instagram cross-post

[andrewducker]

Sophia doing an awesome job helping take the recycling out
Original is here on instagram.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Makes you realise how big the damn things are to a smol. :o)

[andrewducker]

The bin is full, admittedly of plastic bottles and the like, and weighs rather more than she does. But on wheels, and at an angle, she does a very good job of taking it down the drive.

[simont]

I'd have guessed the hard part if you're that height would be getting it upright again at the end. Does she have a clever trick for that part?

[andrewducker]

Yup! It's me arriving at high speed once I've finished mucking about taking photos, and making sure it doesn't pull her into the road and then pulling it upright in the right spot.

(As with many things, she is desperate to help, it's totally worth her helping from a social/training point of view, she's delighted to take part, and it's three times as much effort and time as if I just did it myself.)

[simont]

and it's three times as much effort and time as if I just did it myself

That's a phenomenon not limited to dealing with small children! I constantly have to deal with the same dilemma at work: "should I solve this problem myself, which I can do quickly and will enjoy, or should I delegate it to a less experienced engineer and offer help if they get stuck, which will be slower and more painful all round but is part of the long-term-vital process of turning less experienced engineers into more experienced ones?"

The more senior I become, the more I feel guilty about solving interesting problems myself in a work context. It's one of the reasons I feel such a sense of relief when I put my other hat on and open a text editor in my src/putty directory.

[andrewducker]

Sadly, due to the way work has been for the last, ooh, fifteen years I've not actually got to mentor anyone for about that long. However, this has had the advantage that I get to actually write code a fair bit (when I'm not in planning or coordination meetings).