I had a really good night Saturday night. My wife was going to bed early
since she wanted to look for driftwood on the beach in the morning, so I
was on my own for dinner.

I took my laptop to a cafe on the lagoon, and set up shop. I suppose I
might have looked strange with a Macbook Pro at a restaurant in
Tortuguero, but I wasn't the only person with a computer out. I ordered
some mint tea, a bowl of shrimp pasta, and started coding away on
EventSquire, a new web app I'm building to help promote events online.

I felt so at peace, waves gently lapping the shore, people happily
conversing as they ate around me, working on a project just for fun,
with no deadline, no client and no pressure.

I was listening to a Back to Work podcast today where Merlin Mann
said "I don't like writing to a deadline". I agree with that sentiment,
but it struck me while listening to him speak that I feel the same way
about coding.

I suppose that's not the best mentality to have; after all, I code for a
living and will always have people to answer to. But when I feel rushed,
or feel like I should have started something earlier, the quality of
work that I put out starts to slip. I hate that.

I want to care about the quality of work that I do, and have the freedom
to try things without the risk that I'll blow past some arbitrary
deadline. I'd much rather take it slow, have fun, and truly savor the
work that I do.