What's fun? New stuff or old? Introspection.

I just had an epiphany: the work that's fun involves elements I've done before.

When I was younger, I thought stuff was cool if it was new, different, and innovative--Software, if it provided features I hadn't had.  Books and movies, if they looked at ideas with a new angle.

But I forgot that in looking for the new cool stuff, it was always building on the old.  Music collections. Photos.  Managing filesystems.

My interests have evolved, and so has what I think is interesting and cool.

I used to get through a class in school by relating it to something I already knew and liked.  I got through geography and world history in 8th grade because, at the time, I was into role playing and was trying to figure out how to design an imaginary world--with realistic geography and backstories.  The class gave me fuel for understanding my fiction.  Kind of backward, perhaps?  Maybe.  But it worked.  My interest level rose, and I did well in the class.  I found a reason to do well.

Today, I was having trouble getting traction (and interest, frankly) in a new software project at work.  Then I realized I needed to plan out what to do next.  I started looking at one of the vague requirements our BA told me she was working on refining.  I started thinking about different steps to get familiar with the app, and as I did, I noticed I got excited by the idea of looking at the file importers and processors.  That was odd--last time I'd done something like that, it hadn't sounded interesting.  But I think it sounded more interesting because I've done it before.  It's somewhat familiar territory, but also new.  These are new files, new formats, with new purposes.  It's a chance for discovery, in something I haven't done but where I have some knowledge already.

If the file formats turn out to be binary, I can already tell you I'll lose some steam. But then I'd find something else interesting about the feature/requirement.