Molasses

Back in the day a colleague of mine at Google told me he felt like a racehorse tied to a plow.  He meant that the job he'd been tasked to do didn't need someone with his still set or experience.  It's actually quite a common sentiment around Google.  Too much demand to work there, so they hired overqualified people for many roles.

I didn't post much last week because I was hesitant on what to say on my blog.  I'm hesitant to call myself a racehorse, but to continue with the analogy, I feel like a racehorse running through molasses.  But again I'm not here to win any races, I'm here to understand what it feels like to operate in the molasses.

And so the productivity hit a wall, big time.  Meeting requests require formal written letters (which I think is less an issue of the Liberian government and more likely standard in governments in general.  I'm just used to Google and doing everything via email and rather informally).  Naturally getting things done requires a great sensitivity to politics, which is particularly difficult to manage when there isn't often transparency into the political environment you're navigating in.  If someone doesn't want to you to be doing what you're doing, they might just ignore you completely to stall your work.  And those who offer to help governments pro-bono don't exactly have much pressure to make deadlines for themselves (let alone meet them).

But I am getting a few things done, at least for the time being.  Molasses it might be, but quicksand it is not.