The 8 p.m. deck

At about eight one evening, a request came in. The deck for a 10 a.m. investor meeting the next day needed updating: new numbers throughout, the formatting cleaned up across the whole thing, and the VP’s comments worked in.

It wasn’t a hard task. It was a long one, so I split it by priority. The numbers came first, because they were the one thing that couldn’t be wrong. Every one had to match its source. Then consistency: every page had to look like it belonged to the same document, and anything I changed in one place had to change everywhere else it appeared. Then the VP’s notes, one at a time.

I finished at around three in the morning. The deck was ready before the meeting.

the request came in

8 p.m.

of work, done around 3 a.m.

~7 hrs

the investor meeting

10 a.m.

There isn’t a big lesson in this. It’s mostly what that kind of job is. But it taught me something specific about detail. On a deck someone is about to present to investors, nobody notices when everything is right. That’s the point. The work is making sure there’s nothing for anyone to notice.