One of the strange things about doing user experience work on software is that there’s often a considerable lead time.  The disconnect felt odd when I was working at Microsoft and I had finished my work on Office:Mac and had moved on to future releases long before the new version actually hit store shelves.  And, of course, I knew intellectually that it would happen when I left Microsoft to join VMware.  I knew what I was working on, and I knew all of release plans at that time, so I knew that my work wouldn’t see the light of day for some time.  Even so, knowing that it would happen doesn’t make the disconnect feel strange when there’s no-one around to share the joy.