Following directions

To simplify it to its most basic components, I get paid to make instructions. Not unlike the graphic notations that come in the flat boxes of IKEA furniture or the organizational components that we buy at Target, I produce documents that enable people to make spaces in which to live and work (or both).

Sometimes these instructions are so nebulous, vague, or lacking in the proper narrative that the process of putting together a "kit of parts" becomes a joyless chore. Why didn't they do this or it would be easier if or buttheads don't know what they're doing are the tamer things that we utter and grumble as the process of assembling lurches forth.

On several levels of increased magnitude, the plans and specs for a building are complex instructions that require vigilant coordination of disparate elements. If we do our job properly, the owner and contractor are only calling us useless hacks some of the time. When things go south, it's no fun, like so many of life's conflicts. Mix in varying levels of people involved in development, construction, design, management, authorities having jurisdiction, and the end users, and we have a veritable chaotic stew. It's actually pretty miraculous that buildings get built, they tend to be safe, and they can be pleasing.

Aside from creating these instructions, we're always solving problems, like little puzzles, in this quest to provide solutions. The current crisis at the office on one of my projects is a disturbing lack of water pressure on a condo project, which is more complex than it sounds. But like so many things we deal with, the complexity is due to the layers of noise added to the process by those who don't always follow instructions too well. It may well be that parts of the instructions are deficient. Whatever. The important thing is that the problem be solved, which ultimately may come down to turning a few valves or clearing out a few obstructions...

More to come when this thing is resolved, because I sense that the energy spent trying to get to a solution will far outweigh the energy not spent in ensuring that it wouldn't be a problem in the first place.