Fist-pump!

This morning around 11:30 I came out of a meeting with Dan (my new boss) walking on air. Three weeks in, and I just totally earned my keep for the month. And it took me all of maybe 20 minutes. Buffs nails on lapels.

I just spent about 20 minutes (coincidentally) trying to describe what I came up with while remaining vague — partly because I don't think the details would be of much interest to most of you, and partly because my default assumption is that the details would be considered company confidential. (In part because I spent so much of my early career working at law firms, I pretty much always default to assuming that details of my employer's plans and operations are confidential.) But in this case, there really isn't any explaining it without the details. So I'll check with Dan tomorrow on whether I'm just being paranoid, and if not, try to write it up, perhaps over the weekend.

Mean time, the fact of the matter is, I got a big attaboy at work today. Dan was briefing me on the big picture in which the small piece he was asking me to take on is set. About ten minutes in, I basically said "You know, there's this other way we could lay out the big picture, which would obviate entirely the need for anyone to do the particular piece we're discussing, would be a toss-up on these other pieces, and would actually save us some effort on these other two pieces." Halfway through which, Dan stands up at his whiteboard and starts writing down what I'm saying. Ten minutes later, it's layed out on the board, and we're both liking it a lot. At which point I say "We need another engineer's opinion."

Two hours later, it's been run by the rest of our team, the other engineering lead, the VP of Engineering, and the COO. And everybody is like "yeah, flesh out the details, but it sure looks like a good plan.

I guess you could say I'm kind of pleased with myself. :)