Throwing An Unforgettably-Productive Work Party

Work Party? That's an oxymoron that has somehow turned into standard practice. But who says work can't, or shouldn't be, enjoyable? I think we can all drink to that!

My Favorite Work Party, Ever, Was a Big Mistake

I once hosted a "Work Party." It was terrifying. Scores of the nerdiest, freelance developer/authors on the planet, all in San Francisco to attend one of Apple's WWDC gatherings. This was an after-hours gathering, and few of us had met face-to-face before, so it had to be socially comfortably—AKA: beer, wine, and nerd snacks aplenty.

I had some distinctly work-oriented objectives, and once the conversations got going, there was plenty of talk of our many collaborative projects, current and future. The fact is, iOS and mobile developers are a congenial and basically happy lot. The place was pleasant, the food was good, and most people stuck around through more than a single bottle of suds.

We made lots of new friends, and there were so many substantial ideas discussed, I had to break down and take notes for follow up. In fact, we ate all the food and hung around chatting until we were kicked out. All seemed to have gone successfully. I later learned that all was doomed from the start!

Experiencing Both Sides of The Double-Edged Sword

As it turned out, the corporate culture of my employer was distinctly anti-Work Party. This was not an acceptable way to do business, and for all sorts of non-business-like reasons that went unsaid during the planning process. Seems there were managers who were jealous of our "fun," which I failed to anticipate.

In short, from a productivity point of view, much was accomplished by gathering to party. From a corporate point of view, no good deed goes unpunished. But my lesson is not a negative one. You see, I remain friends and collaborator with many who attended the party and long ago said goodbye forever to the corporation!

Me and Apress; reflections on Two Years

I don't know the exact day I started work for Apress, but it's just about exactly two years ago, late-October, 2007. Apress is still a publisher of tech books and I am still a heavily-bearded fellow, but neither Apress nor I are really the same. Most obviously,we've weathered a major reorganization at Apress—the move from Berkeley to New York, new hierarchy, new personnel, new systems, new workflow. Yet we are finishing a challenging year strongly. I feel very good about this new enterprise that is Apress.

Less obvious, but much more inevitable, I've changed, too. I'm more knowledgeable having learned to make books the Apress way. I'm more responsible; the MacDev and iPhone "line leader," which includes the awe-inspiring title, Assistant Editorial Director. (I still prefer to think of myself as an editor.) I'm more "important," which I put in quotes to indicate that this refers to the books I publish. There are more of them and they sell more copies than the books I acquired during my first year as Apress editor.

Every organization has its own culture and methods. This is a given, a challenge made more difficult by our virtual collegiality, with no two editors in the same city and spread across three continents, and yet made less challenging because all of my editorial colleagues have been generously kind and unselfishly helpful—the spirit of mutual cooperation I've written about before and still value highly. All of this has helped to make me a more confident editor and I hope a better one, as well.

I fear that I'm sounding too much like a marketing campaign for myself, which is not the intent. While there's something unavoidably self-serving about writing a personal blog, my intent is not to celebrate, but to talk about events and give my impressions. In this case, the story is the simple fact that after two years, I'm still happy to be working at Apress. And I observe that Apress and I have changed together over this period, and there's no separating these two facts.

Much of my life today is defined by my work as an Apress editor, it's very much a part of my identity, something I'm proud of. At the same time, after almost a year of Mac and iPhone books on the market, I think Apress has, if not exactly a new identity, at least become more widely known and respected. Perhaps I've become more widely known and respected, as well. Let's hope we both deserve it. Perhaps year three will provide the answer.

Productivity Perceived

I got a lot of work done yesterday, or at least I feel as though I got a lot done. But how does one actually measure productivity? Am I fooling myself and do I have a false sense of having accomplished something when there's really nothing measurable? It's a curious thing, and I suspect has as much to do with feeling content as it does with getting anything substantive completed. So what have I done?

Mostly just answered a lot of emails. In fact, I've even caught up with a bunch of old emails that were waiting impatiently, nagging at the back of my mind for action. I shoveled the driveway three times, though with help. I chopped wood and made coffee. I finished a "handover" document (one of the bains of my existence) so that we can sign a new book for August,p[ and worked with Dave Mark to straighten out some of the confusion over our up and coming iPhone books.

It doesn't sound like much, and it's probably about average for any given day; really all in a day's work. But I finished the day without any bothersome and difficult things that should have gotten done. So I somehow have a feeling of having been productive.

Or perhaps it's that I finished the day and nobody was annoyed at me or felt I had let them down. Actually, I could be wrong about this and everyone is angry and annoyed, but just too polite to say so. I'll probably find out about it today, and that little happy feeling of accomplishment will vanish under the weight of today's realities. Time will tell.