If there’s one thing that really grinds my gears it’s people who are aware of what you can do, the levels that you can do it at and then presume you can therefore whip something up quickly, without return favour for free.
It’s not that I can’t do it, it’s not even perhaps that I don’t have the time, but it’s that someone thinks they can just have something because I can do it quickly. Take Adobe Photoshop for example, someone will happily say “It will only take you a couple of hours to do”, which is true in some cases, but it’s not the two hours I expect to be rewarded for, it’s the 12 years of learning Adobe Photoshop to get to the level I am, that experience which is quickly forgotten when it comes to a favour.
By my very nature I will do things for free for my friends because each and every one of them are important to me and I would have no doubts that they would all be selfless in doing the same, but when it comes to that old chestnut, ‘friend of the family’, please, do go look elsewhere as I probably have 1001 more important things to do with my time.
They are the worse people and especially when they find out you work in computers you are never left alone. There is always this “oh while you’re here” I’d like to talk about something else please. I don’t mind talking about technology, just not trying to fix problems when I’m not at work!