[NAHWheatCracker]

This is an interesting take to me, because it seems to be how many of my coworkers work. It's not how I think about things.

I enjoy technology, but it's hard for me to just focus on tech without a purpose for using it. All of the projects I'm proud of aren't because of the tools I used. Instead, I'm proud that I delivered something useful.

Yet, I still completely agree with your statements about "MBA puff". I've been on projects where they extol how valuable a project is going to be and it doesn't stand up to a minute of scrutiny. Other projects would be valuable, but never get into the hands of real users.

On the projects I'm proud of, I was directly working with someone who actually would benefit from the project. There wasn't a question of whether it was worth it. The users weren't puffing up the project to be more than it was. They have a job to do and I'm helping them do it better. Interestingly, this also meant that they didn't care how I approached the problem.

The real sweet spot for projects is where working on interesting tech goes hand-in-hand with delivering something useful.