In Joi Ito's Web: Conference call surfing I read an eerily familiar description of Joi Ito's day. When I was at IBM this was the typical day: wake up (somewhere, home, hotel, office), nudge computer awake and check out whatever I/Ms arrived while I was sleeping (assuming I was online).

For awhile, I had a one hour drive from Poughkeepsie to Armonk. I'd clear out my voicemail before leaving home, by the time I'd arrive in Armonk it'd be filled to capacity again (usually resulting in one or more bitter PROFS emails from someone, somewhere complaining that I was not professional enough to be IBM's alleged Corporate Webmaster dude).

I have to say, for the first couple years it was fun. If your job is entirely being a mediator of communications this might not be such a bad job. If your job isn't to be Mr. always-connected-always-communicating then it's not so fun. Eventually the expectation is set that you're always online, always responsive. It's unprofessional to take a time-out or a break.

Enough time has passed that I can look back and recognize that I really didn't function so well as super-techie/manager/intermediary. Dropping any one of the tasks (as I did for the Sydney Olympics) would have made my life much better. To the people who can handle it all and enjoy it my hat's off to you.