{"id":57569,"date":"2022-09-05T14:59:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T06:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/version-2.com\/?p=57569"},"modified":"2022-09-29T17:41:09","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T09:41:09","slug":"new-day-new-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/version-2.com\/en\/2022\/09\/new-day-new-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"New Day, New Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This morning, like many before it, I woke up and thought, \u201cToday is the day I come up with some\u00a0 magical blog post idea that changes someone\u2019s world!\u201d I showered, threw on my Global Panini attire and a pair of Uggs slippers, cooked up an omelet, and made a pourover (my new obsession).<\/p>

I plodded downstairs to the office and fired up the computer. I opened a new document, raised my hands to the keyboard and \u2014 nothing. Complete brain freeze.\u00a0<\/p>

It\u2019s hard to be amazing week after week. I know you feel this too. You have IT projects that are stacked up. Your boss is on you week after week to make their world more secure without adding friction for the users. Or your MSP is feeling stagnant and you need to come up with some new services to offer \u2014 or figure out how to offer your current services in a different way.<\/p>

The week over week of having to be \u201con\u201d all the time\u2026it diminishes your ability to be creative after a while. Problem-solving becomes what keeps you from getting out of bed each morning instead of driving you to be 1% better every day. I get that. I hear you loud and clear.<\/p>

The Block is Real<\/h2>

This creativity block thing is real. Very real. And if you were just doing IT for the fun of it \u2014 creating a playspace for yourself \u2014 you wouldn\u2019t have to worry. But, folks, this IT thing is what you get paid to do. You can\u2019t just say, \u201ctoo bad, so sad\u201d and head off to the zoo<\/a>, y\u2019know?\u00a0<\/p>

Over here in the MacAdmins<\/a> community, we have a great Slack instance where people are doing amazing things and being really creative. You go there, looking for something \u2013 a solution, some inspiration, a new job \u2013 but you\u2019re still left uninspired. And you wonder why. Could be burnout. Could be general tiredness<\/a>. Could be something else \u2013 let\u2019s explore.<\/p>

Brainstorming<\/h2>

At a recent standup (yes I now speak the language Agiletongue) I asked for a lift from my brilliant and creative teammates. Ideas, people, I needed ideas! It didn\u2019t matter how outrageous they were. In fact, the more outrageous, the better. Anything is a springboard. As we\u2019ve talked about previously, brainstorming<\/a> requires a plethora of input and little to no judgment.\u00a0<\/p>

And as a response to my request I got\u2026.nuthin. No ideas. Not a one. I wonder if it\u2019s just the heat of this unbelievably hot summer cooking our brains or if people are just plumb wore out from current events. No clue, but nobody had any ideas for me.\u00a0<\/p>

The next day, though, someone pinged me with an idea. \u201cWhat about recipes?\u201d they\u00a0 said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be fun,\u201d they said.<\/p>

I work for a tech company. Our product does (amongst other incredible things) device<\/a> and identity management<\/a>. IT stack centralization<\/a>. MDM<\/a> and security management. Automation. With my IT background, I hear the word \u201crecipe\u201d my brain goes to GitHub and shell scripts and munki<\/a> and other IT management types of things. But, alas, that is not what they meant.<\/p>

They meant real recipes. Food recipes. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I like food. It\u2019s an important part of my day to day life. But, hmmm\u2026was this a weird ploy to turn this into a happy homemaker column? I was both confused and a little offended but I stuck with the discussion knowing that I\u2019d find out if I just let them talk.\u00a0<\/p>

How Does That Fit Into Tech?<\/h2>

Little by little the discussion started to make sense.\u00a0<\/p>

Us admins are under a lot of pressure to be perfect all the time. For many (if not all) of us, one mistake can cost our companies their reputation (not to mention financial and productivity loss). In some cases, if a mistake is big enough, it could cost our jobs or our client. So if you weren\u2019t feeling stressed before you started reading this, you probably are now. Sorry!<\/p>

One way to get past the stress is to get up from your chair, step away from your desk, and get active doing something that is not related to tech (if stepping away won\u2019t get you in trouble, that is).<\/p>

Thinking about other things is a great way to open channels that allow you to come up with solutions. We\u2019ve all experienced this \u2014 our best ideas come in the middle of the night; or the middle of a shower<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>

Points to anyone who, by now, has accurately predicted where this is going.<\/p>

A Story and a Treat<\/h2>
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Mom baked every item on this table.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Growing up in my house meant that there was a plethora of home-baked goods. I don\u2019t mean, a few store-bought cookies. I mean my mother baked<\/em>. Daily. And there were always people over who didn\u2019t live in this house.<\/p>

The counter always had a few different kinds of cookies, a cake, maybe brownies, and on special occasions there were eclairs in the fridge. There were always bowls and beaters waiting to be licked clean and getting to the frosting bowl first meant you had to hide behind a locked door, lest someone steal it right out of your hands.<\/p>

But one particular tradition we had was that on our birthday we got to choose our favorite dinner and our favorite cake. Mom wasn\u2019t the best cook (I won\u2019t say food was overcooked and dry and we\u2019re probably lucky we didn\u2019t all get food poisoning regularly, but\u2026oh, I guess I will say it), but she could definitely bake.<\/p>

So my choice was always spaghetti with meatballs (safe and really hard to mess up) and mom\u2019s chocolate banana layer cake. I used to call it my migraine cake because every time I\u2019d eat it I would end up with a migraine. Also, it was worth it every single time. I don\u2019t do that anymore because now I know that my post-cake morbidity was due to celiac \u2014 but I can still taste it in my memory.<\/p>

Here It Is<\/h2>

And, so, it is with a full heart and a now-hungry tummy that I gift you this recipe. Posting it here serves two purposes:\u00a0<\/p>