Today was very mixed emotionally

This is a necropost. Originally written in 2017 on a defunct social network and now resurrected. I had been working for GDS for 6 months and was beginning to brush up against the HR bureaucracy.

Today was very mixed emotionally.

I had to do more Line Management Stuff - which I loath. Being trapped in a room with other managers picking over other people, their performance, their ability. I don't want that sort of power over someone else. I sure as hell don't want to spend half my day judging people I've never met and packing them into neat boxes.

I like the guy I manage - but I will feel nothing but relief once he has a permanent manager.

I know I'm a selfish person, but I'm just not interested enough in other people to make a good manager. It needs someone who both cares and has the skills to manage. Neither of these things are part of me and I get incredibly frustrated and upset when I have to apply myself to something I'm no good at (and have no desire to get better at).

And then tonight was just delightful! An evening soirée talking technology with a diverse (ish) bunch of industry experts in the Vogue boardroom⁰. People listened to my expertise, challenged my assumptions, laughed at my jokes, and shared why they were going to take over the world.

Some fine vegetarian food (with bespoke wine pairings) certainly helped - but it was the spirit and creativity of people on the cusp of driving technological and societal change which inspired me.

There is so much good in the world - more than enough to conquer all the misery and hate. But it is mostly untapped potential. While we trap people in the busy-work of filling in forms, harness their labour in repetitive drudgery, waste their minds on vapid schemes to profit from others' naïveté - we can't free them to be the best that they want to be.

Interesting days ahead.