Anxiety in product development(andreschweighofer.com)
andreschweighofer.com
Anxiety in product development
https://andreschweighofer.com/agile/anxiety-in-product-development/
161 comments
I find that emotional compartmentalization is a critical skill.
A couple years ago, I faced a very tough time in my life. My business was collapsing, my family's finances were in jeopardy, and there was a serious health issue going on.
The emotional stress was incapacitating. I couldn't sleep, let alone focus enough to fix my problems. It was the downward spiral nightmare scenario.
If I didn't have dependents (wife + 3 kids), I might have withdrawn into depression. Instead I was forced to fix my emotional state...
I constructed a personal prayer...
To sleep, I found I could play the audio from old familiar TV shows to drown out the worries to fall (and stay) asleep - it was a surprising turn-around.
These two things changed my life. Hope this helps someone else.
A couple years ago, I faced a very tough time in my life. My business was collapsing, my family's finances were in jeopardy, and there was a serious health issue going on.
The emotional stress was incapacitating. I couldn't sleep, let alone focus enough to fix my problems. It was the downward spiral nightmare scenario.
If I didn't have dependents (wife + 3 kids), I might have withdrawn into depression. Instead I was forced to fix my emotional state...
I constructed a personal prayer...
I am the man in the dark room.
In here, I am my loves, my principles, and my ideas.
Who I am cannot be changed by circumstances outside this room,
My loves are my legs which carry me to life outside this room.
My principles are my shield from the burdens the world assaults me with.
My ideas are the sword with which I shape my life.
When I return to myself in this room, the world remains outside, and I evolve to be better prepared tomorrow.
To sleep, I found I could play the audio from old familiar TV shows to drown out the worries to fall (and stay) asleep - it was a surprising turn-around.
These two things changed my life. Hope this helps someone else.
Thank you for sharing this powerful prayer/mantra.
I too had to go through a time like this, for different reasons, but I lost and fell into depression. I didn't have dependents unfortunately and my self-esteem was completely shattered.
I recovered and became productive again since a while now. But I'm still haunted by anxiety sometimes.
I'm in a state of extreme productivity and self-confidence right now, but part of it is feeling chased by my failing in the past, as if I have to (or could) catch up.
At the same time I know that patience, focus and time are key to do the right thing(s). This is also being addressed in the linked article.
My strategy is to talk, be open about my feelings (which I had to learn the hard way) and to take time to meditate and appreciate silence, deep focus, my loved ones and the beauty of nature.
Mantras and prayers are like magic tricks: You condition yourself to focus on a positive, powerful thought and with time you can activate that state with little effort as you described.
Ill be contemplating some of the thoughts in your prayer. Some of the phrases are very powerful, tangible metaphors.
I too had to go through a time like this, for different reasons, but I lost and fell into depression. I didn't have dependents unfortunately and my self-esteem was completely shattered.
I recovered and became productive again since a while now. But I'm still haunted by anxiety sometimes.
I'm in a state of extreme productivity and self-confidence right now, but part of it is feeling chased by my failing in the past, as if I have to (or could) catch up.
At the same time I know that patience, focus and time are key to do the right thing(s). This is also being addressed in the linked article.
My strategy is to talk, be open about my feelings (which I had to learn the hard way) and to take time to meditate and appreciate silence, deep focus, my loved ones and the beauty of nature.
Mantras and prayers are like magic tricks: You condition yourself to focus on a positive, powerful thought and with time you can activate that state with little effort as you described.
Ill be contemplating some of the thoughts in your prayer. Some of the phrases are very powerful, tangible metaphors.
It's pretty useful for most day-to-day things, but (1) who you are can absolutely be changed by external circumstances - see TBIs and other long-lasting traumas, and (2) there are medical illnesses where you can be mostly robbed of your ideas - which by this mantra leaves you powerless to change your world.
I'm not saying that to take away anything from the well-being brought by this interesting personal prayer, because it holds some insights about resilience. Only adding some context for the people out there whose depressive disorders, schizophrenia, or brain injuries, could leave them on the curb when it comes to these thoughts. Those people might need surgeries, medical treatment, or external support, before being able to strengthen themselves with this sort of thought.
I'm not saying that to take away anything from the well-being brought by this interesting personal prayer, because it holds some insights about resilience. Only adding some context for the people out there whose depressive disorders, schizophrenia, or brain injuries, could leave them on the curb when it comes to these thoughts. Those people might need surgeries, medical treatment, or external support, before being able to strengthen themselves with this sort of thought.
>who you are can absolutely be changed by external circumstances
Yes, but that's focusing on the very unlikely external circumstances and defeating the point. 99.99% of the daily stuff that seems important actually is not and it's healthier to live a model assuming it's not important rather than worrying that everything could be that devastating brain tumor or IED taking out your bus.
Yes, but that's focusing on the very unlikely external circumstances and defeating the point. 99.99% of the daily stuff that seems important actually is not and it's healthier to live a model assuming it's not important rather than worrying that everything could be that devastating brain tumor or IED taking out your bus.
In the US alone, for TBI alone, there were almost 3 million TBI-related emergency department visits in 2014[0]. One in 4,000 babies born in the US have hypothyroidism[1]. At the lower bound, there is 0.25% of the US population subject to schizophrenia[2].
If we go and look at things like Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), 2.7% of US adults have had it in the past year, 32% of which had serious impairments associated with it[3].
I would invite you to seriously challenge the formulation of your idea: it's not that 99.9% of stuff "seems important and it's not", it's that not 99.9% of people have the ability to deal with it through just the one therapeutic aspect of self-talk. Moreover, there is a propensity to share these words because they are inspirational, yet there is very little put forward for the people who do need more than that - and who, in turn, tend to suffer from ailments which in many cases could be alleviated if as a society they were more acknowledged.
If you re-read my message, I hope you do see that I am appreciating the original words, and simply highlighting additional options to people out there who need more than that. That's all.
[0] https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html
[1] https://www.rightdiagnosis.com/h/hypothyroidism/stats.htm
[2] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/schizophrenia.sht...
[3] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/generalized-anxie...
I would invite you to seriously challenge the formulation of your idea: it's not that 99.9% of stuff "seems important and it's not", it's that not 99.9% of people have the ability to deal with it through just the one therapeutic aspect of self-talk. Moreover, there is a propensity to share these words because they are inspirational, yet there is very little put forward for the people who do need more than that - and who, in turn, tend to suffer from ailments which in many cases could be alleviated if as a society they were more acknowledged.
If you re-read my message, I hope you do see that I am appreciating the original words, and simply highlighting additional options to people out there who need more than that. That's all.
[0] https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html
[1] https://www.rightdiagnosis.com/h/hypothyroidism/stats.htm
[2] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/schizophrenia.sht...
[3] https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/generalized-anxie...
I believe you and hear you. Not all events are under our control, and not everyone is able to lead a pain-free life. The general audience here may have some skewed (and perhaps limited) experiences.
Those of us fortunate to have good health and the ability to improve our circumstances should be glad for those opportunities, not take them for granted, and try to extend them to others.
Those of us fortunate to have good health and the ability to improve our circumstances should be glad for those opportunities, not take them for granted, and try to extend them to others.
Nicely written : )
> Those of us fortunate to have good health and the ability to [...]
And it's not easy to see from the outside if that's the case for another person -- I think often they'd want to hide things like anxiety and depression. Or me, when I had those anxiety and sadness problems -- I spent most time at home alone
> Those of us fortunate to have good health and the ability to [...]
And it's not easy to see from the outside if that's the case for another person -- I think often they'd want to hide things like anxiety and depression. Or me, when I had those anxiety and sadness problems -- I spent most time at home alone
Among women, about 5% have hypothyreosis, and depression/sadness and anxiety are some of the consequences (varies from person to person). And 2% of the men.
@pathseeker wrote: "very unlikely external circumstances"
But it's not just 1 - 99.99% = 0.01% that needs medication and other help than "just" meditation. Looking only at hypothyreosis, it's more like 2% or 5%.
@cmehdy it seems to me that you 1) work with health care, or 2) you have something like hypothyreosis or GAD yourself or people you know? or 3) you're a researcher? or 4) TBI happened to someone you know? (If it's too private then obviously no need to reply : ) And best wishes with your work)
@pathseeker wrote: "very unlikely external circumstances"
But it's not just 1 - 99.99% = 0.01% that needs medication and other help than "just" meditation. Looking only at hypothyreosis, it's more like 2% or 5%.
@cmehdy it seems to me that you 1) work with health care, or 2) you have something like hypothyreosis or GAD yourself or people you know? or 3) you're a researcher? or 4) TBI happened to someone you know? (If it's too private then obviously no need to reply : ) And best wishes with your work)
Without getting into the details: kind of a combination of things, indeed :)
I just think it's time we as a society accept and understand that having support and medication for things that relate to our mental health is fully part of the toolbox of healing, and not a fringe thing that remains on the sidelines for an insignificant proportion of people.
Most people will spend some amount of time in a hospital or clinic in their lives, for a broken bone, a disease, or some functional change to their teeth, or whatever else. It's all pretty accepted, nobody thinks that it's a fringe thing.
We should accept that the way we look at psychiatry or targeted support for mental illnesses should be similar to surgery for broken bones: if you have a sprain just take good care of things at home with basic knowledge, but if there's a chance you have a fracture you won't make your bones heal well by praying or by finding a blog post, you need professionals for however long that situation lasts. And there are way more mental fractures out there than people like to admit to themselves and each others.
I just think it's time we as a society accept and understand that having support and medication for things that relate to our mental health is fully part of the toolbox of healing, and not a fringe thing that remains on the sidelines for an insignificant proportion of people.
Most people will spend some amount of time in a hospital or clinic in their lives, for a broken bone, a disease, or some functional change to their teeth, or whatever else. It's all pretty accepted, nobody thinks that it's a fringe thing.
We should accept that the way we look at psychiatry or targeted support for mental illnesses should be similar to surgery for broken bones: if you have a sprain just take good care of things at home with basic knowledge, but if there's a chance you have a fracture you won't make your bones heal well by praying or by finding a blog post, you need professionals for however long that situation lasts. And there are way more mental fractures out there than people like to admit to themselves and each others.
[deleted]
> who you are can absolutely be changed by external circumstances
I believe the point of the last sentence is exactly that your experiences in the external world can change you. But the difference is that you should decide how it changes you. You should decide how you can bring smarter nuance to you principles to avoid the exhausting emotional drama in the world, and you should decide how to alter your ideas/strategy (the sword) to better shape your life to meet your life's goals and serve the people you love.
This is the ideal - it is often not a reflection of our very human reality. ...but it is, through years of practice, something that can be closely attained. The prayer is the acceptance that we are flawed emotional humans - and it is just a simple tactic to remember to aspire to being in control of our emotional state - rather than letting it control us.
We can identify our self-worth according to who we are inside (our principles, thing love we have, and the goals we have), rather than passively allow the world to beat us what it finds useful.
Mental illness falls outside the scope of this prayer. If someone has mental illness, then this (or any) prayer isn't going to solve their problems and they should seek professional help.
I believe the point of the last sentence is exactly that your experiences in the external world can change you. But the difference is that you should decide how it changes you. You should decide how you can bring smarter nuance to you principles to avoid the exhausting emotional drama in the world, and you should decide how to alter your ideas/strategy (the sword) to better shape your life to meet your life's goals and serve the people you love.
This is the ideal - it is often not a reflection of our very human reality. ...but it is, through years of practice, something that can be closely attained. The prayer is the acceptance that we are flawed emotional humans - and it is just a simple tactic to remember to aspire to being in control of our emotional state - rather than letting it control us.
We can identify our self-worth according to who we are inside (our principles, thing love we have, and the goals we have), rather than passively allow the world to beat us what it finds useful.
Mental illness falls outside the scope of this prayer. If someone has mental illness, then this (or any) prayer isn't going to solve their problems and they should seek professional help.
You're right about that. I was in such a situation: I had strong feelings of anxiety, sadness, low self esteem. I went to a psychologist & psychiatrist and got a bit anti depressive medication, many books to read, meditation exercises, mindfulness. All these things were good and helpful, and I guess in most cases it's what's needed.
But nothing of all that totally helped; I still had this sadness and anxiety and lack/absence of self confidence.
Then many years later turns out I have an illness, hypothyreosis, that causes this. And medication (levothyroxine) made all this go away, and I'm a different person nowadays.
> who you are can absolutely be changed by [...] circumstances [...] illnesses
That's very correct. I've been two different personalities — one sad, anxious, withdrawn, another happy and social. It's weird what hormone levels can do to the brain and who one ... who one is? one's personality.
Anyway, if someone has depression and anxiety feelings, and meditation and self help books won't make that go away — then, a blood sample test, it's just 5 minutes. (Well, plus bus / subway / something to the health clinic.)
But nothing of all that totally helped; I still had this sadness and anxiety and lack/absence of self confidence.
Then many years later turns out I have an illness, hypothyreosis, that causes this. And medication (levothyroxine) made all this go away, and I'm a different person nowadays.
> who you are can absolutely be changed by [...] circumstances [...] illnesses
That's very correct. I've been two different personalities — one sad, anxious, withdrawn, another happy and social. It's weird what hormone levels can do to the brain and who one ... who one is? one's personality.
Anyway, if someone has depression and anxiety feelings, and meditation and self help books won't make that go away — then, a blood sample test, it's just 5 minutes. (Well, plus bus / subway / something to the health clinic.)
[deleted]
Awesome mantra. Been through similar circumstances and came up with a similar (though not as explicitly stated) coping mechanism. You come through such trials so much more emotionally resilient. Salute.
Great mantra, very Stoic!
I read your post a few hours ago, and it stuck with me long enough that I've returned to up-vote and reply.
Thank you, genuinely.
Thank you, genuinely.
This is such a good mantra. I will remember this. Thank you.
This is a really wonderful way to reframe your perspective.
Wonderful. Stoicism in action. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks man. <3
“If there is no solution to the problem then don't waste time worrying about it. If there is a solution to the problem then don't waste time worrying about it.”
-- The Dalai Lama
I've spent a lot of my career working to correct projects that have been in a terrible state and had the privilege to mentor and help pull people out of bad situations.
One of the big things I try to do is to get people to think about what they care about and how much they care. Good people do a lot of harm to themselves by caring about the wrong things: they want to be the hero in their story, but forget that six months from now nobody will remember the sacrifices they made.
One part of this is to accept the amount of work that needs to be done is only impacted in a small way by the work you've done today. If you work 8 hours or 16 hours there's still going to be too much work tomorrow.
Working longer hours generally does nothing than hide structural issues. By encouraging teams to cut their workload from 60+ hour weeks to 40, you are forcing these issues into the open.
For those that are ever in a bad situation I'm happy to listen (my contact details are in my profile), sometimes you just need somebody with an external perspective.
I've spent a lot of my career working to correct projects that have been in a terrible state and had the privilege to mentor and help pull people out of bad situations.
One of the big things I try to do is to get people to think about what they care about and how much they care. Good people do a lot of harm to themselves by caring about the wrong things: they want to be the hero in their story, but forget that six months from now nobody will remember the sacrifices they made.
One part of this is to accept the amount of work that needs to be done is only impacted in a small way by the work you've done today. If you work 8 hours or 16 hours there's still going to be too much work tomorrow.
Working longer hours generally does nothing than hide structural issues. By encouraging teams to cut their workload from 60+ hour weeks to 40, you are forcing these issues into the open.
For those that are ever in a bad situation I'm happy to listen (my contact details are in my profile), sometimes you just need somebody with an external perspective.
I also appreciate this quote, because it sets up a mature way of looking at things, categorising, and dealing with them.
However, I'm less of a fan of the opening words; it's not so much that this should be magically granted on to us with a wishing wand, it's something we need to consciously work on, from within. Somehow that slogging, gritty aspect is less represented.
However, I'm less of a fan of the opening words; it's not so much that this should be magically granted on to us with a wishing wand, it's something we need to consciously work on, from within. Somehow that slogging, gritty aspect is less represented.
That is not what praying is about. A healthy prayer is a form of meditation, like "meditate on how you want your future to look like". It is a reconnection with the higher self. It is already an attempt to access something from within. It is a technique to understand thing about oneself, to build up internal structure and organize inner spiritual work.
But if you base your conception of prayer on a sketch from Monty Python or maybe a mentally ill person on the street who uses some christian terms for progressing their own insanity, then in that conception maybe prayer is a way to "magically grant with a wishing wand". But this is not what healthy use of the term is about. I assume the original poster who used this word is not insane and looks at the implicit meaning of the quote, which if looked at in that light, makes a lot of sense.
But if you base your conception of prayer on a sketch from Monty Python or maybe a mentally ill person on the street who uses some christian terms for progressing their own insanity, then in that conception maybe prayer is a way to "magically grant with a wishing wand". But this is not what healthy use of the term is about. I assume the original poster who used this word is not insane and looks at the implicit meaning of the quote, which if looked at in that light, makes a lot of sense.
Whether it's intentional or not, saying something like, "That is not what praying is about," is inviting an ecumenical squabble.
Prayer's about a lot of things to a lot of people. Regardless of whether you think a way that other people do it is correct or not, it still exists and is a thing. And offering strangers uninvited, prescriptive advice on how a religious practice should be done is a form of proselytization.
I think, in this case, it's more useful to recognize and observe the context. For example, I am inclined to agree that the "God grant me the..." at the start of that particular prayer is typically understood, at least in the community where I grew up, as more of an idiom than an actual request of God. Very much like how neutronicus put it in a sibling comment. Even atheists will use it that way without any sense of dissonance. But there are also plenty of Christians who understand God as being a lot more hands-on about things, and that would support a different understanding of the prayer's connotations, which is every bit as valid.
Prayer's about a lot of things to a lot of people. Regardless of whether you think a way that other people do it is correct or not, it still exists and is a thing. And offering strangers uninvited, prescriptive advice on how a religious practice should be done is a form of proselytization.
I think, in this case, it's more useful to recognize and observe the context. For example, I am inclined to agree that the "God grant me the..." at the start of that particular prayer is typically understood, at least in the community where I grew up, as more of an idiom than an actual request of God. Very much like how neutronicus put it in a sibling comment. Even atheists will use it that way without any sense of dissonance. But there are also plenty of Christians who understand God as being a lot more hands-on about things, and that would support a different understanding of the prayer's connotations, which is every bit as valid.
It was probably an ill-constructed phrase, yes. I was trying to convey something like "there exists, shared by a large number of people (although not all), a definition of the word "prayer", such that it is functional, objectively meaningful
, deep, well-understood and consensus-based, which is deeper than the previously suggested definition, and which makes more sense in the context in which it was used". I don't know how to put that into clean words without inviting a squabble.
A prayer is not a meditation. A prayer is a conversation. Meditation is either focusing on something or nothing. A conversation with your higher self is probably more like a prayer.
IMO your point is implicit in the Christian cultural context.
You don't say "God grant..." before sure bets; it's implicit that there's some risk of failure and you're gonna need to meet the Big Man halfway.
You don't say "God grant..." before sure bets; it's implicit that there's some risk of failure and you're gonna need to meet the Big Man halfway.
If the theological content is unnecessary, then who are you expecting to grant you the things requested in the prayer?
Well if we're splitting hairs, here, I think:
1. There's Christian cultural context regarding the phrase "God grant..." that is necessary to understand the prayer
2. To wit, when Christians use this phrase, it is both an exhortation to self-reliance and an honest admission of personal flaws that may sabotage the pursuit of self-reliance.
3. There is of course also the implication that the Christian theological tradition is the best way to achieve self-reliance in spite of character flaws.
My glib aside was meant to assert that 2. is in fact mostly orthogonal to 3.
1. There's Christian cultural context regarding the phrase "God grant..." that is necessary to understand the prayer
2. To wit, when Christians use this phrase, it is both an exhortation to self-reliance and an honest admission of personal flaws that may sabotage the pursuit of self-reliance.
3. There is of course also the implication that the Christian theological tradition is the best way to achieve self-reliance in spite of character flaws.
My glib aside was meant to assert that 2. is in fact mostly orthogonal to 3.
It is more like a mantra to remind yourself.
That is an exercise left up to the user. It could be the air if that's what they decide is the granter. The point is that it isn't you. For some reason that flip works for a lot of folks.
It is an appeal to one's Self.
Oneself.
This is a surprisingly difficult question that I would have (5-10 years ago) totally brushed away to the side as irrelevant and meaningless, thinking that there is only rational physical stuff and that is all we are supposed to think about.
Now, I still don't believe in anything literally supernatural. I don't think any quantum woo or mysterious psychic connection or literal sky daddies exist.
The point is, our mind at its core operates in terms that can be best spoken to in such metaphor. Just like we don't "see" wavelengths or spectra, we see color. If I told you that red is high frequency and blue is lower frequency light, you'd probably believe it, if you hadn't learned the opposite in physics class.
We see color and not light frequency, we see objects, we see tools, we see potential paths to walk on, we see handles to grab, we use tools as extensions of the body (with the brain actually mapping out some tools as if they were limbs).
In the same way much of what we experience in terms of emotional/spiritual life (if you don't suppress it and are mature enough) is very religious sounding old-fashioned terms like good and evil, temptation, redemption, salvation, revenge, punishment and forgiveness, wisdom and contemplation, sin and penance, suffering and attainment, grace and humbleness.
10 years ago all the above words meant jack shit to me, just some mumbo jumbo that bigoted old people use to condemn the youthful because they are too old and impotent and envious of the youth.
The thing is, the more you look into philosophy with a more open mind, you see that it actually has content behind it. To put it in more rational terms, you become aware of and able to discuss things that happen in the more animalistic part of the brain, that makes you excited, anxious, sad, joyful. It's easy to believe that all this is just straightforward "bad events -> sadness", "good events -> joy".
If you meditate, if you wind down in the evening and are mature and have some life stories of both success and disappointment, you will see that a lot of that stuff is best processed in spiritual terms and by relating it to archetypal stories. I've been reading Jordan Peterson on this matter, and while I don't agree with his conclusions in many cases, I do find it to be a good bridge between the rational scientific endeavor (you need to know the frequency of blue light to create lcd screens etc.), and the personal/spiritual manifestation of it (the blue handle of a hammer that I'm already preparing to grab in my mind).
It's not that the magic sky daddy gives us the stuff we ask for in prayer, like a vending machine. But for one reason or another, pretending to act out a sacrifice story or "asking god" why something happened can be useful.
You can substitute other words if you have an aversion to Christian terminology, you can say you're connecting to yourself, your higher self, the consciousness of the universe.
The thing is, ideas and insight doesn't come from forcing. Just like you don't pull on a plant forcefully to make it grow, you nourish it from below and with sunlight and air.
Nobody can make themselves have a great idea. In our experience, ideas just present themselves. Obviously they are not magically handed to us, but it looks "as if". Of course it's a complex brain process that involves long term memory, hormones, interactions of various brain parts, etc. Knowing the details of this can be beneficial, but just because you understand the brain chemistry of alcohol intoxication doesn't mean you won't get black out drunk if you drink a lot. Similarly somehow it is deeply ingrained in us to see things in terms of agents and purposeful patterns. One way to deal with this is to label this as a thinking error, an erroneous heuristic making too many false positives, a mistaken overdrive of the empathic part of the brain, something to eradicate. That's how I used to think.
Once you understand all this, you can be capable of discussing, untangling and managing your emotions and the archetypal/spiritual language can be a way to formulate this.
However when things get intense, I like to freshen it all up a bit with reading Zen koans. Zen koans are somewhat like "serious jokes" and confront your overly analytical mind with freezing shocks. They are playful, non-literal, but sometimes literal, or hanging in the air in between.
Now, I still don't believe in anything literally supernatural. I don't think any quantum woo or mysterious psychic connection or literal sky daddies exist.
The point is, our mind at its core operates in terms that can be best spoken to in such metaphor. Just like we don't "see" wavelengths or spectra, we see color. If I told you that red is high frequency and blue is lower frequency light, you'd probably believe it, if you hadn't learned the opposite in physics class.
We see color and not light frequency, we see objects, we see tools, we see potential paths to walk on, we see handles to grab, we use tools as extensions of the body (with the brain actually mapping out some tools as if they were limbs).
In the same way much of what we experience in terms of emotional/spiritual life (if you don't suppress it and are mature enough) is very religious sounding old-fashioned terms like good and evil, temptation, redemption, salvation, revenge, punishment and forgiveness, wisdom and contemplation, sin and penance, suffering and attainment, grace and humbleness.
10 years ago all the above words meant jack shit to me, just some mumbo jumbo that bigoted old people use to condemn the youthful because they are too old and impotent and envious of the youth.
The thing is, the more you look into philosophy with a more open mind, you see that it actually has content behind it. To put it in more rational terms, you become aware of and able to discuss things that happen in the more animalistic part of the brain, that makes you excited, anxious, sad, joyful. It's easy to believe that all this is just straightforward "bad events -> sadness", "good events -> joy".
If you meditate, if you wind down in the evening and are mature and have some life stories of both success and disappointment, you will see that a lot of that stuff is best processed in spiritual terms and by relating it to archetypal stories. I've been reading Jordan Peterson on this matter, and while I don't agree with his conclusions in many cases, I do find it to be a good bridge between the rational scientific endeavor (you need to know the frequency of blue light to create lcd screens etc.), and the personal/spiritual manifestation of it (the blue handle of a hammer that I'm already preparing to grab in my mind).
It's not that the magic sky daddy gives us the stuff we ask for in prayer, like a vending machine. But for one reason or another, pretending to act out a sacrifice story or "asking god" why something happened can be useful.
You can substitute other words if you have an aversion to Christian terminology, you can say you're connecting to yourself, your higher self, the consciousness of the universe.
The thing is, ideas and insight doesn't come from forcing. Just like you don't pull on a plant forcefully to make it grow, you nourish it from below and with sunlight and air.
Nobody can make themselves have a great idea. In our experience, ideas just present themselves. Obviously they are not magically handed to us, but it looks "as if". Of course it's a complex brain process that involves long term memory, hormones, interactions of various brain parts, etc. Knowing the details of this can be beneficial, but just because you understand the brain chemistry of alcohol intoxication doesn't mean you won't get black out drunk if you drink a lot. Similarly somehow it is deeply ingrained in us to see things in terms of agents and purposeful patterns. One way to deal with this is to label this as a thinking error, an erroneous heuristic making too many false positives, a mistaken overdrive of the empathic part of the brain, something to eradicate. That's how I used to think.
Once you understand all this, you can be capable of discussing, untangling and managing your emotions and the archetypal/spiritual language can be a way to formulate this.
However when things get intense, I like to freshen it all up a bit with reading Zen koans. Zen koans are somewhat like "serious jokes" and confront your overly analytical mind with freezing shocks. They are playful, non-literal, but sometimes literal, or hanging in the air in between.
Don’t be afraid of the theological content. It’s a good prayer. God believes in you even if you don’t believe in him.
OP didn’t say he was afraid, but that it was unnecessary which is objectively true - I don’t personally have a belief in gods, you have a belief in a particular god but we can both get value out of acceptance and serenity.
The differences of opinion here on the topic of the necessity of the theological content suggest that it is not, as you say, "objectively true".
Just because it is not necessary for you does not permit you to project your opinions on the rest of humanity.
Just because it is not necessary for you does not permit you to project your opinions on the rest of humanity.
You are moving the goalposts.
You get value out of peace and serenity, yes? So do I. I take you at your word that you believe in a particular god, I would assume you take me at my word that I don’t believe in any gods.
If both of those things are true, then gods are not required to take value out of the idea of serenity. The only way that this could not be true as if one of us are lying.
You get value out of peace and serenity, yes? So do I. I take you at your word that you believe in a particular god, I would assume you take me at my word that I don’t believe in any gods.
If both of those things are true, then gods are not required to take value out of the idea of serenity. The only way that this could not be true as if one of us are lying.
Sad that you get downvoted just because your views aren't "a la mode".
I'm not religious any more but I see no need to be anti-religious
I've always loved that (also, sans theological content). It's good advice for anyone. It's strong statement because in one sentence it can give someone something that a lot of people may not have - self awareness in the face of anxiety.
I love it too, but let's be honest, the devil is in the details, I think most people agonize because they dont really know if their problem can or cannot be solved with more action from them. I for sure accept the things I really know I cannot change, and work in those I clearly know are under my control. The anxiety comes from those things I am lost in the sense I dont know if I should push more or I should give up.
My next tattoo is representing "the devil is in the details".
I've had so many discussions with people over the years where someone will say "why doesn't X company/government just do Y". Well, because it's very rarely that easy. Just use black magic, that'll solve all our problems right?
I've had so many discussions with people over the years where someone will say "why doesn't X company/government just do Y". Well, because it's very rarely that easy. Just use black magic, that'll solve all our problems right?
On the other hand people "just do Z" every day. People make decisions and do stuff without infinitely agonizing over it.
As a mundane example: "Why don't I just stand up and go to pee? My bladder is exploding." "Well, because you're kind of stupid, you should indeed go to pee." "But if it was that easy, I would have already done it 5 minutes ago!"
Things are never settled and fully in balance. There are constantly surfacing opportunities to do something positive, ranging from straightforward to counter-intuitive.
It's not good to shut down all thinking with "nope, surely can't be done; if it could be, people would have done it already".
Thinking about why a company won't just do X or trying to put yourself in their shoes and come up with ideas is good mental exercise. Not everything is in a perfectly balanced out equilibrium. Otherwise there would be no profit made in this world.
Why bother doing research? If something is easy to discover, why haven't people already discovered it?
Of course I get the sentiment, you should think deeply before trying to revolutionize the strategy of a company. But ultimately the people who do decide on the strategy also don't precisely know what will be best. Nobody knows how one or another decision will actually pan out, in interaction with the real world with all the other things going on etc.
At some point you have to say, I've got enough details now, I'll make a choice. It will never feel completely satisfying. Either way it pans out, there will be a bunch of people who will say "they told you so", even just by pure chance.
As a mundane example: "Why don't I just stand up and go to pee? My bladder is exploding." "Well, because you're kind of stupid, you should indeed go to pee." "But if it was that easy, I would have already done it 5 minutes ago!"
Things are never settled and fully in balance. There are constantly surfacing opportunities to do something positive, ranging from straightforward to counter-intuitive.
It's not good to shut down all thinking with "nope, surely can't be done; if it could be, people would have done it already".
Thinking about why a company won't just do X or trying to put yourself in their shoes and come up with ideas is good mental exercise. Not everything is in a perfectly balanced out equilibrium. Otherwise there would be no profit made in this world.
Why bother doing research? If something is easy to discover, why haven't people already discovered it?
Of course I get the sentiment, you should think deeply before trying to revolutionize the strategy of a company. But ultimately the people who do decide on the strategy also don't precisely know what will be best. Nobody knows how one or another decision will actually pan out, in interaction with the real world with all the other things going on etc.
At some point you have to say, I've got enough details now, I'll make a choice. It will never feel completely satisfying. Either way it pans out, there will be a bunch of people who will say "they told you so", even just by pure chance.
The opposite of the "shit's easy" attitude, the "nothing can ever be done" is also bad. In the end, many countries and US states have answered all those questions and fleshed out the legislation to legalize marijuana.
Just look around you, and you see tons of stuff that was done, despite the difficulty.
Just look around you, and you see tons of stuff that was done, despite the difficulty.
I have mixed feelings about the quote, at least as far as I understand it or have heard it interpreted.
Specifically when it comes to systematic change, be that in a code base, a companies organisation or a countries political system. The mindsets of people go trough the spectrum of such systems being as easy to change as snipping a finger (and that doing so is a good idea) to it being impossible or dangerous so you should not even try.
From my perspective, pretty much anything can be changed in any direction. But it might take enormous effort to do so, way more than one could do alone and I might not even be around anymore when the change "finishes". While I could think of a hundred things that I would like to change or actually resist change, I only have the time and energy to focus on one or two at a time.
So for me, having overworked myself in the past, it boils down to consciously think of what I should and can burden myself with, when I should give up something and what the realistic outcomes are to find a good mix between ambition, effectiveness and health.
Specifically when it comes to systematic change, be that in a code base, a companies organisation or a countries political system. The mindsets of people go trough the spectrum of such systems being as easy to change as snipping a finger (and that doing so is a good idea) to it being impossible or dangerous so you should not even try.
From my perspective, pretty much anything can be changed in any direction. But it might take enormous effort to do so, way more than one could do alone and I might not even be around anymore when the change "finishes". While I could think of a hundred things that I would like to change or actually resist change, I only have the time and energy to focus on one or two at a time.
So for me, having overworked myself in the past, it boils down to consciously think of what I should and can burden myself with, when I should give up something and what the realistic outcomes are to find a good mix between ambition, effectiveness and health.
Matter, how tiny my share
Time, how brief my allotment
Fate, how small my roll to play
Self, all that can be mastered
Time, how brief my allotment
Fate, how small my roll to play
Self, all that can be mastered
I've spent around 34 years writing code so far. My last project was an online order system for a lunch restaurant. To get an idea what kind of problems they're dealing with, I started by working two weeks in the restaurant.
To my surprise I found that I actually enjoy delivering food more than writing code. As long as the customers get the food they ordered delivered in time, everyone is happy. And once I'm done, I'm done. No more lying awake at night going back and forth over some design decision and worrying about consequences from choices already made.
It's not as mentally stimulating, and I earn way less money, but I'm finding it harder and harder to find the motivation to go back to writing code.
To my surprise I found that I actually enjoy delivering food more than writing code. As long as the customers get the food they ordered delivered in time, everyone is happy. And once I'm done, I'm done. No more lying awake at night going back and forth over some design decision and worrying about consequences from choices already made.
It's not as mentally stimulating, and I earn way less money, but I'm finding it harder and harder to find the motivation to go back to writing code.
I get this entirely. And for me, this is driven by broken feedback loops in software.
Some years back, I started a company with an excellent product manager, one very focused on actual user impact. One of the first things we did is build a tiny, cheap usability lab; every Tuesday we'd have 4 users in to try things out. We rigged it so engineers could watch the sessions remotely, and for the sessions we didn't watch, he'd share key bits. It was really satisfying to see stuff getting used, what worked, what didn't.
Later, as we grew, we still kept the user tests, but added on a slick system for experiments. All of us were involved in thinking about what to test next, how we could make things better. My cofounder was definitely the best at that, but we all made contributions. We all were engaged. We all paid attention to what we were doing for users.
And it helped that despite being a startup, we were big on automated testing and pair programming. When my mom got sick, I took two weeks off and everybody was fine without me. They carried on releasing a few times a day, trusting in each other and in the safety net we had built for ourselves.
It seems to me that the average development process, which is generally about building whatever people with organizational power want, is emotionally corrosive. It wears us down, because it isn't satisfying on a human level. Which, IMHO, makes it way less efficient.
Some years back, I started a company with an excellent product manager, one very focused on actual user impact. One of the first things we did is build a tiny, cheap usability lab; every Tuesday we'd have 4 users in to try things out. We rigged it so engineers could watch the sessions remotely, and for the sessions we didn't watch, he'd share key bits. It was really satisfying to see stuff getting used, what worked, what didn't.
Later, as we grew, we still kept the user tests, but added on a slick system for experiments. All of us were involved in thinking about what to test next, how we could make things better. My cofounder was definitely the best at that, but we all made contributions. We all were engaged. We all paid attention to what we were doing for users.
And it helped that despite being a startup, we were big on automated testing and pair programming. When my mom got sick, I took two weeks off and everybody was fine without me. They carried on releasing a few times a day, trusting in each other and in the safety net we had built for ourselves.
It seems to me that the average development process, which is generally about building whatever people with organizational power want, is emotionally corrosive. It wears us down, because it isn't satisfying on a human level. Which, IMHO, makes it way less efficient.
Tight feedback loops that include everyone from the customer through to developers have been the key to success on every successful product I’ve been a part of.
It’s been difficult for me to reconcile these feedback loops and whole-team involvement with the current online push for asynchronous workflows. In my experience, the developers who want to isolate themselves at home or in their office, pull tickets out of a queue and submit a PR at their leisure were the least likely to succeed at improving the product. The developers who never hesitated to jump into a discussion or meeting with the rest of the team or get involved with the product planning sessions were the ones who moved the product forward the most.
Don’t get me wrong: There’s a time and place for isolated, heads-down work. Frivolous meetings and endless planning sessions must be minimized in favor of action. However, the current online mentality in favor of asynchronous work, minimal real-time in-person interaction, and strict “not my job” separation of developer/product manager roles is swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction, IMO. Everyone, from developers to customers, tends to be happier when they’re all included and active in the decision making processes.
It’s been difficult for me to reconcile these feedback loops and whole-team involvement with the current online push for asynchronous workflows. In my experience, the developers who want to isolate themselves at home or in their office, pull tickets out of a queue and submit a PR at their leisure were the least likely to succeed at improving the product. The developers who never hesitated to jump into a discussion or meeting with the rest of the team or get involved with the product planning sessions were the ones who moved the product forward the most.
Don’t get me wrong: There’s a time and place for isolated, heads-down work. Frivolous meetings and endless planning sessions must be minimized in favor of action. However, the current online mentality in favor of asynchronous work, minimal real-time in-person interaction, and strict “not my job” separation of developer/product manager roles is swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction, IMO. Everyone, from developers to customers, tends to be happier when they’re all included and active in the decision making processes.
100% agreed. This is my big fear about the shift to remote work: it can deeply exacerbate organizational pathology.
For what it's worth, I've worked with a couple teams that were remote and great at this, so it's not impossible. One was a small startup. The developers had worked together in person for years and were really well bonded. Once they added in some remote pairing, it was fantastic. The other was a Mozilla team where they put a lot of emphasis on close collaboration. Between the two, I have a fair bit of hope.
For what it's worth, I've worked with a couple teams that were remote and great at this, so it's not impossible. One was a small startup. The developers had worked together in person for years and were really well bonded. Once they added in some remote pairing, it was fantastic. The other was a Mozilla team where they put a lot of emphasis on close collaboration. Between the two, I have a fair bit of hope.
Screen sharing is a big deal when doing validation as well as usability studies. Random movement of the mouse and the tone of voice can tell you a lot about how the user is handling the new functionality.
Maybe one of the silver linings of this mess will be that people are more familiar with screen sharing software after this.
Maybe one of the silver linings of this mess will be that people are more familiar with screen sharing software after this.
Definitely, I've been through all sorts of roles at all sorts of companies.
This was freelancing though; I had full freedom to do things my way, which is how I ended up working for two weeks to learn about their problems.
And I still prefer delivering food to working on the software. Thankfully, they're super happy with it and there's not much left to do.
This was freelancing though; I had full freedom to do things my way, which is how I ended up working for two weeks to learn about their problems.
And I still prefer delivering food to working on the software. Thankfully, they're super happy with it and there's not much left to do.
I hope that after a while you think about building some product for an audience you like. Your natural empathy and willingness to engage users make me think you'd be stellar at doing your own thing.
How do you recruit users? Do you pay them?
Depends a lot on your audience. In our case we were making a general consumer product, so we just advertised on Craigslist saying we were doing market research. You get a lot of dross that way, but my cofounder had a sophisticated screener questionnaire and ways to root out most of the goofs.
I've found CL hit or miss as well. It's good to hear that screening can work. I also pay a "stipend."
Definitely. I think it's worth paying well in comparison with other gigs.
Two screener tricks that I recall:
One is getting in a little market research. Add a few questions that you've been wanting to know anyhow.
The other is including plausible-sounding answers that let you reject liars. For example, we had a grid section that asked, "How often do you use these sites?" One axis was frequency, "several times a day", "daily", a few times a week", etc. The other axis was the name of a bunch of sites, including popular things like Facebook and Amazon. But we'd also make sure to include more obscure things, and a couple of entirely fake ones.
Two screener tricks that I recall:
One is getting in a little market research. Add a few questions that you've been wanting to know anyhow.
The other is including plausible-sounding answers that let you reject liars. For example, we had a grid section that asked, "How often do you use these sites?" One axis was frequency, "several times a day", "daily", a few times a week", etc. The other axis was the name of a bunch of sites, including popular things like Facebook and Amazon. But we'd also make sure to include more obscure things, and a couple of entirely fake ones.
> And once I'm done, I'm done.
My wife does live production (AV) for big shows and concerts. It's a stressful job; for a lot of it, you're on tight timelines and have one chance to get it right. Any mistake you make is pretty clearly obvious to all of the people in the room. You plan the shit out of it ahead of time: one missing item on a truck can be a (pardon the pun) show stopper.
But like you said, at the end of the night, when the trucks are all packed up, you get to go home and never worry about that particular job ever again. If something went wrong, there might be a post-mortem the next day with lessons learned for next time, but it's over.
Some days I am thankful that I don't have her job. Some days I am jealous that she gets to walk away from it all at the end of the night.
My wife does live production (AV) for big shows and concerts. It's a stressful job; for a lot of it, you're on tight timelines and have one chance to get it right. Any mistake you make is pretty clearly obvious to all of the people in the room. You plan the shit out of it ahead of time: one missing item on a truck can be a (pardon the pun) show stopper.
But like you said, at the end of the night, when the trucks are all packed up, you get to go home and never worry about that particular job ever again. If something went wrong, there might be a post-mortem the next day with lessons learned for next time, but it's over.
Some days I am thankful that I don't have her job. Some days I am jealous that she gets to walk away from it all at the end of the night.
As someone who has both coded and worked in restaurants for over a decade each, I assume that once the novelty wears off, you'll a) probably get start getting frustrated with restaurant life, overall and b) the lower income has its own long-term stressors that will grate on you.
I could be wrong though. If you end up just genuinely being a restaurant person, maybe occasionally doing some coding to supplement your income, that's fantastic. There are many things I loved about the restaurant industry.
I could be wrong though. If you end up just genuinely being a restaurant person, maybe occasionally doing some coding to supplement your income, that's fantastic. There are many things I loved about the restaurant industry.
A few years ago I picked up a dumb mechanical second job at a rental store where I worked ~20h/month after work an on weekends. I didn't need the money but I needed the feeling of truly getting something done.
When I left the store at night, every customer had been served, every piece of equipment had been cleaned, the money had been counted. I was just done. It felt great.
I solve problems every day, I never get done, every day its something new that needs fixing. Every year that passes I feel more and more that I'm just not made for this kind of work :(.
When I left the store at night, every customer had been served, every piece of equipment had been cleaned, the money had been counted. I was just done. It felt great.
I solve problems every day, I never get done, every day its something new that needs fixing. Every year that passes I feel more and more that I'm just not made for this kind of work :(.
I find I like lots of "menial" work a lot better than programming. As long as it didn't wreck my body (I like doing construction labor but it'll destroy you) I'd much, much rather do that than programming. Food delivery seems like it'd be great, bonus if it's bike delivery. Clerking at a small non-chain retail business would probably be a great time (if the owners weren't dicks—always an important qualifier with these sorts of jobs).
But, money and easy to find a job.
But, money and easy to find a job.
A while back (I'd guess about 15 years ago, so suddenly I feel old), Jack Ganssle (http://www.ganssle.com/tem-subunsub.html) said he was selling his embedded tooling company, SoftAid because after doing it for so long, he had gotten tired of "pushing the same bits around."
At the time, I simply couldn't understand that. Sure, I hadn't been writing code as long as he had, but I couldn't imagine enjoying anything more than that. I absolutely loved twiddling bits and watching mechanical systems do what my code told it to.
Fast forward to now. I still really enjoy software/hardware/mechanisms/coding/design etc., but if I had to give it up tomorrow, I know I could find something I love just as much.
It's a really big world and there are a lot of sandboxes to play in.
At the time, I simply couldn't understand that. Sure, I hadn't been writing code as long as he had, but I couldn't imagine enjoying anything more than that. I absolutely loved twiddling bits and watching mechanical systems do what my code told it to.
Fast forward to now. I still really enjoy software/hardware/mechanisms/coding/design etc., but if I had to give it up tomorrow, I know I could find something I love just as much.
It's a really big world and there are a lot of sandboxes to play in.
> To get an idea what kind of problems they're dealing with, I started by working two weeks in the restaurant.
LOVE this.
LOVE this.
And as a result, the system is a total success so far.
Without any kind of specifications or design meetings beyond a 5 minute chat here and there.
Without any kind of specifications or design meetings beyond a 5 minute chat here and there.
Can I ask whose idea was it that you work in the restaurant? I love that and such people (who do like you do) I'd like to work with
It was your idea? What did they say, they were surprised?
It was your idea? What did they say, they were surprised?
It was their idea, and I was a bit surprised, but it felt like the right thing to do and for once I was my own boss.
The guy who's running the restaurant together with his wife is/was an engineer, he hasn't done any coding but he knows enough to be aware of the specification problem.
The guy who's running the restaurant together with his wife is/was an engineer, he hasn't done any coding but he knows enough to be aware of the specification problem.
Nice clients to work with :-)
I'm curious about if you get paid / if you charge software developer rates when working in the restaurant?
I'm curious about if you get paid / if you charge software developer rates when working in the restaurant?
I'm reminded of that time I got an after-work part-time job at a higher-end sports store. At first they might not have wanted to hire me for being overqualified and leaving, but they had trouble hiring anyway so there I was. They provided a full week of training on textiles and other things I found fascinating. Surprisingly, it was actually quite enjoyable. I just talked to customers about products and things and there was really no preparation or follow-up after the day is done.
The only stressful parts were getting there on time after work (because I tend to linger at work doing that one last thing) and the parking tickets because it was so limited and some spots required top-up payments (before apps). I ended up in tennis-wear because a mature person giving frank opinions of how things look on people (mostly women shopping) seems effective. Anyway I lasted longer than most of the younger hires and gave it up part way through the winter because driving/parking in that was just too much. Maybe something like that but outdoors might be a great thing to try.
The only stressful parts were getting there on time after work (because I tend to linger at work doing that one last thing) and the parking tickets because it was so limited and some spots required top-up payments (before apps). I ended up in tennis-wear because a mature person giving frank opinions of how things look on people (mostly women shopping) seems effective. Anyway I lasted longer than most of the younger hires and gave it up part way through the winter because driving/parking in that was just too much. Maybe something like that but outdoors might be a great thing to try.
As The Little Prince would say were he a coder: you are forever responsible for the code you write.
Every new system an organization takes on requires maintenance, training, etc. This takes time from the coders and is frequently not taken into account.
Every new system an organization takes on requires maintenance, training, etc. This takes time from the coders and is frequently not taken into account.
> you are forever responsible for the code you write.
Developers stay at companies for 1-2 years, so it seems like you get frequent resets.
Developers stay at companies for 1-2 years, so it seems like you get frequent resets.
That is highly dependent on the company and I'd guess the industry.
I've been at the same place going on 8 years. My father in law has been at the same place for 30.
I've been at the same place going on 8 years. My father in law has been at the same place for 30.
My wife was reading our kids The Little Prince the other day when I was getting ready to leave for work. I really like that book. The movie they made for it is pretty good too.
Agreed. I’ve been developing at the same place for nine years. High growth company. You gain insight into writing maintainability that I don’t think is possible for folks that jump ship so often.
(I live in a country that pays living wages to waiters and the like, so this may sway my opinion)
tbh same. I'm great at what I do, but I still very much miss the restaurant environment / more directly helping people.
tbh same. I'm great at what I do, but I still very much miss the restaurant environment / more directly helping people.
Good for you! You can always go back if you get the itch. Most tech changes too quickly to catch up with only at the cosmetic level anyway. For evidence, see any of the cycles of coders in new stacks rediscovering patterns from two stacks ago "for the first time".
Im on the opposite side. I worked at a restaurant for 12 years and it was the worst time of my life. I would constantly get called into work at 3 am due to random people not showing up. Inventory, dealing with 20+ people who don't care about the job. Terrible customers, and horrible people really left my bitter. To top it all off I was stresseed out of my mind and broke. Im a dev now and its deff stressful but doesn't compare to my days in a restaurant,plus I have some money now.Guess the grass is always greener
Yeah this feels very American Beauty, rose-tinted glasses. Kevin Spacey goes to work in a drive thru stress-free because he doesn't care about the job or need the money and is sick of responsibilities. Same thing here. Except we needed that job and had to be responsible because we didn't want to make $5.25/hr or have terrible shifts.
You're only there for 2 weeks, you know you're only there for 2 weeks and everyone knows you're not going to get the terrible end of the stick unless they're specifically going out of their way.
I delivered a lot of different food in high school and it honestly was one of the worst jobs of my career, I'd much rather work in retail or clean pools. All of my income went into gas and repairing my car. If I got a tip it was a few bucks and back then we had the 30 minute delivery thing that caused so many drivers to get into wrecks I'm pretty sure it was eventually banned or made illegal (or they all just dropped it).
You're only there for 2 weeks, you know you're only there for 2 weeks and everyone knows you're not going to get the terrible end of the stick unless they're specifically going out of their way.
I delivered a lot of different food in high school and it honestly was one of the worst jobs of my career, I'd much rather work in retail or clean pools. All of my income went into gas and repairing my car. If I got a tip it was a few bucks and back then we had the 30 minute delivery thing that caused so many drivers to get into wrecks I'm pretty sure it was eventually banned or made illegal (or they all just dropped it).
I wish, but weed is very difficult to find around here ;)
The car is provided by the restaurant, and it's large scale corporate customers so no tips.
I make enough money to survive, a chance to make people happy and get free food. I've been doing this for several months now.
The car is provided by the restaurant, and it's large scale corporate customers so no tips.
I make enough money to survive, a chance to make people happy and get free food. I've been doing this for several months now.
Ah this was 20 years ago for me, I'm glad delivery driving has changed some for bigger/wealthier deliveries. I worked for tiny little pizza shops so they just gave us a shirt and a car topper and told us to deal with car insurance ourselves.
It is a relaxing job when it's going well and not rushed. I like driving around aimlessly.
It is a relaxing job when it's going well and not rushed. I like driving around aimlessly.
> Awareness is the first step
Literally. This is another reason why meditation is important.
Anxiety is always accompanied by patterns of muscle tension. It can be relieved by mechanical relaxation of the tissues. Relaxation is achieved by awareness, which is fostered by meditation.
A calm, clear mind flows from a calm and relaxed body.
- - - -
In my career I've observed that business is a kind of theater for people's ego trips to play out within, and the form and methods of a business reflect the karma, if you will, of the people running it. It's one of those things that sounds trivial once you type it out.
Anyhow, it reminds me of Conway's Law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law
Literally. This is another reason why meditation is important.
Anxiety is always accompanied by patterns of muscle tension. It can be relieved by mechanical relaxation of the tissues. Relaxation is achieved by awareness, which is fostered by meditation.
A calm, clear mind flows from a calm and relaxed body.
- - - -
In my career I've observed that business is a kind of theater for people's ego trips to play out within, and the form and methods of a business reflect the karma, if you will, of the people running it. It's one of those things that sounds trivial once you type it out.
Anyhow, it reminds me of Conway's Law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law
I read Keith Johnstone's "Impro" earlier in the year, and realised that almost all human group interaction is theatre. I never really understood "all the world is a stage" until now
Yes, but what leads to anxiety? Toxic team dynamics. Google did a study and found the number one predictor of strong teams was a feeling of "psychological safety."
> Within psychology, researchers sometimes colloquially refer to traits like ‘‘conversational turn-taking’’ and ‘‘average social sensitivity’’ as aspects of what’s known as psychological safety — a group culture that the Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson defines as a ‘‘shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.’’ Psychological safety is ‘‘a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up,’’ Edmondson wrote in a study published in 1999. ‘‘It describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.’’
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-lear...
My takeaway is you need to be nice, be respectful, and fire toxic people even if they do jump through all the right hoops.
> Within psychology, researchers sometimes colloquially refer to traits like ‘‘conversational turn-taking’’ and ‘‘average social sensitivity’’ as aspects of what’s known as psychological safety — a group culture that the Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson defines as a ‘‘shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.’’ Psychological safety is ‘‘a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up,’’ Edmondson wrote in a study published in 1999. ‘‘It describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.’’
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-lear...
My takeaway is you need to be nice, be respectful, and fire toxic people even if they do jump through all the right hoops.
I wonder if the same effect holds true if a team is made up of mostly confident/brash people, or if safety-to-project-yourself can be trained and elevated independent of any other aspect of social environment.
Maybe improv classes or subsidizing employees to exhibit art or publicly perform music?
Maybe improv classes or subsidizing employees to exhibit art or publicly perform music?
False dichotomy. You can be confident, brash, and rude to each other all day long, as long as everyone is in on it and everyone is socially intelligent enough to know each other's boundaries.
The problem is when people tell themselves "that's just how I am" and don't have a high enough EQ to notice that they're coming across as jerks.
Everyone is different and everyone requires a personal touch. It's important for people to understand how to get along with those who aren't exactly like them.
The problem is when people tell themselves "that's just how I am" and don't have a high enough EQ to notice that they're coming across as jerks.
Everyone is different and everyone requires a personal touch. It's important for people to understand how to get along with those who aren't exactly like them.
Didn't mean to assert a dichotomy, more wondering whether the size of the effect of importance of emotional safety for expressive freedom varies with some kind of external measure of confidence
> Maybe improv classes or ...
Some ppl have a whole life behind them with insecurities and bullying and traumas, and
... Itll be hard for improv classes for a week to have much effect compared to that
But still it's an interesting idea, I suppose if the more shy ppl in the company got to do impro, that'd be good for the company (and them too)
Some ppl have a whole life behind them with insecurities and bullying and traumas, and
... Itll be hard for improv classes for a week to have much effect compared to that
But still it's an interesting idea, I suppose if the more shy ppl in the company got to do impro, that'd be good for the company (and them too)
If it has an effect it could be worth pursuing just to measure the size of the effect. If perfection isn't needed, "good enough" might be better.
Yes, and maybe practicing public speaking can make [those who otherwise might not say anything], participate more in meetings and letting others hear their good ideas
+ Can be teambuilding too
+ Can be teambuilding too
There are plenty of shy musicians and theatre performers. When you're on stage you've been explicitly given permission to perform a role, makes it possible for people to put their shyness aside
Maybe the improv world is different, I've never done improv (yet)
Maybe the improv world is different, I've never done improv (yet)
Funny, to see this pop up finally.
I've been talking (with my friends) about how all development is 'fear driven development' for quite a while now.
Of course I don't mean just software development, but the way it manifests in software is instructive.
The different fear responses range from formal methods to FOMO but in general we latch onto something as a source of comfort.
Conway's law expanded to how you communicate with yourself.
I've been talking (with my friends) about how all development is 'fear driven development' for quite a while now.
Of course I don't mean just software development, but the way it manifests in software is instructive.
The different fear responses range from formal methods to FOMO but in general we latch onto something as a source of comfort.
Conway's law expanded to how you communicate with yourself.
Classifying formal methods as a 'fear response' strikes me as asinine in the same way that calling safety belts a fear response would be.
If it's software where failure can cause a lot of damage, why wouldn't fear be a natural response?
Frankly, I'd be outright horrified if say the people responsible for autonomous driving weren't anxious about mistakes, since I'd either have to assume that they just didn't care or - perhaps even worse - do not realize the potential consequences of their actions.
Frankly, I'd be outright horrified if say the people responsible for autonomous driving weren't anxious about mistakes, since I'd either have to assume that they just didn't care or - perhaps even worse - do not realize the potential consequences of their actions.
> development is 'fear driven development' for quite a while now.
Do you have examples of fear-driven and non-fear development approaches? And what flavors of "non-fear" development are possible?
Do you have examples of fear-driven and non-fear development approaches? And what flavors of "non-fear" development are possible?
Yea dude it's supposed to be a fun learning experience. We got into software so we wouldn't have to work, not to be driven and crunched to death by self serving management culture.
Look at all the early software pioneers do they look like they were suffering from constant anxiety vis how productive they have been for decades?
Look at all the early software pioneers do they look like they were suffering from constant anxiety vis how productive they have been for decades?
Consider the moive "Silence of the Lambs": Lecter was able to get his cell neighbor to swallow his own tongue just through his powers of persuasion.
I think he's saying there is no such thing as "non-fear-driven development".
> Conway's law expanded to how you communicate with yourself.
Can you please clarify?
Can you please clarify?
Not OP, but I’ll give it a go:
Conway's law is an adage stating that organizations design systems that mirror their own communication structure.
In a sense, your own self is an organisation whereby we communicate with ourselves in fearful and anxious ways, so the systems we build can only be a reflection of that fear and anxiety.
Conway's law is an adage stating that organizations design systems that mirror their own communication structure.
In a sense, your own self is an organisation whereby we communicate with ourselves in fearful and anxious ways, so the systems we build can only be a reflection of that fear and anxiety.
Its a little known secret that managers deliberately promote anxiety driven development because it keeps workers at "peak productivity". A couple of the major things i've seen companies do in the past over and over again to myself and to others I worked with:
1. Ambiguous or no deadlines, frequent check ins, "crunches" when their deliberately poor planning doens't work, keeping an air of uncertainty around everything.
2. Giving the same tasks to multiple groups and deliberately pitting them against one another in a kind of unhealthy competition. Constant fear of obsoletion.
3. Little or no positive feedback, only give feedback when things are wrong. Deliberately vague about future career prospects or growth, holding the carrot out but with no promise to deliver.
The problem is that each of these are tied into natural "sources" of anxiety that are likely to happen with or without the company actively promoting it, but the company promoting it can make people work even more frantically. The problem is they don't realize people produce their "best" work when they have creative freedom from anxiety.
1. Ambiguous or no deadlines, frequent check ins, "crunches" when their deliberately poor planning doens't work, keeping an air of uncertainty around everything.
2. Giving the same tasks to multiple groups and deliberately pitting them against one another in a kind of unhealthy competition. Constant fear of obsoletion.
3. Little or no positive feedback, only give feedback when things are wrong. Deliberately vague about future career prospects or growth, holding the carrot out but with no promise to deliver.
The problem is that each of these are tied into natural "sources" of anxiety that are likely to happen with or without the company actively promoting it, but the company promoting it can make people work even more frantically. The problem is they don't realize people produce their "best" work when they have creative freedom from anxiety.
1. They don't keep an air of uncertainty on purpose most of the time, generally it's because a lot of businesses are uncertain and a lot of the time product/project managers don't have a good idea of what's going on!
2. Again this could be incompetence rather than cunning
3. Most great bosses and a lot of rubbish ones aren't great with positive feedback. Have you read Steve Job's biographies or Shoe Dog? Not much praise there. One guy I really respected once told me I wasn't a great programmer, but I got the job done and that was probably the nicest thing he said about anyone...I was pretty happy with that!
I agree with all of your points, but maybe not your reasoning behind them.
2. Again this could be incompetence rather than cunning
3. Most great bosses and a lot of rubbish ones aren't great with positive feedback. Have you read Steve Job's biographies or Shoe Dog? Not much praise there. One guy I really respected once told me I wasn't a great programmer, but I got the job done and that was probably the nicest thing he said about anyone...I was pretty happy with that!
I agree with all of your points, but maybe not your reasoning behind them.
No I actually agree with you on all these points, Hanlon's razor applies to all of these which is why I made the last statement. However, I DO think there are managers and I've certainly run across them, that deliberately push on all these natural stressors to try to juice productivity.
Yeah, I had one of those, he was either a dick or a megalomaniac. Fortunately he emigrated so I'm unlikely to see him again!
They're wrong though. It keeps their developers at peak churn, not peak productivity. They fill a great amount of tickets, and make a great amount of critical mistakes that become fires to put out later because everyone's focused on covering their own butts than making a great product.
Key developers leave the project for greener pastures, and business people wonder how the project failed despite the fact everyone was working so hard.
Key developers leave the project for greener pastures, and business people wonder how the project failed despite the fact everyone was working so hard.
I agree with this a lot, but I would add one thing. I don't think it's deliberate, I think they're just bad managers.
I've had a few engineers who struggled with the issues mentioned at the beginning of the article. They were skilled engineers who typically knew the right thing to do, but felt they needed permission or approval to do the things.
And the solution I took was to gently encourage them, but also let them be just a little bit uncomfortable. They need a safe environment they can fail in with no repercussion, but also need to practice overcoming the unknown and being willing to take on some risk.
And the solution I took was to gently encourage them, but also let them be just a little bit uncomfortable. They need a safe environment they can fail in with no repercussion, but also need to practice overcoming the unknown and being willing to take on some risk.
Well, you're probably training them to be autonomous just like I'm training my dogs to use the dog door.
They're still uncomfortable doing so because they're used to me letting them out, but every so often I let them do their own thing and they eventually find their way out.
Soon it will become habit and they won't depend on me so much anymore.
They're still uncomfortable doing so because they're used to me letting them out, but every so often I let them do their own thing and they eventually find their way out.
Soon it will become habit and they won't depend on me so much anymore.
Serious question I've had about dog doors:
How does a dog door prevent rodents and other riffraff from coming in?
How does a dog door prevent rodents and other riffraff from coming in?
They make some where you attach a device to the dog's collar, and it unlocks the door when they approach.
That being said, I grew up in an area completely surrounded by trees and every animal imaginable (squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, deer, etc). We had a dog door (a simple plastic flap) to our barn. I saw raccoons and squirrels with nests literally 10ft from the dog door. Nothing ever came inside. The barn even had food (dog food, plus a fridge and cupboards with snacks). It was even heated during the winter. Nothing came in. I don't know the reasoning, but that little piece of plastic kept everything out.
That being said, I grew up in an area completely surrounded by trees and every animal imaginable (squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, deer, etc). We had a dog door (a simple plastic flap) to our barn. I saw raccoons and squirrels with nests literally 10ft from the dog door. Nothing ever came inside. The barn even had food (dog food, plus a fridge and cupboards with snacks). It was even heated during the winter. Nothing came in. I don't know the reasoning, but that little piece of plastic kept everything out.
I would guess that the smells and activity from the dog would keep a lot of the critters out. Most wild animals avoid dogs and don't want to risk getting trapped in an unknown space with one. Not that it will always work, but I bet the critter traffic is vastly less than if the house was left empty with a dog door.
Somewhat related, many of my neighbors have had issues with rats. I have seen them on the edges of my yard but never seen or heard one inside. I haven't done anything to prevent them except for having two indoor cats. These are fully domesticated chubby cats that probably couldn't catch a wild rat to save their life, but I suspect their presence deters rodents for the most part.
Somewhat related, many of my neighbors have had issues with rats. I have seen them on the edges of my yard but never seen or heard one inside. I haven't done anything to prevent them except for having two indoor cats. These are fully domesticated chubby cats that probably couldn't catch a wild rat to save their life, but I suspect their presence deters rodents for the most part.
> never seen or heard [any rat] inside ... two indoor cats ... chubby
> ... couldn't catch a wild rat
I'm seeing a possibly different reality
> ... couldn't catch a wild rat
I'm seeing a possibly different reality
I'm not sure. I live in the city where everything is dead! Plus it's extremely hard to get into my backyard (gated complex and high cinderblock wall).
I don't think rodents and bugs are typically a problem though. People, maybe, but if someone wants to break into your house it's not hard to do so and the lack of a dog door isn't going to stop them.
I don't think rodents and bugs are typically a problem though. People, maybe, but if someone wants to break into your house it's not hard to do so and the lack of a dog door isn't going to stop them.
I loved the Permit A38 (too much specification and process) description.
I once came into an app project that was really bogged down. The team was good, but inexperienced, as was the management. The devs weren't doing anything. When I came on they said they told me there were no specs for what they should work on. I found a folder with several folders with ten, twelve page documents for individual features for the app. They would include nice mock ups, documentation including back end features, analytics hooks and so forth. And we are talking features that were generally changes to a screen or a UX widget.
"Why don't we do some of these?" Answer: They needed to go through some executive review meeting. Or, they weren't really specific enough because some lazy team member could say all the edge cases weren't defined. The key was convincing the team that as capable people that if the intent was clear, and important details specified, they were smart enough as a team to figure out the rest. And they were.
I once came into an app project that was really bogged down. The team was good, but inexperienced, as was the management. The devs weren't doing anything. When I came on they said they told me there were no specs for what they should work on. I found a folder with several folders with ten, twelve page documents for individual features for the app. They would include nice mock ups, documentation including back end features, analytics hooks and so forth. And we are talking features that were generally changes to a screen or a UX widget.
"Why don't we do some of these?" Answer: They needed to go through some executive review meeting. Or, they weren't really specific enough because some lazy team member could say all the edge cases weren't defined. The key was convincing the team that as capable people that if the intent was clear, and important details specified, they were smart enough as a team to figure out the rest. And they were.
While I agree with this framing of the problem, it feels like another expression of dysfunction in development increasing as direct interaction with clients and users decreases.
Author here. I think you have a point here. Anxiety can certainly stem from the point you mentioned. But I also think anxiety from other sources can affect your development negatively.
Agreed.
Anxiety can also be expressed as a realization that what's being worked on is useless, adds negative value, or just personally unfulfilling or unimportant. Cops firing teargas at peaceful protesters a few blocks away has cause me a good deal of that flavor of anxiety, which I don't think is necessarily a negative outcome. Do you have any insights along those lines?
Anxiety can also be expressed as a realization that what's being worked on is useless, adds negative value, or just personally unfulfilling or unimportant. Cops firing teargas at peaceful protesters a few blocks away has cause me a good deal of that flavor of anxiety, which I don't think is necessarily a negative outcome. Do you have any insights along those lines?
Although I have never been in a situation like yours, for me personally A Guide to Rational Living (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22673.A_New_Guide_to_Rat...) and meditation with the Waking up app helped tremendously.
Do you think instances of anxiety are inherently irrational or unhealthy? I know of the effect of sustained stress on people, but I was trying to bring to light potential positive effects of anxiety bringing clarity or insight into ways to relive that same anxiety. It seemed like your post was something born out of such a thing.
I've encountered so many younger people in tech, making $200K+ in places that support lifestyles that need less than a quarter of that for comfort, who complain about their jobs and the golden handcuffs that keep them there. They seem to be locked in much stranger and fantastical anxieties than those I understand.
I've encountered so many younger people in tech, making $200K+ in places that support lifestyles that need less than a quarter of that for comfort, who complain about their jobs and the golden handcuffs that keep them there. They seem to be locked in much stranger and fantastical anxieties than those I understand.
I have a theory that the massive amount of data at our finger tips an inability to control social media lack of self care (or read awareness) has cause an inability to focus and a hyper active brain.
This habitual scroll, scroll, feed, feed, dopamine, dopamine cause the brain to be over active and thoughts hard to control. People get heightened without even being aware. Never-mind if you dont carefully curate your feed.
But that's just something Im mulling over lately.
This habitual scroll, scroll, feed, feed, dopamine, dopamine cause the brain to be over active and thoughts hard to control. People get heightened without even being aware. Never-mind if you dont carefully curate your feed.
But that's just something Im mulling over lately.
Relatedly, I found my "night owl" tendencies, which were "natural" and just about impossible to fight, went away completely when I limited myself to a few dim candles for light after sundown, and no glowing screens of any kind—no TV, no computer, no phone, period. You can still do a ton in low light—board and card games, reading, playing music, listening to music (small exception to the no-screens thing may be a practical necessity to get an album or playlist started or whatever if you don't want to go for physical media, but no fiddling with the playlist), writing. A very low candle power electric light (think nightlight, most of which are still brighter than what I was using and I could see just fine for most anything) would probably do. Obviously you might need a bit more if you're older and your eyes are getting worse, but you really do adjust to lower light levels than one might think. Dozens to hundreds of times lower than typical nighttime lighting, for sure.
I only did it for a couple weeks but soon found whole-room artificial lighting at night obnoxiously and needlessly bright. A candle for the room and ~2 candles per person (or equivalent from small electric lights—it's actually hard to find them this dim, though) provide entirely enough illumination to do just about whatever you want, and, crucially, let you get tired.
I strongly suspect a huge proportion of people who are "naturally" very active at night or just "can't" have a normal sleep schedule are in fact suffering from the availability and use of particular technologies.
I only did it for a couple weeks but soon found whole-room artificial lighting at night obnoxiously and needlessly bright. A candle for the room and ~2 candles per person (or equivalent from small electric lights—it's actually hard to find them this dim, though) provide entirely enough illumination to do just about whatever you want, and, crucially, let you get tired.
I strongly suspect a huge proportion of people who are "naturally" very active at night or just "can't" have a normal sleep schedule are in fact suffering from the availability and use of particular technologies.
One good "tell" is when the organization requires more and more metrics, tracking, analysis and "data-driven" solutions into user behaviors. Not that these things are necessarily bad in of themselves (assuming user consent) but sometimes it feels like an indicator that the organization has grown so large or added so many layers the management no longer have a gut instinct about their users' needs and so they increasingly rely on the numbers.
It's funny this came up because I was about to create this throwaway account and post an Ask HN for advice anyway.
Me and my team are in the process of delivering a new infrastructure provisioning system that will bring 9 figures worth of equipment online this year. For the most part we're on time modulo the usual bobbles that come from a year-long project this size.
My upper management regularly says We're in a new safe space and there's room to fail, we're trying to be more like Silicon Valley, etc. My new manager told me in our last 1:1 'If you don't take your application stack you're delivering and turn it into a service in the next 60 days, I'll eliminate your job by year end.'
So we're right back to Go Big or Go Home pressure that the company has always exerted on people despite lip service to the idea we've shed our bad old ways. At least it feels that way to me. Maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe I should look for another job. LOL.
Me and my team are in the process of delivering a new infrastructure provisioning system that will bring 9 figures worth of equipment online this year. For the most part we're on time modulo the usual bobbles that come from a year-long project this size.
My upper management regularly says We're in a new safe space and there's room to fail, we're trying to be more like Silicon Valley, etc. My new manager told me in our last 1:1 'If you don't take your application stack you're delivering and turn it into a service in the next 60 days, I'll eliminate your job by year end.'
So we're right back to Go Big or Go Home pressure that the company has always exerted on people despite lip service to the idea we've shed our bad old ways. At least it feels that way to me. Maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe I should look for another job. LOL.
How I think about a situation like this is that your new manager has given you new information that you need to decide what it means.
Either:
1) You've never been in a safe space with room to fail, you've just been operating under this misunderstanding.
Now you know this, you can correct course and change the goal: instead of trying to deliver the best system possible, your team should focus on delivering the minimum required to meet the goal of having it in 60 days. You can cut scope and reduce quality to meet that goal. They are prioritizing the minimum, not the best long-term option for the company.
You also now know a new fact about the organization: you don't want to be there because it's the type of organization that will change the rules on you and fire you for not meeting (what sounds like) unreasonable goals. You now have a new goal: find a new job. Your manager has helped you re-prioritize, this is priority #1 and your project is relegated to #2. Even if you don't get fired in 60 days, you risk being fired in 65 or 90 days, you don't want to be there one day longer than necessary.
2) You are in a safe space, but your new manager is rogue. Even if this is the case, trying to discover that this is the case, and trying to remedy the situation if it is, has a huge personal risk to you with little benefit.
Your best bet is to look after yourself, not the organization, and start looking for a new job. If you go to upper management and they don't fire him, you're going to have somebody that has power over you that is going to be working against you.
--
It might hard advice to hear, and hard to follow, but you should be less stressed about the situation. You now have a clear understanding of what you need to do.
Sorry for the long-winded reply. My contact details are in my profile, I'm happy to be a confidential sounding board if that helps.
Either:
1) You've never been in a safe space with room to fail, you've just been operating under this misunderstanding.
Now you know this, you can correct course and change the goal: instead of trying to deliver the best system possible, your team should focus on delivering the minimum required to meet the goal of having it in 60 days. You can cut scope and reduce quality to meet that goal. They are prioritizing the minimum, not the best long-term option for the company.
You also now know a new fact about the organization: you don't want to be there because it's the type of organization that will change the rules on you and fire you for not meeting (what sounds like) unreasonable goals. You now have a new goal: find a new job. Your manager has helped you re-prioritize, this is priority #1 and your project is relegated to #2. Even if you don't get fired in 60 days, you risk being fired in 65 or 90 days, you don't want to be there one day longer than necessary.
2) You are in a safe space, but your new manager is rogue. Even if this is the case, trying to discover that this is the case, and trying to remedy the situation if it is, has a huge personal risk to you with little benefit.
Your best bet is to look after yourself, not the organization, and start looking for a new job. If you go to upper management and they don't fire him, you're going to have somebody that has power over you that is going to be working against you.
--
It might hard advice to hear, and hard to follow, but you should be less stressed about the situation. You now have a clear understanding of what you need to do.
Sorry for the long-winded reply. My contact details are in my profile, I'm happy to be a confidential sounding board if that helps.
One of the things about fear, is that it is not a useless reaction.
Fear isn't really an "emotion." It's a "reaction." It's a temporary state that we are designed to engage when we are in danger, and exit when the danger is past.
And it works very well. When we are scared, our adrenaline amps up, our capillaries expand, our blood pressure increases, our senses sharpen, etc. There's been a gazillion studies on the physiological manifestations of a state of fear.
Our thinking also gets affected. It becomes fairly "binary." Stand very still, or run away. Don't just stand there thinking. Make a decision. Do something. No time to evaluate. No grey areas. It's either good, or bad.
Anger is really a manifestation of fear. The reactions are quite similar.
They are both reactions that are designed to be temporary. Being in either a state of fear, or anger, for extended lengths of time, is corrosive to our health; both mental and physical.
But the really dangerous thing, is that the "binary" thinking is bad; especially in areas where we are making long-term decisions. If we need to make a decision to run, we don't look further than the next bend. That's why a squirrel runs in front of a car, escaping someone walking down the sidewalk (happened to me a couple of days ago. The squirrel was fine, because the driver saw them, and jammed on the brakes).
Many managers work on fear. They like to keep a state of anxiety going. I won't dwell on the reasons, but I feel as if it is a bad thing, for engineers, because it encourages us to take tactical shortcuts and "patch" fixes, as opposed to considered, strategic reasoning, and long-term, "holistic" fixes.
I was a manager for many years, and I feel that one of my most important jobs was to shield my team from the immense pressure that was piled onto me.
Fear isn't really an "emotion." It's a "reaction." It's a temporary state that we are designed to engage when we are in danger, and exit when the danger is past.
And it works very well. When we are scared, our adrenaline amps up, our capillaries expand, our blood pressure increases, our senses sharpen, etc. There's been a gazillion studies on the physiological manifestations of a state of fear.
Our thinking also gets affected. It becomes fairly "binary." Stand very still, or run away. Don't just stand there thinking. Make a decision. Do something. No time to evaluate. No grey areas. It's either good, or bad.
Anger is really a manifestation of fear. The reactions are quite similar.
They are both reactions that are designed to be temporary. Being in either a state of fear, or anger, for extended lengths of time, is corrosive to our health; both mental and physical.
But the really dangerous thing, is that the "binary" thinking is bad; especially in areas where we are making long-term decisions. If we need to make a decision to run, we don't look further than the next bend. That's why a squirrel runs in front of a car, escaping someone walking down the sidewalk (happened to me a couple of days ago. The squirrel was fine, because the driver saw them, and jammed on the brakes).
Many managers work on fear. They like to keep a state of anxiety going. I won't dwell on the reasons, but I feel as if it is a bad thing, for engineers, because it encourages us to take tactical shortcuts and "patch" fixes, as opposed to considered, strategic reasoning, and long-term, "holistic" fixes.
I was a manager for many years, and I feel that one of my most important jobs was to shield my team from the immense pressure that was piled onto me.
The good bit I get out of this is to provide value but in a way that isn't making you into a commodity. A way I do that is have some area of the business that I know very well that someone cannot just know with skills alone and then have some set of ownership of code that I created around this. Then repeat that in other areas to increase that value etc. You can also think of it as entrenchment...meaning if you don't know the point of what you are doing and don't have ideas on the roadmap and improvements etc., you probably are less important and can be replaced without much issue.
The industry term for this is Scrum.
The intersection of people understanding both Catch-22 and Permit A 38 is probably pretty small.
For those, like me, wondering what Permit A 38 is: https://asterix.fandom.com/wiki/The_Place_That_Sends_You_Mad
I wasn't familiar with it before, but might start using it, as it's unfortunately relevant at work.
I wasn't familiar with it before, but might start using it, as it's unfortunately relevant at work.
I think OP is from Austria (like me), and we all grew up with those movies. The scene with Permit A38 is especially memorable (to the point of becoming a kind of meme), as it perfectly describes the helplessness one feels when dealing with overly bureaucratic processes.
I discovered that the full animated film (in English) can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOhRhq6Pr6g
I want to add, the permit A38 part starts at 40:20
https://youtu.be/JOhRhq6Pr6g?t=2420
I watched the whole thing this evening. Some really clever animation trickery, amidst really uneven quality. Some bits that show much we as a society have evolved (the isle of pleasures).
The Permit A38 thing was worthy. I imagine someone who's never worked would probably find that segment dull, but I winced in sympathy.
The Permit A38 thing was worthy. I imagine someone who's never worked would probably find that segment dull, but I winced in sympathy.
It probably looks like a circle containing people who know about Permit A 38, because I assume everyone who reads things on purpose knows what a Catch-22 is.
Maybe you could call it "what would happen if Heller and Kafka tried to co-write a novel."
Maybe you could call it "what would happen if Heller and Kafka tried to co-write a novel."
[deleted]
I live by this. Anxiety fuels increased work speeds. Without unnecessary anxiety I wouldn't have gotten anything done.
Mixed with weed driven development it seems to get positive results but awful for meetings.
Mixed with weed driven development it seems to get positive results but awful for meetings.
The article is talking more about making product design decisions that are fueled by anxiety. While it's not directly stated, it's clear from the examples that the author is particularly concerned about the phenomenon slowing you down by causing you to waste effort on building features that you don't need.
The key for productivity is finding the right amount of anxiety. Just a little so you're not comfortable sitting around, but not so much that it's crippling.
Minor amounts of anxiety when properly channeled isn't a bad thing -- maybe that's just another word for "motivation."
Minor amounts of anxiety when properly channeled isn't a bad thing -- maybe that's just another word for "motivation."
I’ve often thought that pair programming and daily stand ups work because they align with our natural social behavior. This could be fear or anxiety driven but it doesn’t have to be. Do scientists have a non-intrusive and accurate mechanism to continuously monitor the endocrine/nervous system response over hours/days? Working on a software project is often an emotional roller coaster ride.
Fear is just a source of information. The emotions we have we have because they provide information in one way or another. Much like the senses. One cannot let oneself be paralyzed by it, though. If one doesn't dare to refactor anything because of fear, something needs to happen. E.g., one needs to be able to test more effectively or something like that.
Fear is not raw intelligence, and rather a type of intelligence assessment.
Do whatever you can to move forward. Every time you start getting anxiety, stop. If you can do it harder, while taking care of you, do it harder. If you are doing your best, but still thinks its slow, don't try to force the situation. Sometimes negative results lead to better results. Just keep trying.
As a new developer, I think I fall into this trap a lot! I always don't want to touch other people's methods or introduce bugs, so I only make tiny, tiny little changes before thoroughly testing everything. It really slows me down.
You should be slow with other people's code. I bet that if you work on something solo you'd be much faster and that is because you're intimate with the code, you know what could go wrong, where, etc..
Second, the slowness comes from the fact it takes a lot more time to read and understand code that to write it, let alone trust that it is doing what is doing correctly. If you don't introduce bugs and are very careful you won't have nightmarish surprises. Keep up.
Second, the slowness comes from the fact it takes a lot more time to read and understand code that to write it, let alone trust that it is doing what is doing correctly. If you don't introduce bugs and are very careful you won't have nightmarish surprises. Keep up.
Good! You should be slow. Slow and deliberate. Break stuff (not in production!) and watch how it breaks. Learn from your mistakes. Right now you're laying the foundation of your confidence as a developer. That confidence is built upon your failures and your successes. Have fun newbie!
It highlighted how it can surface in atypical symptoms such as anger.
This caught my attention, because out of all the men and women I know who experience anxiety, this was the most typical way the former expressed it.
Who is the benchmark for how anxiety is expressed?
This caught my attention, because out of all the men and women I know who experience anxiety, this was the most typical way the former expressed it.
Who is the benchmark for how anxiety is expressed?
When all of this Coronavirus stuff was kicking up I found myself having a much shorter temper with my kids and in general more angry outbursts. My heartrate also kept popping up into the 150bpm+ range. I think it was like 177 one time I checked.
Didn't really connect it all together until after the fact, but it was very much related to the anxiety and uncertainty of a rapidly changing situation.
About a month later, I was feeling pretty relaxed and checked my heart rate again. 50bpm.
I think I read somewhere that people have a hard time focusing if their heart rate gets above 100 or 120 bpm (I don't remember which). Definitely proved true for me. I couldn't think straight for most of March.
Didn't really connect it all together until after the fact, but it was very much related to the anxiety and uncertainty of a rapidly changing situation.
About a month later, I was feeling pretty relaxed and checked my heart rate again. 50bpm.
I think I read somewhere that people have a hard time focusing if their heart rate gets above 100 or 120 bpm (I don't remember which). Definitely proved true for me. I couldn't think straight for most of March.
The author's blog is incredibly good. I'm binging some articles right now :)
Thanks! If you have anything you particularly like or dislike please let me know. I'd really appreciate any feedback.
I'm also binging. This article in particular describes the team and workflow problems we have and that I want to fix right now
I'd like to make a fan request: what do you think of this?
https://riskfirst.org/
I read this a few weeks ago and some things there made a lot of sense, but I still can't envision the whole development process with Risk First being a protagonist.
https://riskfirst.org/
I read this a few weeks ago and some things there made a lot of sense, but I still can't envision the whole development process with Risk First being a protagonist.
Hey! I also saw that page not long ago on HN and I quite like it. I think under certain circumstances it makes sense to view software engineering processes mainly under the lense of risk. There are a few thoughts I have about this though: it reminds me of the saying that if your only tool is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
I think what it really is about is managing uncertainty and talking about risks is one of many tools for that.
I think what it really is about is managing uncertainty and talking about risks is one of many tools for that.
A professor at MIT once told me "Fear is the only motivator."
Fear of poverty. Fear of shame. Fear of loss.
Maslow's hierarchy suggests there might be a few others, but fear is a big one.
Fear of poverty. Fear of shame. Fear of loss.
Maslow's hierarchy suggests there might be a few others, but fear is a big one.
> "t highlighted how it can surface in atypical symptoms such as anger."
That's only atypical if you consider women to be the default, right people.
That's only atypical if you consider women to be the default, right people.
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CBD, Meditation, self-care, reduction of social media usage, reduction of news watching...
CBD is a highly effective tool for the toolbox, imo
CBD is a highly effective tool for the toolbox, imo
Thanks for this! I'll continue on this and gonna write my own article soon hopefully adressing this!
this probably manifests itself not just at the product level, but in the minutiae of team programming dynamics.
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the ones I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
For a lot of software products, there is no winning in the long run. You've got good product-market fit and customer loyalty, but your code base is a huge mess and the hard technical problems are solved by third-party libraries. Your tech is a liability and eventually someone with better tech will be smart enough to study your customers, or the students who will eventually replace your inevitably-retiring customers on the front lines and push adoption going forward.
And this is okay. The advantage corporations have over government institutions is that they can be created and destroyed with much less friction.
If you're lucky, your growth curve looks like double-sigmoid table-top. Probably it looks like an asymmetric Gaussian. What it doesn't look like is an exponential. Understand where your product is in its life-cycle, and maximize ROI.