with others or the need to solve issues by tinkering with machines and where presence (or absence) of a working solution is obvious and visible. At least, trying both at the same time gives a somewhat viable base level for comparing both.
4pm, stop-motion. Crows screeching in grey skies. Wire sounds in headphones, waiting for the other end to connect. Street's echoing with laughter of pupils returning home, a loud car horn in between, alarming, briefly ignored. (Late coffee, again. Browsing notes, sorting phrases, trying to imagine a flow of conversation even knowing things will most likely move completely elsewhere. But at least it's worth a try.)
9am and on. Liquid days. Watching new urgent tasks appear while others submerge in the flood of hours and noise. Navigating unknown oceans again, probably enticed by metaphors that feel much more grave and meaningful than the reality they try to describe. (And another coffee for that. Keeping focus up artificially, for as long as it is needed. First box ticked today.)
Irgendwoanders, später. Sehr zögernd voran, Füße im hohen Gras ungeplanter Wege, und weiter. Über dem Block hängen weiße Wolken, dazwischen versucht eine matte Sonne, mit ihrer ganzen Kraft die Elstern auf dem Giebel zu blenden. Reaktionen indes bleiben aus. Tief in den Kopfhörern diskutieren Experten miteinander, finden immer noch keinen gemeinsamen Nenner in kritischen Fragen. Aber die Antworten fehlen schon seit Monaten, insofern lässt der Fortgang jegliche Überraschung vermissen, und die Konzentration wird immer dünner. Unten am Rande der Straße stehen Kisten und junge Menschen in Arbeitskleidung. Ein Möbelwagen rangiert in knapper Parklücke. An den Kneipentischen sitzen Bauarbeiter in der Mittagspause und beobachten das Treiben mäßig interessiert. Gerade halb durch eine Woche, die sich fragmentiert und uneben anfühlt.
Close to 8am. Cleaning what's left of yesterdays day off. Or: Expect issues in distributed projects where others keep working while you're away. The joy of reviewing conflicting changes, the joy of figuring out which problem can remain unsolved to fix everything else. Maybe first-come-first-served is a valid strategy at this point, at least while intending to stay sane.
3pm and on. Switching tasks switching languages ending up with the wrong alphabet cursing and trying to get back to start. (There's quite some strong language in things today.) The model is of no help for the moment, so conversation is cut at this point and problem solving falls back to old-fashioned means of help, such as reading documentation and looking at source code. Coffee stains on the desk, and a silhouette of a big black bird circling the crossroads just outside the window. A grey state in proceeding afternoons.
Closing in on 11am. Trying to get more quiet inside to compensate for the noise outside, literally everywhere. The office below is discussing strategy and outcome - speech volume and vocabulary used suggest a surprisingly negative experience, and one wonders at which point voices should be kept down a bit to not disclose business secrets to too many third parties. (The model has no idea about possible legal implications. But some things can't be unheard.)