When to stop

Whenever I do things, I am confronted with the decision when and how to stop. I'm not talking about this weblog, don't worry. I'm talking generally. Anyway, sometimes the decision of stopping comes after a prolonged period of suffering. And sometimes it comes after a brief period of happiness.

Like I'm teaching this course in presentation techniques at the moment, which takes a lot of time and effort to prepare and for which I receive a ridiculously low payment. I'm teaching it this semester, and I just decided not to offer it again next year. And the reason for this is not primarily that it takes such a lot of preparation time, or that I'm badly paid.

The main reason is that the course is going so well. I have this group of 18 people, and they may be using some cunning plan to deceive me, but they seem to be really into it, and everything is (so far, knock-on-wood) going really well.

In teaching, like cooking, the first attempt either works perfectly well, or it goes completely awry. Had this gone awry, I might have tried again. As it is, it feels like the perfect time to stop. Doing it again can only make it worse, and I wouldn't want that to happen.