Does system administration dumb down the brain?
pasbesoin: Are you designing (1), or supporting?  Whether you are programming, administering, PM-ing, or doing something else, I find the question pertinent.If you designing, actively creating, you are likely to be engaged.  If you are merely supporting others, you are more likely to be neglected and relegated to repetitive tasks as well as "clean up" for others' mistakes.In good part, I find it a matter of control.  If you do admin work, but are allowed to find, create, and implement better ways of doing it, you are likely to be engaged.  If someone else is telling you what your environment will be (in minutia), what your tools will be, and basically turning you into a glorified button pusher, you are likely going to suffer.  (I base this in part on your presence in this forum.  I've met plenty of people who are more than happy to just push the indicated buttons.)In some of my more engaging work, my technical role was pretty mundane.  But it was a tied to a group of people who were having trouble getting their act together.  By listening to them and getting them to talk to each other, openly and directly, I changed to process from a morass to a success.  Thus my mentioning PM and other work.  I find that often it's not (just) what I'm doing, but what kind of control I have.  Almost always, I see opportunities for improvement.  If I'm allowed to pursue those, I'm happy.  (And I do so responsibly, communicating my efforts up the chain of command and documenting things.)  If I'm not, well, I'm still learning to get out fast.  I've already squandered more than enough time on "the way things are supposed to be".----1.  not meaning the current tendency to associate "design" with UI design