So, that Toluca vs Guadalajara game. I heard folks talking about it, figured it’d be a decent match to catch. You know, just kick back and watch some football. Simple enough, right? That’s what I thought, anyway. Turns out, the “simple” part was the first thing to go out the window.
My little adventure started with trying to actually find the game. I’ve got a couple of those streaming subscriptions, the ones you pay for every month. You’d think one of them would have it. Well, that was a whole process. First, I had to remember which service might even carry that league. Then, logging in, searching… it’s always a bit of a gamble.
And here’s what I ran into, my own little practice in patience, I guess:
- One app just kept buffering. Like, spinning wheel of doom. Not ideal.
- Another one, the picture quality was so bad, it looked like I was watching it through a muddy sock. Seriously.
- Then, the “official” broadcaster in my region? They wanted me to sign up for yet another package. Just for a few games! I’m already paying for two services, man.
I spent a good half hour just fiddling with apps, logins, and trying to get a stable stream. By the time I got something barely watchable, I was already kind of annoyed, you know? Took the fun right out of it. It’s like they make it hard on purpose sometimes.
This Whole Thing Got Me Thinking…
And this whole charade, this song and dance just to watch a football game, it reminded me of something. It reminded me of this project I was on a few years back. We were tasked with building this internal tool. Supposed to be a straightforward thing, help one department manage their workflow a bit better. Easy peasy, or so we thought.
We started with a clear plan. Simple design, core features. Should have been up and running in a couple of months. But then, oh boy, then the “input” started. Marketing wanted it to integrate with their campaign tracker. Sales wanted it to pull data from their CRM. Then legal had concerns, wanted all sorts of audit trails and disclaimers built in. Suddenly, our simple little tool was becoming this monster.
We spent, no joke, almost a year on that thing. Meetings after meetings. Scope creep was an understatement. We were bolting on features that the original users didn’t even need. By the time we finally launched a version of it, it was clunky, over-complicated, and half the people who initially asked for it had already found their own workarounds using spreadsheets or whatever. Sound familiar? It was like my game-watching experience. So much effort for something that should have been simple, and the result was just… frustrating.
It just makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Why do we make things so complicated sometimes? Whether it’s watching a bit of sport or building something at work. Seems like a common thread. Anyway, I did eventually see some of the game, but honestly, the whole process beforehand kind of soured it for me. Just one of those days, I guess.