I'm thinking about the meaning of work, especially digital work, but any kind of work, really. How often are we truly proud of our work? Do we ever do work that we're actually ashamed of? What's all that stuff in the middle?

Let's start on the positive note. What's the one piece of paid work you've done that makes you proudest? And tell us why, if you don't mind.

I'll start. I wrote this story about perhaps the only thing that mattered at SXSWi last year. It shocked me so badly when I found out about it, so I just wrote how I felt. People liked the first hit, so I kept going. I talked to the people responsible on the phone, wrote up my impressions of them, and then went downtown the next day to talk to one of the participants. People seemed to value my take on it, too.

(Also worth noting: If I had had to wait until morning for someone to edit and publish it, like I would today with our new editorial structure, it wouldn't have happened.)

I work for the Underground Network, a non-profit organization in the Tampa Bay area of Florida which allows small startup initiatives to accomplish their dreams. My greatest personal achievement so far has been a series of short documentary films called "We Are Underground". These videos highlight the work those initiatives are doing all over the world. Every time I get a chance to film another, I'm blown away by what is being accomplished. This is a project I've been given total creative control over, and the content makes it without a doubt the most satisfactory project I've ever had.

There's a story by Russ Unger that I always cite when I'm discussing work ethic. If you haven't read it, go read it.

And to answer your question, Jon:

I'm most proud of the work I did on the New York Times reader apps, for one reason: it has a massive reach, and (I can only hope) made the iOS experience better for a lot of people who read the news. I measure my work not only by its effect on people, but also by multiplying that effect across the number of people affected. I'd rather save a million people one minute per day than save one hundred people an hour per day.

See also: the beginning of Paul Ford's closing keynote for the 2012 MFA Interaction Design Festival at SVA.

I'd like to say that the ability to build Geoloqi from a side project to a developer project and finally to a business has made me most proud.

Amber, does that all feel like one accomplishment? Can you look back on it all and feel like, "I made THIS THING." ?

I'm going to answer the deeper original question of yours if I can. When it comes to pride in work there's a very dangerous thing that happens in that we tend to move the goal line further back the closer we get it. This habit of many driven people means that they rarely let themselves enjoy a period of pride, because we tell ourselves we're still not performing at out best.

My workaround for this is to document my goals. E.g.: I want my business to reach X metric; I want to be published in X magazine; I want speak at a conference; I want to make more money than last year; whatever.

Then when that moment hits, even though it won't feel as monumental as when you set the goal, you should celebrate it as you would have originally.

Ahhh, that's a really good idea.

The paid project I'm proudest of was a collection of software to gather Unix performance data from thousands of machines, collect it in a database and do detailed capacity planning analysis on the data. The project evolved over about 14 years at my last job with several people involved, but most of it I built myself. It evolved over four different Unix versions and parts of it even ran on Windows.

The thing that sets this project apart is that the problems we were able to solve with it weren't something I had anticipated when I began the effort. It started out as a data gathering exercise on a small scale to validate our benchmarking. But it ended up being used by the support people for finding bugs and as a tool for cost reductions.

I'm most proud of my 'Top 10 YouTube Videos of All Time' post. That impacted millions of people, bringing a few minutes of joy to each and every one of them. And it's the gift that keeps on giving! Why, every day thousands more people get to watch those videos. Who among us has not danced along to Justin Bieber or laughed with Charlie as he bit his brother's finger. That's the wonder of the Internet, right there...

*wipes tear from eye*

And the best thing? It only took 10 minutes to write that post!

(ok that's not a serious reply, but I'm too tired right now to do that. I'll mull on it tomorrow...) :)

I won't lie, most of the writing I do is useless filler, because I work for a mobile tech news site that strives for quantity over quality, and that is frustrating, because it often means "don't write it if it isn't about Apple or Google".

I do also have the freedom to write whatever I want, which can be quite nice. But, obviously, the engagement is going to drop when you move away from a topic that will incite a flame war, but I love the feeling of engaging with real issues and how they affect people. Especially when it covers an important topic that people rarely consider because of the echo chamber that the Internet can become.

That's why my proudest works have been these two articles:
phonearena.com

phonearena.com

Not a developer/ writer just an Interior Designer & Architect; I feel proud of almost every new project that I do, because I try to do some thing new/ different - even if it is some teeny weeny lil apparently obscure thing or some technical hurdle that I have been trying to jump over - in each project.
That also make me feel good about my work & doesn't make my work as some uninteresting routine job.

Designers, like me, are commissioned to communicate our clients’ message. Our work is only as good as our partnership.

Jon Mitchell @ablaze, thanks for inviting on this branch. My share is as below ...

How will you feel if your product itself is output of it ? Seems a bit confusing but it is my personal experience. I always want to have a nice app at iTune. The intense visualisation and action for the same made it possible and now .destiny is up with first release, taking one step at a time. More and more functionalities are planned for upcoming releases.

Technology can’t do it for you but certainly can enable you to achieve it. Hopefully, @destinyapp will live up to this technology imperative.

destiny. define it.

link as below ...