Unused Work Does Not Have To Be Discouraging

Soon after being hired my boss told the story of a project he worked on for a significant amount of time; like months. It never saw the light of day. Subconsciously I think I denied that would ever happen to me, at least not for any major work. Four years later I had not yet encountered such hardship. Yet soon enough that all changed.

Worse than seeing my work tossed, I had to make the call to discard a coworker’s serious effort. After a long delay a key component of the work had been lost. So instead I had to redo the entire project from scratch. Ironically enough my effort turned out to be doomed as well.

At the very end of the rewrite, with only one feature left, I discovered the platform vendor’s latest development kit lacked any encryption libraries. (Finding out so late was a rookie mistake on my part.) When they finally produced a suitable kit the platform had changed so much I couldn’t port my rewrite in a timely manner. So with much chagrin I rewrote it again with the suitable kit and all was well–except for my ego.

Despite wasted time and resources one can typically find something good whenever work goes unused. Over the years I’ve been reminded of a few:

  • It is a learning opportunity
  • Helps avoid getting overly attached
  • New ideas often accompany do overs
  • Practice
  • Redos are a chance to develop grit

Of course these rarely add up to match the lost time or money. But if the learning opportunities are maximized it can save a lot more in the future.

It can be especially frustrating for those of us who are technical to accept non-technical reasons for work to be mothballed. For us “business reasons” can feel so abstract and intangible. It’s almost as if it’s arbitrary and frivolous. Still, businesses exist to produce a profit, and even organizations have to make trade-offs when their resources are limited.

Until time travel is sorted out, forecasting client needs or project requirements will almost certainly remain an inexact science. While we wait for our future overlords to return let’s take solace by remembering the good that can be salvaged from the ashes of our abandoned work.

You Can Raise Any Price Except ‘Free’

When prices go up existing customers feel like they got in at the right time. Prospective customers who missed the sale may feel left out, unless there is a hope for sale in the future or price increases are consistent. But there is one price that seems to have more inertia than any other: free.

A while back on This Week In Enterprise Tech one of the hosts made the point that permanently lowering a price is challenging because of the potential for resentment. After all, no customer wants to find out what they just paid good money which they could have saved. Yet they also mentioned that raising the price is typically not a problem. As a consumer I’d say this is true.

Products improvements and inflation have conditioned me to expect most of the products or services I enjoy to increase in price: appliances, movie tickets, food, and so on. (Preferably this is gradual or otherwise feels justified.) So why is it that seeing a product go from free to paid often involves a backlash? Examples include LogMeIn, ZenDesk, and more recently Steam mods. My guess is the mental gap between free and even one dollar is larger than from one dollar to five.

Initially my preference for free products was driven by the desire to save money. Though over time I became fixated on the other benefits as well:

  • Easier sharing with friends and family
  • Feeling secure that I won’t forfeit the purchase when changing platforms
  • Simpler experimentation without having to go back and pay for what works best (such as for evaluation-only trials)

Of course nothing is truly free of cost. This was often clear in the quality of free offerings compared to paid ones. Microsoft Paint was included with Windows for free while PaintShop Pro was a paid product. Ultimately I got more use out of PSP. Doom modding tools were free, still I found myself far more productive with the non-free Klik & Play; albeit making simpler projects.

Even in mobile gaming where ‘free’ now dominates, typically with quality included, the shifting and hiding of costs is increasingly distasteful to me. Producers are tempted to not only make things enjoyable but rather tease players into paying ever more. Sometimes it manifests as pay-to-progress or pay-to-win. And while ‘shareware’ and trial editions have a similar model they are often explicit, one-time payments. Producers are less likely to string players along.

Now that I’m older and more patient paying for quality products and waiting for sales appeals a lot more to me than in past. Being a producer has also changed my perspective on what ‘free’ really means. Yet there’s still that twinge of discomfort when the ‘buy’ button is in the way. Perhaps it’s the feeling of lost opportunity since I could spend the money on something else. But once I’ve paid the bills and saved enough for long-term goals there’s very little reason to hold back. After all, I can’t take it with me.