Stream: social
Topic: the "partner explanation" phrase
Jens Villadsen (Dec 11 2021 at 10:22):
Having talked to quite a few people in this great community, I still haven't found a proper way to explain to my wife why and what it is that I'm doing when I sometimes stay up late to do eg. some FHIR tooling for the community or read through some of the threads here to stay updated. Not all my activity is sponsered by my employer (most definetly is) so I can't say its always work - but its work related. I wonder if anyone else struggles with comming up with a proper explanation besides 'its just because it interests me and I wan't to do good' :joy: - my wife just don't understand that can be the reason
Oliver Egger (Dec 11 2021 at 11:10):
my wife complains sometimes that I work too much, so I'm trying to explain that the fhir stuff is a hobby but not work ... but the argument is not holding up too well :-) my advantage is that late in the night my family is asleep :-)
Rik Smithies (Dec 11 2021 at 11:23):
Is the task to explain why the work is enjoyable, or is important? Or why either of those are apparently more important than what you should prefer to be doing with them? ;-)
Jens Villadsen (Dec 11 2021 at 12:31):
@Rik Smithies All of them :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:
Jens Villadsen (Dec 11 2021 at 12:35):
@Grahame Grieve is there an IG that can help me on this topic?
Jose Costa Teixeira (Dec 11 2021 at 12:43):
I think I follow @Oliver Egger's approach - while the family is sleeping I do get some time to do some hobby
Jose Costa Teixeira (Dec 11 2021 at 12:44):
FHIR IGs are cheaper hobby than home building and home automation, so I guess that works a bit for me.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Dec 11 2021 at 12:44):
But I think the only thing I can defend is that we're working on things that make our future work much easier.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Dec 11 2021 at 12:44):
So we're investing.
Jose Costa Teixeira (Dec 11 2021 at 12:57):
Best defense: "It could be worse"
Tilo Christ (Dec 11 2021 at 14:50):
@Jose Costa Teixeira playing with home automation in the middle of the night can also be annoying for the entire family :sweat_smile:
Lloyd McKenzie (Dec 11 2021 at 14:55):
My wife has long accepted that I'm just 'weird'. The fact that I work from home and can thus make myself available in the middle of the day helps make up for the fact that I'm often working long after the kids have gone to bed. I've sometimes explained to others that working with the HL7 community is "brain candy" - stimulating problems and people that are just a joy to work with. Haven't tried that with my wife though, lest she tell me to cut back on the sweets... :wink:
Jens Villadsen (Dec 11 2021 at 15:27):
Alone the fact that people not only reads this thread on a saturday but also responds to it says a whole lot :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:
Josh Mandel (Dec 11 2021 at 16:52):
It's a hard line to draw, I find that too -- but at the same time, being able to say "I do this because I love it, and because it gives me the satisfaction of solving puzzles, and because it grounds me in a diverse, passionate worldwide community, and because it matters for the health and wellbeing of everyone everywhere, and by the way this is something my employer understands and considers as part of my impact at work..." I mean, it's hard to pin down but the explanations abound!
Michaela Ziegler (Dec 11 2021 at 17:37):
I solved it very simply, i got my husband @Roland Ziegler to become part of the FHIR community. He, as a software engineer with no FHIR background, really wanted to develop a cooking/recipe app, now we do it together and with FHIR :innocent: .
John Moehrke (Dec 11 2021 at 18:08):
I explain that I am madly working to improve the healthcare system before I need to use it.
John Moehrke (Dec 11 2021 at 20:37):
The Interop geek equivalent of https://xkcd.com/386/
Peter Jordan (Dec 12 2021 at 00:24):
No problem in explaining the volunteer, community-based aspects and relationship with client work. However, the late nights and early starts don't earn many Brownie Points.
Rob Hausam (Dec 13 2021 at 21:15):
Yes - I have exactly the same issues. And I have tried many similar strategies - with relatively marginal success. :)
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
