h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Recently at work I missed a deadline, and I didn't hear the whooshing sound as it went by, as I felt it in my stomach.

I felt better after someone reminded me that I only missed my deadline because the person whose information I was waiting for had missed their deadline first so it was unreasonable of me to expect to be able to complete the task in a few hours instead of a few days...

In general, I'm not keen on the whooshing sound. Douglas Adams famously liked it, though, and quite a few of the people I've worked with seem to as well. Do you like the whooshing sound?

Oh, hells no!


This was well drummed into my head by one of my college professors. I majored in photography. One of the classes I took was called "Multi-media presentations". This was a class on how to make proper, multi-projector slide shows (with FILM! ) synced to sound. Our big project was to make a complete "music video" slide show. It was due on the Monday following the Good Friday/Easter weekend. I forgot about the lab being closed early before the weekend and couldn't process my film until that Monday. So, I used the extra time to improve my show. My song of choice was XTC's _Dear God_ so I used the Easter weekend to shoot more shots of Churches and related images. This was a Mon/Wed/Fri class and I turned my project in on Wednesday. I had the best project of the class. My teacher gave me a score of 49 out of 50 minus 20. That was 10 points subtracted per each day I was late, not just each class day. I failed. The professor explained that if this had been a commercial job, it wouldn't matter how well I did the job if it missed a deadline, and this is absolutely true. You miss a deadline as a freelance commercial photographer, they'll never hire you again and your reputation will be destroyed.

I work in a university and unfortunately no matter how much you tell absent-minded that deadlines are deadlines and if they want to teach a course next year they need to complete the paperwork on time, they never ever actually do. And as the university won't survive without courses, their deadline gets pushed back which means that the team that deals directly with that paperwork has their deadline pushed back and I'm in the middle, given a fortnight to do 3 months' work as my deadline doesn't move so as not to affect the Timetabling department and their deadline.

I'd it if everyone else's deadline didn't woosh!

<BB<

I used to endorse the bumper-sticker motto "Lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part."

But then I grew up and learned that most often it absolutely does, especially if "you" are a customer or client.

I don't have to like it.

" The professor explained that if this had been a commercial job, it wouldn't matter how well I did the job if it missed a deadline, and this is absolutely true. You miss a deadline as a freelance commercial photographer, they'll never hire you again and your reputation will be destroyed." [Baorn Grim]

Maybe, maybe not. Consider the context. You were taking a course. The professor was trying to get you up to speed regarding standards. You learned the lesson he was trying to teach you, and it did you a lot of good, without your having to learn the hard way later on when it would have cost you a ton of money instead of a poor grade for one project of many. But context could also include working in film, as this sounds like a film course. How many high-profile movies get delayed because of one snafu or another? Think of scenes being reshot with Christopher Plummer instead of Kevin Spacey in "All the money in the world." And do you really think, deep in your heart, that someone who could score 49 out of 50 for quality would be unemployable forever?

Forgive yourself, Baron. You got a good lesson when it would help you more than hurt you. And, yes, I would kick myself if I ever missed a deadline, which I rarely do.

No, I got it. I consider that the best lesson I learned in school, ever.

While we did have some crossover with film making, this class was specifically for the kind of high quality slide show you never see anymore, with multiple Kodak Carousel slide projectors, using multiple screens and full sound. It's a lost art, like buggy whip crafting.


And I've worked in the film industry as well. And I can absolutely, guarantee you that unless you are at the very top of your field, you will not get rehired in film if you miss a deadline (unless you can claim Force Majeure). The project will go on... without you.




I wonder how much a 51 year old Production Assistant can make these days?

Okay, I understand that when Judy garland couldn't film "Annie get your gun, Betty Hutton was hired in her place. When Meryl Streep couldn't do "Evita," Madonna stepped in. But Judy and Meryl did other projects after that. And some non-A-list actors were dropped for a while but eventually got jobs. Maybe not the jobs they wished they could get, but they didn't go hungry.

Things settle to their proper levels eventually. All I was trying to say (badly, I'm sure) was that your batting average should entitle you to strike out occasionally.

Yeah,... I wasn't talking about talent. I was talking more about crew. I did some production assistant work (gopher) in the early 90s. PAs are disposable. You've got to be pretty far up the credits before a film or even a commercial production will work around you.




Of course, there's also the old adage, "There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over."

I always worked under the principal of done right and done early. So then if you saw room for improvements, you might have time to apply them.

Douglas Adams liked deadlines, and the whooshing noise they made as they went by, because of his massive privilege that meant he didn't *have* to care about them.

If he'd been educated at a bog-standard state school and some provincial poly and had to do a proper job his attitude to deadlines might have been different. As it is, anyone hoping to send their son to the same school he went to had better have spare cash exceeding my wife's annual salary BEFORE tax (my wife is a nurse). Anyone that minted naturally doesn't give a stuff what other people expect of them.

" done right and done early. So then if you saw room for improvements, you might have time to apply them" [Rev Nick]

We are on the same page, Nick, along with Baron Grim. My reason for wanting to get things in on time is so that I can enjoy some peace of mind. I'm pretty time-oriented, probably a result of gardening and landscape work. The seasons of the year unfold at a deliberate pace. You need to get your seeds in the ground at the right time.

That is a good point about privilege, and it manifests in different ways...

My education did give me a good grounding in the importance of meeting deadlines (although not quite as strong a lesson as Baron Grim received), even though it was closer to Douglas's than otherwise. I am also privileged to have a 'proper job' in which deadlines are not actually matters of life and death, so it doesn't matter that much if there are circumstances out of my control... Even so, one time when it turned out that the project manager of the product I was working on had missed a deadline and been privileged enough to be granted a holiday before being held to account, I couldn't not do my utmost to try to fix the problem for the people who were waiting for the product... I was rather proud of meeting that deadline, given that I did 3 days' work in 3 hours, and the customers and the project manager's senior colleagues were grateful...

Yes, I like to include contingency time if possible, so either further improvements can be made based on initial feedback, or there is flexibility in case of problems...

There was another aspect of the most of my work over 37 years . . . I would never know, during my morning coffee at home, what I would face that day. No two days or challenges were ever alike. So the sooner and well done with one - something intriguing is ready to be met. And it was the constant variability of my work that had me enjoy it more well over 95% of those years.

I rarely hear a whooshing sound.

It's more like a Serengeti full of galloping wildebeest.

PP.

No gnus is good gnus.