Rant on editing
Mar. 24th, 2006 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebIf I am writing something, but I am not the expert, and then I give it to the expert to edit, here's what I don't want to happen:
* never clarify anything
* never add information
* ignore every single one of my questions
* ask me questions, which I clearly don't know the answer to or I would have included that information
* point out the same formatting problem every time it occurs, even though you know I am using CSS, you are more of an expert at CSS than I am, you have read my CSS code, and you therefore definitely know that I only have to fix this in one place.
* delete things in such a way that what is left no longer flows or perhaps even stops making any sense
* keep telling me to add links that are already there but which you can't see because you are looking at the printout even though the online version is available for you to look at
When this happens, I no longer feel like I am on a team, where more than one person is contributing. Instead I feel a little bit too much like I am in front of a firing squad. Or, at least, that the thing I am trying to write is in front of the firing squad.
And then I start to think that if this expert doesn't care how crappy this thing turns out, why should I care? I start thinking that probably no one is going to read this anyway, so why am I beating myself up about it?
And then I recalculate how long it is until I get to retire. Eight years, nine months, and three weeks. Too long.
And then I look at the current job openings. No good. No jobs from the Distance Learning Center or DIIA, or anything else I could get and stand to do that didn't lead to a 30% pay cut.
And then I write a journal entry. And then I calculate how long it is until lunchtime. And I really, really wish I could finish the book I'm reading instead of work on this writing. But then finally I go back to rewriting.
* never clarify anything
* never add information
* ignore every single one of my questions
* ask me questions, which I clearly don't know the answer to or I would have included that information
* point out the same formatting problem every time it occurs, even though you know I am using CSS, you are more of an expert at CSS than I am, you have read my CSS code, and you therefore definitely know that I only have to fix this in one place.
* delete things in such a way that what is left no longer flows or perhaps even stops making any sense
* keep telling me to add links that are already there but which you can't see because you are looking at the printout even though the online version is available for you to look at
When this happens, I no longer feel like I am on a team, where more than one person is contributing. Instead I feel a little bit too much like I am in front of a firing squad. Or, at least, that the thing I am trying to write is in front of the firing squad.
And then I start to think that if this expert doesn't care how crappy this thing turns out, why should I care? I start thinking that probably no one is going to read this anyway, so why am I beating myself up about it?
And then I recalculate how long it is until I get to retire. Eight years, nine months, and three weeks. Too long.
And then I look at the current job openings. No good. No jobs from the Distance Learning Center or DIIA, or anything else I could get and stand to do that didn't lead to a 30% pay cut.
And then I write a journal entry. And then I calculate how long it is until lunchtime. And I really, really wish I could finish the book I'm reading instead of work on this writing. But then finally I go back to rewriting.