I'm always in awe of some of the really great minds I've met in this business. I did a lot of the crazy things I did earlier in life because I was bored. Now I know where the smart kids hang out. I'm perfectly happy to defer to some of the really brilliant programmers I've met in matters technical. I don't get involved in the technical religious wars that breakout here on occassion. < s >

But before computers I spent a lot of time in the real world and like to think I figured a lot of that out - at least on the survival level, so it pleases me when non-technical people can come to me with a problem and I can translate that into a solution - perhaps a computer solution - perhaps just a clarification and redesign of their business process.

Fortunately, they like to give me money if I can do that. I accept that as a sign that their admiration is sincere < s >

Other geeks might dismiss my solving the problem without employing a technically dazzling solution ( which may not have been exactly what the client needed but gave me a chance to do some really cool stuff ! ) but then ... they don't sign the checks.

I always have thought of myself - in a number of my professional incarnations < s > - as a "consultant" and as such I have a Golden Rule - he who gives me the gold gets to make the rules < g >

Since you're reading HHJ you perhaps understand what I mean.

>>I won't be making that mistake in .NET. My clients don't pay me to write frameworks . I need to concentrate on solving business problems, not impressing other geeks. < g >
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>But then it doesn't have the same feel-good value :). In my experience, my best users were programmers. I've always seen myself as a toolmaker... well, ever since I wrote one, which was about a few months after I learned Fox.
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>This type of users gives you the pleasure of the knowable peers using what you wrote. Except that, in my case, they weren't customers. Doesn't pay that much.