> The work that you do will be great work if you have a reason for doing it other than "I want to do something great."
I've always had an issue with the word "great". Who defines greatness? How will I know that I've achieved greatness in whatever work I'm doing at any particular time.
For work, I know when my work is great because co-workers and managers praise it: "nice fix", "some really good insights here", etc.
Beyond work - there's a whole bunch of egos and social politics that get tangled into the whole "what is great" thing:
- "Great poem"? Depends entirely on who is on the competition judging panel or what mood the magazine editor is in when they read your submission.
- "Great novel"? You've got to get it published first before the reviewers can cast their judgments, and to get it published you need to convince people that this is a great novel for the specific reason that it will make them some money when they publish it.
- "Great JS library"? People need to know it exists - and then how do you measure its greatness? In my view great DevEx and minimal issues raised in GitHub are just as important (if not more important) than the elegance and speed of the code itself.
Nowadays I judge the greatness of my varied passion projects by how well they please me. I am a harsh judge of myself: the days when I manage to draft a poem that leaves me stunned with wonder when I review it a few weeks later (for all poems should be left to ferment for a few weeks before review) is how I measure greatness. It's a rare occurence, but wondrous when it happens!
> For work, I know when my work is great because co-workers and managers praise it: "nice fix", "some really good insights here", etc.
They only said nice and good though not great. I would say if your CEO came down and said that's awesome, then it's great work. (for you)
As for me, I don't think too much about word semantics. No advice can be given or taken if you take each word apart. We will just keep arguing about details and miss the point.
It depends how much you value/respect your co-workers. In a high level team “good insight” can mean “great work”. I am not saying you disagree with this, but you may have made assumptions about the parent’s team and his relation to it. Conversely, a “great work” from a CEO can mean nothing to a person
I've always had an issue with the word "great". Who defines greatness? How will I know that I've achieved greatness in whatever work I'm doing at any particular time.
For work, I know when my work is great because co-workers and managers praise it: "nice fix", "some really good insights here", etc.
Beyond work - there's a whole bunch of egos and social politics that get tangled into the whole "what is great" thing:
- "Great poem"? Depends entirely on who is on the competition judging panel or what mood the magazine editor is in when they read your submission.
- "Great novel"? You've got to get it published first before the reviewers can cast their judgments, and to get it published you need to convince people that this is a great novel for the specific reason that it will make them some money when they publish it.
- "Great JS library"? People need to know it exists - and then how do you measure its greatness? In my view great DevEx and minimal issues raised in GitHub are just as important (if not more important) than the elegance and speed of the code itself.
Nowadays I judge the greatness of my varied passion projects by how well they please me. I am a harsh judge of myself: the days when I manage to draft a poem that leaves me stunned with wonder when I review it a few weeks later (for all poems should be left to ferment for a few weeks before review) is how I measure greatness. It's a rare occurence, but wondrous when it happens!