dmorin's Journal: The B Student Philosophy

I was always a B student in school, despite the usual acing of standard exams that all geeks accomplish. I couldn't stand the straight A kids and would take pleasure in explaining to them a concept that they never really grokked -- if you always succeed, then you're not challenging yourself enough.

Take the analogy of the bathroom scale. Say you weigh 150lb. But your scale only goes up to 100. So when you step on it and it says 100, what does that mean? That 100 is an accurate measure of your weight? Or that this particular device is incapable of measuring what you're trying to measure?

I just thought of this recently as we drive toward our latest project launch. It's late. I'm pissed off. But at the same time I'm thinking, you know what? If we had picked a date and hit that date with time to spare I would have been *more* pissed, because it'd feel like we took the easy road. What I do is not rocket science -- I can definitely concur that space shuttle programmers should NOT follow my philosophy ("Sorry we missed our window, maybe next time") -- so where's the harm in biting off just a bit more than you can chew? Aim high and then adjust your goals as the deadline looms, I say.

OR, is this just the hindsight justification of a B student looking for a reason for missing his deadlines?