August 13, 2010

RERO or REDRUM?

Now that I'm familiar with the lingo, I'm all for RERO.
RERO stands for "Release Early; Release Often." But this whole RERO idea is starting to make me crazy with anticipation. Mad with anxiety. Wild with desire...for perfection. RERO is starting to remind me of REDRUM because it's beginning to feel a bit like MURDER.

When playing this internet game, you can't afford to wait for perfection to occur. Instead, you crank out lots of ideas, implement a few, hope for the best, then start all over again.

It's exhilerating. It's exhausting.

It's amazing how fast this game is. I can't catch my breath for even a second before POOF...it's time to change direction again. You know the things you need to stay on top of, but there's never enough hours in the day. For example, you know you need to monitor the competition, but who has time? You're tired, so you settle for just trying to stay in the game. Forget about getting ahead of the pack!

At some level, you sense the competition is just as exhausted, overwhelmed and blurry-eyed as you. You sense that those "Jacks-of-all-trades" are saying REDRUM too.

This panic-driven, always looking over your shoulder, lifestyle is unsustainable.

I feel comforted when reminded of the story of the tortoise and the hare. Can the tortoise win at this game....really? I don't think so. But I do think there's a happy medium, a mixed breed of sorts.

A "Hare-y Turtle," if you will.

I'm envisioning a rabbit with a tortoise shell on it's back, hopping awkwardly along, side-stepping dangerous land mines to avoid blow ups, and periodically leaping towards the elusive finish line. You not only need speed in this internet competition. You need protection from all those dangerous, flying ideas that take you off track and jeopardize the race.

Actually, can it really be a race if the finish line doesn't exist? I'm not sure. But I do know that whether I win or lose, I tried.

I entered the race. So in all reality, I win.

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