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In The Italian Job, there's a scene where the crew is discussing the plan on a rooftop balcony in LA.

CHARLIE: I want audio surveillance on his phone.

LYLE: Oh, yeah, I been wanting to try something. I crack into the phone company's remote monitoring system, and fool it into thinking there's a legal tap on the line. Just reroute the digital copies of the calls to our own listening post. I been doing it to my ex for years.

I don't understand the two statements in bold.

If Lyle has already been doing this to his ex for years, why would he say he's been "wanting to try it"? Hasn't he already tried (and succeeded) at it?

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    I noticed the edit that removed "The" from the movie title, but in this case, "The" is technically part of the title. Check IMDB to verify.
    – LevenTrek
    Commented Mar 30, 2018 at 14:43
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    I think he's saying he wants to try it in an actual job knowing that the technique works based on his doing it to his ex-wife. Tapping his wife served as a developmental experiment and "proof of concept." You would never use a technique in a real job that you hadn't tested out some way. Should have been better phrased, though.
    – Chico the Friendly Monkey
    Commented Mar 30, 2018 at 15:57
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    @LevenTrek Uh, the edit didn't actually remove the "The", it just put it into proper formatting.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Mar 30, 2018 at 16:17
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    @ScottyParker Sounds like you're onto an answer there. You might want to flesh it out into one.
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Mar 30, 2018 at 16:18

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Funnily enough, I said something very similar at work this week:

Given that we're starting a new project; I'm going to start using Autofac. I've been using it in personal projects for a while now, and I think it's a valuable addition to lower development complexity/time.

Lyle is essentially saying the same here:

"I've been using it personally for some time and it's really useful. Now I want to try it professionally."

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