By no means an orchid fanatic, it does please me when they rebloom, and only then will I show them here
New Photos
Joan Westenberg’s recent article has been getting a lot of interest from people who like and make software. My reaction was different.
“Scale Poisons Everything It Touches” is definitely true of some of the projects I have had to work on, in agricultural development, although for those in charge it was the poison that kept their hopes and dreams alive despite all evidence to the contrary. Those days are past, I’m happy to report.
These days, I offer a small gift to selected friends most weeks: I bake them a loaf of bread. They pay, which beyond validation means I can keep buying flour and energy. But I have to keep reminding myself that despite the monetisation, it remains a gift, and mine to give or not. If I’m away for a week, or need to change the schedule, that’s OK.
A few years ago the list of friends grew a little too large and I was spending an entire day baking in my small domestic oven. I looked longingly at a couple of proper, purpose-built bread ovens, worked out where they might fit in the small kitchen, how long it would take me to repay the cost out of bread profits. In the end I realised in time that buying the oven would turn a fun hobby into a chore, a job I didn’t want to be doing, just as Joan predicts. Instead, I trimmed the list and worked out a way to double the number of loaves I could bake. Problem solved, and the work remains fun.
Westenberg has this to say about burnout:
It happens when something that started as a gift, something built for fun or out of real care, gets conscripted into an economy of obligation and expectation.
That’s exactly how I manage to keep baking bread for friends. It is fun and a gift, with no expectations, not an obligation.
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