I'm a one hell of a good employee. Much better than I ever realized.

There are people in the world who can make 40% of a man-year's worth of work take an entire year, just through mindless foot-dragging and selective memory. They are not in short supply in Princeton.

I on the other hand make my man-year's worth of work take 70% to 80% of the time, and I spend the savings on learning new technologies, browsing the web, and yes, maintaining this site. But even maintaining this site serves as a test bed for new technologies and design ideas.

Some people do put in 150%, especially in careers like law and medicine, but I don't want to be one of those people. I simply give a wee bit more than all that is needed and reasonable to expect from one person, with the added benefit of being someone who can and will learn anything you ask me to learn.

That's my number one asset, really—I am a can do person.

My lesson from the past two weeks is that the corporate world is mostly populated with "can't do" people. They will invoke almost anything to find a way to avoid having to take a risk, jump in with both feet, and learn something new.

This is the biggest problem with most companies today—they don'rt reward risk-taking, and that stifles creativity. I don't entirely blame the individual employee, because if taking a risk means the potential to lose your livelihood, what are you going to do?

It makes me appreciate the level of freedom and risk-taking in our IT department even at my current company, which is in most respects mind-numbingly staid and conservative. And it makes me appreciate that even if I am not the sort of person who sells his soul to the company and works 60-hour work weeks, I am a damn fine employee, because I get things done.

I don't whine about the glass being half empty, I bloody well fill it up.

As Kevin Spacey put it in American Beauty, "I rule!"