Have you ever worked on a project that gets canceled for some political or other reason not related to the technical potential? Kind of drives you insane. I just canceled a project of mine for strictly political reasons, and it gave me a better understanding of why it happens. Always good to look at things from other points of view:
Once I felt like I had a pretty good idea of the approach I would take and how feasible it would be I brought up my brilliant idea with the wife, expecting interest and excitement in the technology and its unique application. However I decided to shelve the project inside of half a second once I read the beautiful face of my intended user. Her verbal response to my idea put the final nail in the coffin:
“I don’t swerve that much, do I?”
Any amount of swerve reduction that the device might yield would be far outweighed by my wife having a constant reminder of the things I don’t like about her driving. Not exactly the ‘Apple’ experience one would hope for.
It was a first hand lesson in why projects get canceled for political reasons. Yes, the potential for a cool product with great results got canned. I was excited for the chance to learn about the latest display technology for this type of application. I hated to see the little bit of time and energy spent go unused. But despite all of this, life would be worse for the person calling the shots if the project were to continue.
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