Money Makers and Money Counters

I like working as a software consultant. I meet new people from varied domains of knowledge and I get to work with several technologies. I am able to learn new things continually; and boredom is an unfamiliar, unacquainted stranger.

However, there is one aspect of being a consultant that I don't like one bit: accounting for my time and expenses. As a consultant, I'm invariably asked to keep a running total of time and expenses in two (and often more) disparate, unconnected software systems. One is maintained by my employer, the other(s) by my host organization.

Of course, entering data about hours worked and dollars spent in multiple systems as a violation of the DRY principle is antithetical to my professional practices. But even if I had to enter time in only one system, I would find that only slightly less unsavory. And that's the distinction I want to draw in this article.

I like to think of myself as a Money Maker - I like to maximize the business value of people's activities. I strive to inject automation, simplicity, robustness, reliability and other tenets of good design that maximize the value of the tasks people do in their daily professional lives.

I know that other colleagues of mine like to keep track of wealth - I use the term Money Counters for them. They are good at auditing, tallying, arranging, allocating and distributing wealth. I admire them, but I know I am not one of them.

I hasten to add that my classification is neither hierarchical nor a source of pride or denigration. I don't think it's "better" to be a Money Maker or a Money Counter. I do know that most people I'm familiar with vastly prefer one activity to the other for themselves.

I further know that rather than classifying others according to this non-absolute division, it's more important for me to know where my own preferences lie. This allows me to work to my strengths and seek the support of others to overcome my weaknesses.