Agony of Defeat

One might say that I did accomplish something, that discovering a path leads to failure is a valuable thing. But I'm not inventing lightbulbs or frying chicken here.

3 Days. That is probably 15-20 hours of solid work-arounds, hacks, code reading, emails and lackluster status reports only to discover, provably, that it cannot be done. I am shamed and ask permission to end my own life.

Problem solving is like climbing a mountain. While you suffer and bleed during the ascent you find a simple solace in the anticipation of the thrill of victory. Lips chapped and clothing in tatters I finally threw an exhausted arm over the final ledge and laboriously heaved my body up. Collapsing on my back I open the one eye that wasn't swelled shut from that fight with a mountain goat and prepare to survey my prize.

Only this time there was no breathtaking vista. No, I was met with an eye-to-eye view of the base camp I left three days earlier. The support guy was making chili on his Coleman stove.

Sisyphus eat your heart out.


(heh...thats actually a really funny double whammy allusion, did you catch it?)