[towaway1138]

The best work I ever did involved a large collection of computers admin'ed by some serious f-ing idiots. They'd break that system in every conceivable way, every day of the week. So, I ended up writing a seriously fault-tolerant piece of software that could make forward progress on my users' problem no matter what. It turned out to be glorious.

Not much beyond that, except that my users had a clear need, and I was given time to do the work. Had a private office, but that mattered little.

My moral: Sometimes you really can make lemonade out of lemons. Maybe the torrent of shit raining down on you is a gift sometimes.