[vincie]

Damn! This sounds just like my situation! It is fairly chaotic here, no specifications or documentation for work I must do, and no one understands what I do. So I use this to my advantage by learning new skills. Because no one asks me what tools I use (they all think I use C#, I think), I find tools that interest me and learn them by using them in my work. So far I have learned R and Pandas for data, although I am lucky to get a 10M file to use. I have built a desktop app with Ada. I am trying to created LaTeX files from a script. I want to improve my Racket/F#/GIMP/Scribus/Inkscape/Blender/Node.js skills and knowledge, but cannot yet come up with appropriate tasks. But I keep looking! So basically I keep motivated by learning new stuff all the time at their expense.

[n008]

The difference with me is that my client has a rough knowledge of the tools I use, and even make false assumptions about implementation detail.

Sometimes I get pseudo-code as spec requirements, or get told 'solutions' instead of elaborating on the problems at hand. So, I don't get the chance to learn any new stuff besides what's in the pot.