So, I’ve been thinking about this idea, this ‘cougar spirit’. Not in the way people usually joke about it, but more like the actual animal. Independent. Quietly powerful. Knows how to survive on its own.
It reminds me of this one time, maybe a couple years back. I got put onto this side project. Well, ‘put onto’ is generous. More like it got dumped on my lap because everyone else was ‘too busy’ or just didn’t want to touch it. You know the type. Old code, barely documented, zero handover. Just a pile of digital junk, basically.
First thing I did was try to get some background. Asked around. Got a lot of shoulder shrugs. A few vague answers. Nobody really knew, or maybe nobody wanted to admit they knew how bad it was. Classic situation, right? Felt like I was totally alone on an island.
So, I decided, okay, fine. If nobody’s gonna help, I’ll just have to tackle it myself. Total lone wolf mode. Or, well, lone cougar mode, I guess. I spent days, maybe weeks, just digging. Going through ancient commit logs, trying to piece together what the original folks were even thinking. It was slow going. Painful, honestly.
I set up my own little test environment. Broke things down into tiny pieces. Tested one thing, then another. Made tons of notes, just for myself. Didn’t really talk about it much, because what was there to say? ‘Still digging through the mess’? People don’t wanna hear that. They just want results.
There were times I wanted to just give up. Push it back and say it’s impossible. But something just made me stick with it. Maybe it was stubbornness. Maybe it was just not wanting to let this thing beat me. You gotta be kinda stealthy sometimes. Not make a big fuss, just keep moving, keep hunting for the solution.
Eventually, bit by bit, I started making progress. Fixed a bug here. Untangled some logic there. Got a core piece working again. It wasn’t glamorous. Just steady, quiet work. No big announcements, no pats on the back. Just me and the code.
Figuring it Out Solo
And you know what? I actually got it working. Stabilized the damn thing. Made it usable again. When I finally showed the result, people were kinda surprised. Like, ‘Oh, that old thing? Didn’t know anyone was still working on it.’
Looking back, that’s what I mean by ‘cougar spirit’. Sometimes you can’t rely on the pack. Sometimes you gotta go off on your own, trust your instincts, be persistent, and just get the job done quietly. You don’t need the spotlight. You just need to survive and succeed on your own terms. It’s not always about collaboration; sometimes it’s about sheer, stubborn independence. And honestly? Sometimes that feels pretty good.
