Re: Playing (was Re: peer review ??)

[Bonni Graham <bonnig -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Rebecca wrote:

>I always thought that when I was a grown up I'd be able to give up
>playing and do some work!

GIVE UP PLAYING!?!?!?!?!?!?!  Go wash your mouth out. <g>

Seriously (well...), I've found that playing is the only way to get good
cooperation of our clients.  A sense of humor functions like a surfboard (or
life raft, if you need a less SoCal-oriented analogy) to give you a smooth ride
over the gnarly waves of customer (or coworker) relations.  You can go
overboard (see, it's an extended analogy) of course, but it almost never hurts.

Bonni's Axiom:  If they're laughing, they're on your side.

My assistant says he loves working with me (even though I can't afford to pay a
whole lot yet) because he gets the side benefit of a comedy show every day. We
have informal pun contests (which has the added benefit of increasing our
facility with language), and I also occasionally wear Mickey Mouse ears to
signal that I can't be disturbed right now.  When I worked with Sue Gallagher,
our office was often the focal point for engineers to gather because it was FUN
in there (and WE ended up getting a lot of good technical information without
having to struggle, didn't we, Sue?).

To paraphrase Martha Graham (I think):

"If I can't laugh, it's not my revolution!"

Bonni Graham
Manual Labour