My wife had breast cancer. It had got into the lymph nodes and come within three millimetres of the chest wall when Burton took a knife to her and cut her breast off.

He cut her breast off. He hacked into her body, cut out an evil alien life-form that was growing to consume her in a painful death, and then he sewed her back up without killing her.

Then Peter poisoned her. He pumped her full of toxins so vile the nurses administering them had safety procedures not to get them on anyone's skin. He killed parts of her without killing all of her.

People like Burton and Peter save so many lives we are in danger of losing sight of what it is they do, of passing the billboard by and rushing on. I looked at Burton one day when the two of us were alone in his office, and I said "I can't imagine what it is like to be you. While I get paid as much as you to persuade people to spend other people's money to buy software they don't need, you get up every morning and save other people's lives by cutting them apart. I can't begin to imagine how it feels to be you". He just smiled a shy smile and changed the subject: the man is a saint.

What is it like? Is it frightening responsibility? A grind? A burden, an inescapable curse? Just a job? A glowing satisfaction? Life's richest reward? Satisfaction we mortals can only dream of?

They make mistakes. What happens when someone dies? Do they think "Oops - better not do it that way again"? I doubt it. How does it feel to get up the next morning, hopefully not take it out on the wife and kids, and go back to work to try again?

Stop now and ponder how it might be to be Burton. And give thanks people like him are about.

And the next time a boss is going on about how important this deal or project is, tell them (or yourself) no it isn't. It ****ing isn't. What Burton and Peter do is important, especially when it is you they are trying not to kill.