Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Sometimes it is worth the effort to make the output “look good.” Sometimes this pretty printing is a waste and only aggravates those involved.

This past week at work I spent hours and hours pretty printing. We had “done the work” and were trying to make a printout of the work for others. Of course, if others couldn’t read the printout, it was worthless. Let’s just adjust this and that a little bit and it will all be okay. Right?

Hours and hours spent. The result was a prettier printout. Was it worth it? Well, I am sure it was worth it to someone. To me? I am still debating with myself as all that effort to make things 1.23% better was aggravating. I would rather not do it. I mean, my work product was good and its worth was obvious to anyone who cared to strain their neck to see it and…

Sigh. No, the pretty printing was worth the effort. I just didn’t want to do it. Surely we had someone around who could do that for me? Nope. It was my job. I know it was my job. I still didn’t like it. Sometimes that is what you do, you pretty print and you move on to the next task.