Thursday, 28 August 2008

The Devil's in the Detail

Despite a very late night and a correspondingly early morning, populating my new data structures for the demonstration today, I have felt surprisingly switched-on. When I have to be on the ball I always seem able to get it together, no matter how tired I feel or little sleep I've had. I was sorting out a new bit of code right up to the moment our visitors arrived, finally getting it working at the very last minute. It seems like such a familiar scenario. It's stressful, but I do love the buzz!

Today was always going to be a rest day so I was reasonably thankful that the drab weather was continuing. We worked right through to the end of the afternoon, trying to understand the details of how the Dutch handle the various aspects of communicable disease control. Although we had received all the information on paper, it's amazing just how much more vital information emerges when you start discussing things around the table. The devil is always in the detail. And I think I can be a little big-headed here and suggest that my success at what I do is down to attention to detail. It's a matter of not settling for something that will simply work, but always trying to do the very best job that you can. If I can see a better way of implementing a certain function, then I cannot rest until I've improved the design, regardless of how many hours of previous work that I have to discard in the process.

Finished the day in Leeds by taking our visitors out for a drink and a meal, and I had such a good time that I stayed later than intended and came back on the very last train. I only spent a few minutes catching up with the guys (not having seen them all day) before I had no choice but to collapse into bed.

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