A Thought About Work

I recently had a nice revelation about work and careers in general. It seems to me that the most satisfying and most meaningful work, in my experience, looks to be the jobs that make you and your position invisible when done correctly. In other words, if you did your job to the best of your ability, there should no longer be a need for your being there. This is wonderfully played out in IT where we always aspire to create a system of efficiency, of constant availability, and one of consistency in those qualities. Even though we never quite get there, and therefore are always around for when things break, that’s still the ideal system: one in which we are not needed to support it.

On the flipside of that, jobs in music (most specifically performance) seem to strive for the opposite: a job well done reinforces the requirement of your being there. When you are recognized as an exceptional performer, it becomes desirable for the general public to see you more often than not. I’ve always had a certain aversion to aspects of the music-related career paths for this reason, but only recently identified it.

So why do I do both? I enjoy being needed at times, and out of the way at other times. This is satisfied in both career paths, Networking and Music Production. I enjoy aspects of both. I doubt I’d be completely satisfied doing only one of the two, though I’ve never tried.

Or, maybe I just like having options.