My second company arrived in less than a year. The project was to design a tourist-guidance system using multimedia mobile phones. Compared with the previous job, it offered several attractions: ordinary clothes, a city-centre office, better pay and a small development team.
Two of us built the solution. I handled the server and its rule-based intelligence; my colleague looked after devices, routers and handsets. Within a few months, it was ready for deployment in a real environment. We were delighted that it actually worked. Anyone who has spent time in research and development knows that a successful outcome is never automatic.
Life in the company was straightforward. We had one friendly manager and considerable freedom to organise our time, with weekly progress reports. The office location also put a great many restaurants within reach. When we had something to celebrate, we usually chose a place serving home cooking. At last, that family joke seemed to have lost its grip on me.
Despite all those advantages, I remained restless. I returned to interviews, searching for something I could not quite define. Eventually, I said goodbye to my colleague and manager, having completed the work I had taken on. This departure carried more sadness than the first. We had shared good times.
