On "Working 40 hours, and mailing it in"

A good friend of mine, who I have a lot of respect for, asked me a rhetorical question on Friday that has bothered me all weekend.  Referring to someone we both know, he asked "What's wrong with working 40 hours a week and just mailing it in?"  The funny thing is that my friend is one of the most passionate and involved guys in technology and technology processes I know.  A family man, who balances his work and life well, nevertheless he does not "just mail it in" when it comes to his career.

Once in my career a few years ago, I was in a "just mail it in" position.  I had a hard time filling 40 hours a week.  I was not challenged.  I was bored. Oh, I had a nice office, was well treated and respected, but not being challenged led me to spend a time finding more interesting things to do - and initiate quiet a few office pranks.  I left for something more challenging, that certainly required more hours - but, and here is the important point: it was a lot more fun!


As a technologist and software developer I have always looked for people in my organization who have a passion and are deeply interested in what they do.  People who write code on the side for fun, are the kind of people I want to work with.  Don't get me wrong, I am a deeply committed family man and have tried hard to spend all the time I could with my children when they were small, and now have a very good relationship with them now that they are college age.  I love spending time with my wife too.  But, my family knows how enthusiastic and interested I am in technology.  I love to build it and use.  I can't imagine having a job and career that I just clocked in for.  That would really blow.

Henry B. Eyring, the son of famed theoretical chemist Henry Eyring tells a story which I can relate to:

'Henry Eyring encouraged his sons to study physics and to prepare for a career in the sciences. Hal dutifully majored in physics at the University of Utah, but one day when he asked his father for help with a complex mathematical problem, it became apparent to Henry that Hal did not share his passion.

“My father was at a blackboard we kept in the basement,” Henry B. Eyring recalls. “Suddenly he stopped. ‘Hal,’ he said, ‘we were working at this same kind of problem a week ago. You don’t seem to understand it any better now than you did then. Haven’t you been working on it?’ ”

Hal said he had not. He then admitted to his father that physics was not something he constantly thought about. His father paused a moment and then, in tender words that released his son to pursue his own professional passion, he said, “You ought to find something that you love so much that when you don’t have to think about anything, that’s what you think about" '  (source)

That is great career advice I share often.  Technology for me is something I think about when I don't have anything else to think about.  It's cool and fun, and that's why I don't just work 40 hours a week and "mail it in".