Most days I am like a finely balanced pendulum – apparently serenely calm and in total command. In actuality, I am really conforming to the laws of nature as Le Chatelier and Newton defined them many years ago – once a constraint is applied to my system, it reacts in an equal and opposite manner, in order to resume equilibrium. So every day is a mixture of highs and lows, dramas and soap operas, good and bad – and I wonder whether this is so different from any other IT director’s working day.
Of course, no one else shares the lows – that gutwrenching moment when the screen goes permanently blank as you open an application. Or that moment of terrifying intellectual suspension as you mentally flail around, looking for something sensible to do other than just panic. No one else shares that, although every IT director understands it.
