Welcome Wednesday: Bad ideas you've committed to?

[Dave LIAO]

👋 Allo Atlassian Community! It's time for another Welcome Wednesday, a chance to participate on the forums about topics that aren't necessarily Atlassian-focused. (See past Welcome Wednesdays here.)

❤️‍🔥 For this week, I'll ask: Is there a bad idea you've committed to?

• What was the "bad idea"?
• Did you learn something new?
• How did the bad idea turn out? Were the results less dire than imagined?

💬 Comment with the bad ideas you were involved with, and what happened! Looking forward to your stories.

📸 Below is my bad idea - I'll explain more in the comments!

[Dave LIAO]

I'll start.

My bad idea? I committed to showing up for the Taco Bell DC 50k ultra marathon - and finishing it. (I'll be wearing the same race shirt that you see in this post's photo 📸)

I also made a LinkedIn post, so you know I mean it. 😆

My thought processes:

1. I've never been part of an ultra marathon (anything over 42k) - can I do it?
2. I like Taco Bell, but I'm unsure exactly how much I like them

I'm looking forward to testing my body's limits, and perhaps having one of the most entertaining obituaries ever 🥲🙃🌮

[Jimmy Seddon]

The bad idea: Participating in the London Extra Life 24 hr gaming marathon.

Did I learn something new? No, but I got to meet a number of new people in the Community with similar interests.

How did it turn out? The mental and physical toll of being an event organizer for a 24 hour gaming marathon was exactly as bad as I was expecting it to be.  But, we raised a record amount of money for our local hospital, and it wasn't bad enough to stop me from signing up to participate again at the end of September. 

[Dave LIAO]

@Jimmy Seddon - 🫠 Don't think I've ever done ANYTHING over a 24-hour period before, not even sleeping!

I've heard of dance marathons to raise money for research - I'd rather do a gaming marathon, for sure! 🕹️

What was your favorite game you played during the marathon?

If know there are certain games I could play for hours... SimCity (Classic), Syndicate, Genshin Impact ... 👀

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_]

Um, a geeky one here. I decided I could move data from one Jira instance to another at the database level, instead of using the code APIs. To be fair, not all the app data had available APIs. The approach worked ok-ish until I began to understand that some Jira data (such as configuration for dashboard gadgets) has about 4 layers of history in it, and you have to account for each one of those schemas in an long-used instance. 

Took me most of a Christmas break to get it to work. Learned the hard way that just because I can do something, doesn't mean I should.

[Dave LIAO]

I worked with a few folks who would've done EXACTLY what you did, if I ever made that suggestion aloud. 😆😆😆

But hey, you did it once, bravo!

Any parts of that experience that you would repeat? 🙃

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_]

Well, the import of data using SQL UPDATE is pretty fast!

[Tomislav Tobijas]

It wasn’t exactly something I committed to, but I learned that drinking on an empty stomach is really not a good idea.

It was an office anniversary party in 2023. I had started work at 7 AM, and the party began around 6 PM. The food was a bit too fancy for me, so I decided to skip it… but apparently had no problem mixing pretty much every drink available, with little to no water. 😂

Once I realized things had gone a bit too far, I decided to walk home and pull myself together. I did that several times, but this time I clearly overestimated myself. As soon as I left the building, I tripped, landed on one foot and then on the left side of my face. Some teammates patched me up, but I still ended up with a minor concussion. 🤕

Moral of the story: eat something and drink water when you’re drinking. Don’t be like me. 😅

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

@Tomislav Tobijas 

I connect with you in Pain😂. I done This The Subcrawl | Glasgow Subway Pub Crawl with my Husband and done to 11 Station. Morning after was worse 😂

[Dave LIAO]

@Tomislav Tobijas - oh man, your mistake is our "lessons learned" article 😆 Glad you're up and about and able to write about it now 🫂

@Arkadiusz Wroblewski - this pub crawl has been on my list to do!! Should I skip it, or commit? 🥲

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

@Dave LIAOO 

Commit but drink a lot of water, say sorry to your liver, and be ready that next day everything you smell in the morning will not be so entertaining 😉🤣

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hm,

Two months ago I took a train to North Germany, travelling all Week. Then from North Germany to Skagen on Friday for around 14 hours, just to get married the next day.

Then, because apparently normal honeymoons are overrated, we travelled to Poland for another 15 hours one way, took one heroic 3 days of “rest”, and then went straight into two 40 km marches as our honeymoon activity.

So basically, within one week I collected thousands of kilometers by train, got married, crossed countries, and voluntarily walked 80 km.

Romantic? Yes.
Normal? Absolutely not.
Tired? Let’s just say my soul was buffering. 😄

[Dave LIAO]

@Arkadiusz Wroblewski - on the bright side, this story is totally memorable.

I can now visualize the spinning loading icon in front of you now. 😆

And since you mentioned 40 km (as a march), I'll shamelessly direct you to this past Welcome Wednesday post: "any runs planned?" 😄

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

@Dave LIAO

Now you see why I'm so active here. Everything to the fullest 🤭😄

I'm doing regular IML marches across Europe.😄

https://imlwalking.org/ 

That's definitely a challenge for the body, but after party and people are something you rarely experience anywhere else and making it so great experience. 

[Barbara Szczesniak]

I think most people so far have read Dave's post as "what's something you committed to that turned out to be a bad idea?" I read it as "what's something you were pretty sure was a bad idea, but you committed to it anyway?"

My bad idea: taking a 6-week contract job in Omaha, Nebraska that started in the last week of November.

What I learned: November and December is not the time to go to Nebraska. They insisted that I start the Monday of Thanksgiving week, so I got to spend the holiday by myself in a place where I knew no one.

How did it turn out: I got some sort of viral infection, went to an urgent care where they gave me a medication that interacted very badly with something I took regularly, and my car battery died while I was eating dinner in a restaurant on New Year's Eve. 🥶😢

[Dave LIAO]

@Barbara Szczesniak - the latter is what I meant, but if anyone reads my question the other way, the replies should be just as enjoyable. 😆

RE: your story, holy moly, I'll try to avoid Omaha during the winter. It's been on my list to visit the land of the corn huskers, just never made time. 🌽

Also, what client would make you visit them during Thanksgiving week? 🥲

[Anne Saunders]

I've committed to a fair few bad ideas in my time...

When my kids were small (~4.5y and 2y, respectively) I decided to take them to visit my parents, who live a thousand miles away. Just me, 2 littles, eleventy bags, 2 planes, and 3 airports in 10 hours.

When we got there, I realized we would be doing it again in a week and almost cried. We all lived, and they're acceptably well-adjusted adults now, but it was very touch and go in the moment.

The vacation part was great, but the "Don't touch that" "Don't LICK that" "Our gate is this way" "You have to sit in the seat because I have to hold your brother" "The snacks are in the bag, and I can't get it out until the nice lady says so" travel parts: 0 stars, do not recommend.