Amen. When I think, "I love my job", I'm generally thinking about the "easy" part, where the tools are all under my control and well known, and I just have to build something with them using my knowledge of algorithms and architecture.
However, the reality tends more often to be:
- Frantic Googling trying to figure out the magic code to pass to a black box 3rd party component that will prompt it to spit out exactly what I need
- Banging 3rd party components together to see what happens to be compatible
- Trying to figure out how to work around the limitations of an API without being too inefficient or complex
- Spending 4 times longer on conference calls discussing a problem than actually fixing it
However, the reality tends more often to be: - Frantic Googling trying to figure out the magic code to pass to a black box 3rd party component that will prompt it to spit out exactly what I need - Banging 3rd party components together to see what happens to be compatible - Trying to figure out how to work around the limitations of an API without being too inefficient or complex - Spending 4 times longer on conference calls discussing a problem than actually fixing it