THE Lowly Peon

Stress-Free Problem Solving? 
15 January 2010, 7:04am

One thing that seems to be common among many of us Avalantern folk, especially the computer- or math-driven minds, is that we like solving problems. Arguably, that is the one goal for any software design, or, for artist designer folk like saulemander, that is ultimately why we design new products.

I'm no different. I love solving problems. I love when something is broken, and, using a set of rules (logic, conditions, if A then B, etc), analyzing the best way to resolve the issue.

Yesterday at work, I received an urgent call that needed to be addressed right away. I was in Hong Kong, busy with local problems that were mindless but time consuming. The problem required complete focus, some good SQL coding, and great care, knowing that a small mistake could make things much, much, worse.

Because it was so urgent, my boss stayed on the phone with me while I analyzed and coded. Needless to say, I was under a bit of pressure.

After a bit of time, I had the query written, but I kept receiving an error. The error made sense to me – I knew what was causing it – but I couldn't figure out a good way to get around it. My experience with SQL (first of all, MySQL, the open source database, is far more advanced than Microsoft SQL 2000, which is what our company is running on) has always gone hand in hand with PHP or Java, so scripting was always very logical. We don't have those tools here, so it needs to be done in one slick query.

I had to finish up my work in HK, as my flight was soon departing. I thought about it a bit more on the plane, and a bit after I got home. When I came back to work, I tried my new ideas, and got the same problem. Back to the drawing board. I decided to start from scratch. By that time, I was receiving emails from several people expressing the urgency of the issue. Again, pressure.

And at last, I solved it. It was beautiful, and such a release. I've felt great ever since. It actually makes me enjoy my job. Despite the stress, anguish, and pressure I felt.

So I've been thinking: if I could somehow find a way to not be stressed out in those situations (which I must), would the warm tingly feeling mean less? If I weren't running around like a chicken with his head cut off, would I really care that much when I finally got it?