Ask HN: Performance psychology in the workplace?
44 comments
I don’t know of any groups that do this in a sustainable way. The mindset for optimization seems to be unaccepting of limitations. Trying to get the most out of something requires trade offs elsewhere.
It’s also been an observation of mine that most people have too much reserve capacity to notice they are running down until it is too late.
For myself, I’m bipolar. I have no reserve capacity. Every day requires finding the balance between being productive and not burning out. As a result, I am keenly aware I need significantly more downtime than I want to allocate.
I suspect this is the also the case for neurotypical people. Downtime feels like a waste to a person trying to maximize their life.
The way I’ve chosen to optimize my productive is to not focus on optimizing it. Instead, I try to enjoy life and stay conscious of small changes I can make. I know every decision is a choice that changes who I will become. But know I don’t need to make the right decision every time. The trend just needs to be in the right direction. :)
It’s also been an observation of mine that most people have too much reserve capacity to notice they are running down until it is too late.
For myself, I’m bipolar. I have no reserve capacity. Every day requires finding the balance between being productive and not burning out. As a result, I am keenly aware I need significantly more downtime than I want to allocate.
I suspect this is the also the case for neurotypical people. Downtime feels like a waste to a person trying to maximize their life.
The way I’ve chosen to optimize my productive is to not focus on optimizing it. Instead, I try to enjoy life and stay conscious of small changes I can make. I know every decision is a choice that changes who I will become. But know I don’t need to make the right decision every time. The trend just needs to be in the right direction. :)
Thanks for your comment! Indeed, I often wrestle with something similar as you describe, and I wonder if your last paragraph is really the solution. To elaborate:
I have done a lot of self-reflection in the past and a while back I realized that the thing that brings me the most joy in life is to improve at something that I work hard at. However, after looking into Stoicism, I find myself asking if I'm not being honest with myself, and that in reality I focus less on chasing "more" and more on mindfulness and enjoying life's moments. I'm very fortunate in that I've never been depressed or struggled with mental illness, but I feel that this tension between "I want to be the best" and "I should focus on being grateful and present with what I have" is a core question I have yet to really answer. For now, I'm very happy with my life being around the former, but a future me may look back at this and laugh :)
I have done a lot of self-reflection in the past and a while back I realized that the thing that brings me the most joy in life is to improve at something that I work hard at. However, after looking into Stoicism, I find myself asking if I'm not being honest with myself, and that in reality I focus less on chasing "more" and more on mindfulness and enjoying life's moments. I'm very fortunate in that I've never been depressed or struggled with mental illness, but I feel that this tension between "I want to be the best" and "I should focus on being grateful and present with what I have" is a core question I have yet to really answer. For now, I'm very happy with my life being around the former, but a future me may look back at this and laugh :)
It certainly doesn’t hurt to do some self-relfection.
What I would do is ask who you would be without the thing you’re doing now. For me, no matter what I do, I like to build things, learn things, and reach people. To inspire creativity, to teach, to bring joy. These are the things I need to do to be happy and fulfilled.
But these are not the things that give me energy. They use it. They can consume me until I look around and wonder what all this is worth.
As humans, we have more needs than what we strive for. I need to hang out with friends and do nothing meaningful. I need to touch and be touched. I need solitude when everything becomes too much.
Maybe it’s because I’m bipolar, but trying to optimize for one thing results in the others being neglected.
I guess this is what others call mindfulness? :)
What I would do is ask who you would be without the thing you’re doing now. For me, no matter what I do, I like to build things, learn things, and reach people. To inspire creativity, to teach, to bring joy. These are the things I need to do to be happy and fulfilled.
But these are not the things that give me energy. They use it. They can consume me until I look around and wonder what all this is worth.
As humans, we have more needs than what we strive for. I need to hang out with friends and do nothing meaningful. I need to touch and be touched. I need solitude when everything becomes too much.
Maybe it’s because I’m bipolar, but trying to optimize for one thing results in the others being neglected.
I guess this is what others call mindfulness? :)
I'm surprised to find very positive question about pushing yourself.
I'm not at all into sports, and from the title I expected a psychology of competition and wanting to beat the others, which sounds horrific in the workplace. Instead it almost sounds like people would even do sports without medals.
How much of sports would remain without striving for worthless tokens and aggressivity?
I'm not at all into sports, and from the title I expected a psychology of competition and wanting to beat the others, which sounds horrific in the workplace. Instead it almost sounds like people would even do sports without medals.
How much of sports would remain without striving for worthless tokens and aggressivity?
> How much of sports would remain without striving for worthless tokens and aggressivity?
Thanks for your comment and this great question! In my opinion, almost all of it would remain, as the true draw of sports is to push yourself to new heights, to do things you didn't think possible. My evidence for this is the intensity and dedication that goes into non-mainstream sports (such as my own, beach volleyball in the U.S.). The athletes in these areas aren't striving for fame and fortune, because there really isn't that much to be had even at the top level. They just want to be better than they were yesterday, and worse than they'll be tomorrow :)
Thanks for your comment and this great question! In my opinion, almost all of it would remain, as the true draw of sports is to push yourself to new heights, to do things you didn't think possible. My evidence for this is the intensity and dedication that goes into non-mainstream sports (such as my own, beach volleyball in the U.S.). The athletes in these areas aren't striving for fame and fortune, because there really isn't that much to be had even at the top level. They just want to be better than they were yesterday, and worse than they'll be tomorrow :)
Garbage in -> garbage out. Thank you for your humility. You acknowledge that you're good enough to be dedicated but not good enough to be impressive. If you re-use your methods, then you would only be creating devs who are again only going to be dedicated not impressive.
Any biography of GOAT athletes I've read inevitably depict tremendous personal sacrifice. Whether you call grueling schedules, pushing themselves nearly to their physical and psychological breaking point, as "hustle culture", it's undeniable that the road to greatness is filled with incredible suffering.
We would all like to wish ourselves to greatness without putting in the effort that goes with it. Unfortunately, that is not how the world works. Having said that, while positive thinking only goes so far, it's a good salve for anyone in dire straits. In other words, positive thinking won't solve your problems, but it might make you feel momentarily better. Best of luck.
Any biography of GOAT athletes I've read inevitably depict tremendous personal sacrifice. Whether you call grueling schedules, pushing themselves nearly to their physical and psychological breaking point, as "hustle culture", it's undeniable that the road to greatness is filled with incredible suffering.
We would all like to wish ourselves to greatness without putting in the effort that goes with it. Unfortunately, that is not how the world works. Having said that, while positive thinking only goes so far, it's a good salve for anyone in dire straits. In other words, positive thinking won't solve your problems, but it might make you feel momentarily better. Best of luck.
An unfortunate comment.
First, GOAT means greatest of all time, which, by definition, means bring beyond impressive. Having a GOAT as a reference for how to conduct one's life sounds nice on Twitter, but in reality it is meaningless for good, great, excellent professionals. Phelps trained 8 hours a day for years, and that has no effect on what I do in my job.
But take soccer as an example, where the GOAT could be Pele, Maradona, maybe Messi. All incredibly talented players who didn't work particularly hard, surely not harder than the vast majority of their colleagues. Cruijff was an extraordinary player and then a revolutionary coach who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and went from one woman to another. An attitude not similar to the "mamba" mentality pushed in endless videos and whatnot.
One of my favorite authors, Arturo Perez-Reverte, talked about working five hours a day—tremendous consistency, but I bet there are many "amateur" authors who write for more than five hours a day. He seems to lead a pleasant life.
And you can find similar examples all over the world. Where I grew up, not in the U.S., there was certainly a focus on dedication, but without the toxic and reckless focus of U.S.-centric Calvinism (now unfortunately quite popular outside the borders of the U.S. as well) on suffering, exhaustion, the "pursuit of greatness," and assorted biblical stories that sound rather ridiculous to those who are not getting high on United States culture day in and day out.
"it's undeniable that the road to greatness is filled with incredible suffering." - Nah
First, GOAT means greatest of all time, which, by definition, means bring beyond impressive. Having a GOAT as a reference for how to conduct one's life sounds nice on Twitter, but in reality it is meaningless for good, great, excellent professionals. Phelps trained 8 hours a day for years, and that has no effect on what I do in my job.
But take soccer as an example, where the GOAT could be Pele, Maradona, maybe Messi. All incredibly talented players who didn't work particularly hard, surely not harder than the vast majority of their colleagues. Cruijff was an extraordinary player and then a revolutionary coach who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and went from one woman to another. An attitude not similar to the "mamba" mentality pushed in endless videos and whatnot.
One of my favorite authors, Arturo Perez-Reverte, talked about working five hours a day—tremendous consistency, but I bet there are many "amateur" authors who write for more than five hours a day. He seems to lead a pleasant life.
And you can find similar examples all over the world. Where I grew up, not in the U.S., there was certainly a focus on dedication, but without the toxic and reckless focus of U.S.-centric Calvinism (now unfortunately quite popular outside the borders of the U.S. as well) on suffering, exhaustion, the "pursuit of greatness," and assorted biblical stories that sound rather ridiculous to those who are not getting high on United States culture day in and day out.
"it's undeniable that the road to greatness is filled with incredible suffering." - Nah
> "it's undeniable that the road to greatness is filled with incredible suffering." - Nah
Pardon my inquisitive behavior, but a quick peek at your comment history shows that you have spent some time thinking about pedagogy. If your comments can be taken at face value, would you care to elaborate on the path to progress within a field? Surely, a person can't just wish themselves better.
Pardon my inquisitive behavior, but a quick peek at your comment history shows that you have spent some time thinking about pedagogy. If your comments can be taken at face value, would you care to elaborate on the path to progress within a field? Surely, a person can't just wish themselves better.
"Surely, a person can't just wish themselves better". One cannot only wish, but wishing is part of it.
I have read many biographies of successful people, I have studied the issues of "success" academically, and I have been interested in performance in general for a long time. I have also performed pretty well across physical and mental disciplines.
Pedagogy depends on the subject, we know in many fields what works and what doesn't, and anyone who has spent as I have a few decades on this earth cannot but curse, benevolently of course, the many incompetent teachers and coaches and teaching methods they have had to endure in their younger years: those teachers and coaches had no clue. Or they were teaching for the masses, that is, to get their salaries and call it a day or a year.
But I think it is more interesting to think about "sacrifices" along the road to greatness" and "suffering." Let's take sports again and think about the incredible suffering (or not) that some people go through to achieve greatness. In many sports, it is not empirically true that the best suffer and sacrifice more than others, and I have provided a few examples for team sports. I could provide 1,000 more, but we get the point. For example, Messi, who is 1,000 times the soccer player I am, or rather was, I can guarantee that he did not train much harder than I did. He was only 1,000 times better than me and 10 times luckier to have a chance to perform: a bad knee injury at age 14 or hormone injections that did not work as planned, and we would not have had a Messi.
I recently read a pdf published by current world record holder and 10k speed skating world champion Van der Poel (https://www.howtoskate.se/). In his writing, he documents his training in the years immediately leading up to the 2022 World Championships. It is an extraordinarily instructive read because we can read from an analytical sports champion about his training, his mindset, his way of looking at things without the unnecessary "cultural" expectations and bravado of others who need to relate to Navy Seals, Kobe Bryant, Jordan, a couple of coaches who have been dead for 50 years, hard-nosed NFL players with CTE, and the "hustle culture."
One can start reading from the epilogue.
Mind you: his training was about as grueling as it gets, the very definition of physical suffering. He writes, "The hardest thing about this program was being able to complete it with a smile on my face. When I found a way to enjoy it, I was unstoppable [...] To me the challenge was not about suffering, but finding a way to endure hardship with ease [...] Be courageous. Don't overtrain, but stick to the Limit." Grueling work, yes, but with a smile on his face. Is that suffering? Or "just" grueling work?
Recommended performance material: "Speed Trap," written by the late Charlie Francis, Ben Johnson's coach and performance mind extraordinaire. Van der Poel's "How to Skate 10k" pdf. All you can find written by Julio Velasco, probably the best volleyball coach ever. "Finding you Zone" by Lardon. "With Winning in Mind" by Bassham. If one reads Tim Grover's book "Relentless", "Winning", they get the impression that high performance is all about suffering, sacrifices, the dark side. It sells well to an audience favorably disposed to this kind of U.S.-centric nonsense, but it is simply, in theory and practice, wildly not true.
Given "talent," the road to improvement and performance often goes through more work, but it always goes through better work-more effective, focused, deliberate-than that done by the competition.
I have read many biographies of successful people, I have studied the issues of "success" academically, and I have been interested in performance in general for a long time. I have also performed pretty well across physical and mental disciplines.
Pedagogy depends on the subject, we know in many fields what works and what doesn't, and anyone who has spent as I have a few decades on this earth cannot but curse, benevolently of course, the many incompetent teachers and coaches and teaching methods they have had to endure in their younger years: those teachers and coaches had no clue. Or they were teaching for the masses, that is, to get their salaries and call it a day or a year.
But I think it is more interesting to think about "sacrifices" along the road to greatness" and "suffering." Let's take sports again and think about the incredible suffering (or not) that some people go through to achieve greatness. In many sports, it is not empirically true that the best suffer and sacrifice more than others, and I have provided a few examples for team sports. I could provide 1,000 more, but we get the point. For example, Messi, who is 1,000 times the soccer player I am, or rather was, I can guarantee that he did not train much harder than I did. He was only 1,000 times better than me and 10 times luckier to have a chance to perform: a bad knee injury at age 14 or hormone injections that did not work as planned, and we would not have had a Messi.
I recently read a pdf published by current world record holder and 10k speed skating world champion Van der Poel (https://www.howtoskate.se/). In his writing, he documents his training in the years immediately leading up to the 2022 World Championships. It is an extraordinarily instructive read because we can read from an analytical sports champion about his training, his mindset, his way of looking at things without the unnecessary "cultural" expectations and bravado of others who need to relate to Navy Seals, Kobe Bryant, Jordan, a couple of coaches who have been dead for 50 years, hard-nosed NFL players with CTE, and the "hustle culture."
One can start reading from the epilogue.
Mind you: his training was about as grueling as it gets, the very definition of physical suffering. He writes, "The hardest thing about this program was being able to complete it with a smile on my face. When I found a way to enjoy it, I was unstoppable [...] To me the challenge was not about suffering, but finding a way to endure hardship with ease [...] Be courageous. Don't overtrain, but stick to the Limit." Grueling work, yes, but with a smile on his face. Is that suffering? Or "just" grueling work?
Recommended performance material: "Speed Trap," written by the late Charlie Francis, Ben Johnson's coach and performance mind extraordinaire. Van der Poel's "How to Skate 10k" pdf. All you can find written by Julio Velasco, probably the best volleyball coach ever. "Finding you Zone" by Lardon. "With Winning in Mind" by Bassham. If one reads Tim Grover's book "Relentless", "Winning", they get the impression that high performance is all about suffering, sacrifices, the dark side. It sells well to an audience favorably disposed to this kind of U.S.-centric nonsense, but it is simply, in theory and practice, wildly not true.
Given "talent," the road to improvement and performance often goes through more work, but it always goes through better work-more effective, focused, deliberate-than that done by the competition.
> only be creating devs who are again only going to be dedicated not impressive.
There is nothing wrong with that. Taking care of oneself to be good at what you do while maintaining your own health sounds like a terrific goal for its own sake, regardless of where that puts you in comparison to others.
There is nothing wrong with that. Taking care of oneself to be good at what you do while maintaining your own health sounds like a terrific goal for its own sake, regardless of where that puts you in comparison to others.
Difference: Performance feedback of athletes are instant. But not for swe
There are plenty of people I've met who are like this. They can be just as impressive in their relative performance as a star athlete is from an average one. As someone who does frequent exercises, I'd say the same things from sports apply to intellectual work: eat well, sleep well, make your training as hard if not harder than the actual game. This means training your intellectual muscles: read as much as you can about the field, pick up college textbooks (SICP, Theory of Comp, etc.), classic works (C book, Pragmatic Programmer, etc). Turn the scary sounding things (compilers, OS, networking) into exciting, comprehendible subjects. Your workplace performance will increase as a result.
Unfortunately I don't know of communities like this other than the workplace environment, and HN :)
Unfortunately I don't know of communities like this other than the workplace environment, and HN :)
Reading books are not sufficient. You maut do hard things
A lot of people in the tech community are into “quantified self” and will use things like fitness trackers, sleep trackers, logging diet and exercise, etc. but that’s more general well being than work performance. Performance in a software engineering role is famously difficult to quantify. Even the relatively obvious stuff like story points throughout reflects on estimates as least as much as on efforts. At elite levels you’re dealing with stuff like presence, influence and mentorship; your “coach” on that kind of stuff is your manager.
I will check out quantified self, it sounds like a good lead. Totally agree that SWE work, especially at senior levels, is difficult to quantify, and setting clear, measurable goals is one thing I was hoping to talk to the community about. Thanks for the help!
I am (was??) an ultra runner and startup founder, and I love this type of approach to work and life. If you're going to put hours into things, why not try to make it your best?
To be clear, I suck at ultrarunning -- I can do 100km runs but I usually place near the end. What I love about it is that nearly anyone can run an ultra if they simply train long enough... It's why I call my personal performance blog "10 Million Steps" -- if you do enough steps, you can usually do an ultra (barring any deeper health issues). It's almost always about consistency... and I bet you are a better SWE than you are willing to admit because you sound very consistent. :)
A lot of professional coaches come from this space. I highly recommend following Steve Magness[1] and Brad Stulberg[2] on Twitter...
Alas, no communities that I know of.
If you're thinking of starting one or would be up to chatting about organizing something, I'd be 100% down to do so. You can reach me at w --at-- phaseai --dot-- com
[1] https://10millionsteps.com/
[2] https://twitter.com/stevemagness
[3] https://twitter.com/BStulberg
To be clear, I suck at ultrarunning -- I can do 100km runs but I usually place near the end. What I love about it is that nearly anyone can run an ultra if they simply train long enough... It's why I call my personal performance blog "10 Million Steps" -- if you do enough steps, you can usually do an ultra (barring any deeper health issues). It's almost always about consistency... and I bet you are a better SWE than you are willing to admit because you sound very consistent. :)
A lot of professional coaches come from this space. I highly recommend following Steve Magness[1] and Brad Stulberg[2] on Twitter...
Alas, no communities that I know of.
If you're thinking of starting one or would be up to chatting about organizing something, I'd be 100% down to do so. You can reach me at w --at-- phaseai --dot-- com
[1] https://10millionsteps.com/
[2] https://twitter.com/stevemagness
[3] https://twitter.com/BStulberg
Thank you! I'll shoot you an email and check out the blog (https://10millionsteps.com/mental-toughness looks quite interesting) as well as Steve and Brad, I've not heard of either of them before.
Great, thanks! Looking forward to it.
From ultra signup it looks like you are a mid-packer like me: Party pace! Totally agree that anyone can run an ultra using the mantra "start slow and get slower". Would love to hear about your experience at the Artic Triple. It looks like a beautiful race. I did the Fjallraven Classic in that part of the world, but it is more of a hike/party than a run.
This is not something I do in a very structured way, but I've always been interested in optimizing my performance and health. To be honest, I sort of assumed most people in tech are similar in this tendency, although when verbalized I realize that's very presumptuous of me.
Striving for higher performance and longevity physically and mentally, especially in work-related aspects, tends to be my default state and I find the idea of optimizing myself very interesting. However, I have not managed to find a good balance between that and just relaxing; that default state of self-optimization comes at a detriment to my peace and wellbeing. Over the years I've realized that this is not sustainable, but I can't manage to stop. I would be very interested in taking part in such a community, and hopefully learning more about both performance optimization tactics as well as how to let myself switch off and stop churning.
Striving for higher performance and longevity physically and mentally, especially in work-related aspects, tends to be my default state and I find the idea of optimizing myself very interesting. However, I have not managed to find a good balance between that and just relaxing; that default state of self-optimization comes at a detriment to my peace and wellbeing. Over the years I've realized that this is not sustainable, but I can't manage to stop. I would be very interested in taking part in such a community, and hopefully learning more about both performance optimization tactics as well as how to let myself switch off and stop churning.
(Apologies for missing this comment!)
That's great! Although I'm focused on creating "intensity" with everything, I think a big part of that will be figuring out what it means for situations where slowing down is the right thing to do. What does "intensity" look like when I'm hanging out with my daughter, or recharging after a long week? Probably something like putting away any distractions and being wholly focused on whatever we are doing :)
> I would be very interested in taking part in such a community, If you're still interested, what would be the best way to contact you to chat more?
That's great! Although I'm focused on creating "intensity" with everything, I think a big part of that will be figuring out what it means for situations where slowing down is the right thing to do. What does "intensity" look like when I'm hanging out with my daughter, or recharging after a long week? Probably something like putting away any distractions and being wholly focused on whatever we are doing :)
> I would be very interested in taking part in such a community, If you're still interested, what would be the best way to contact you to chat more?
I think I do. I've been looking around for similar ideas. I've also been alienated many times by multiple workplaces because people gradually succumb to workplace politics and mind rot and any attempt at improving yourself or aiming at high perf is a massive threat.
Anyway if you know groups/sites to join, count me in.
ps: beside me or us, I think this could have deep implications to society. I believe the status quo (rot mentioned above) is a pain for many but culture made them forget how things could be, and they'd be healthier and happier going back to perf (and fun) oriented job life.
Anyway if you know groups/sites to join, count me in.
ps: beside me or us, I think this could have deep implications to society. I believe the status quo (rot mentioned above) is a pain for many but culture made them forget how things could be, and they'd be healthier and happier going back to perf (and fun) oriented job life.
My first impression of OP’s post was that it’s not going to be supported by corporate culture. Optimizing for quarterly profit isn’t going to align with an employee optimizing for personal excellence.
Seems to me that the most important step will be to find a vocation where your goals a few allignrd with the bottom line.
Seems to me that the most important step will be to find a vocation where your goals a few allignrd with the bottom line.
I really doubt it[0]. Not your point but the fact that having employees sharp and excited about mastery is probably gonna push everything up to 11 (granted people are mature enough not to go rockstar). When you rise above a certain skill level on a topic, things become playful, creative, quality gets regularly high. What's not to like for a short termist corp ?
[0] I only pushed high perf in small jobs, not in programming so I can't speak with a lot of confidence. But in some clerk duties, what took 3 weeks became 3 days and a half (2 days the next time because it took me 1 day to converge on high speed layouts).
[0] I only pushed high perf in small jobs, not in programming so I can't speak with a lot of confidence. But in some clerk duties, what took 3 weeks became 3 days and a half (2 days the next time because it took me 1 day to converge on high speed layouts).
This reminds me of a job I had while starting my first business after college. I was a bar-tender for a catering company. We did a lot of fancy parties so a big part of my job was pouring Champaign and putting it on a tray for the servers to pass around. After a few months, I could pop a bottle and pour six flutes that were all exactly the same height without leaving a drop in the bottle.
Thanks both for the interesting discussion! I think this cuts both ways - yes, I believe it is possible to strive for improvement in any job, and most jobs would welcome this. That being said, alignment with the impact you want to have and what the company cares about is also very important. You can be the best children's tobacco salesman (?) in the world, but I imagine you'll always feel like you're missing something.
> Seems to me that the most important step will be to find a vocation where your goals a few allignrd with the bottom line. I agree with this, I actually spent a lot of time making this happen and am happy with how it turned out :)
> Seems to me that the most important step will be to find a vocation where your goals a few allignrd with the bottom line. I agree with this, I actually spent a lot of time making this happen and am happy with how it turned out :)
> Seems to me that the most important step will be to find a vocation where your goals a few allignrd with the bottom line.
Freelancing?
Freelancing?
Great! I have a few leads from this thread and will let you know if I find or start anything. In the meantime, I have my contact details on my profile, so feel free to reach out there.
This sounds interesting and reminds of the performance coach in the TV show "Billions". WThat one focuses more on the psychological aspects of workplace performance. We did some experiments internally with this.
You seem to be interested more in the physiological aspects and it makes sense to combine the two. I can imagine a new department within companies with a CHPO (chief human performance officer) role.
You seem to be interested more in the physiological aspects and it makes sense to combine the two. I can imagine a new department within companies with a CHPO (chief human performance officer) role.
Agreed that both psychological and physiological are important! I'm curious what experiments you did and what the results were, if you don't mind sharing? No worries if that's not possible, thanks!
I talk once in a while with people under my supervision about sports and food, and about food supplements valuable for brain-based professions,like soya lecithin and fish oil. I do this when there are performance issues, just in case. I also explicitly invite them into coaching/therapy, and other options as I see fit.
Please don't try to force me to min/max every part of my life. I'm happily mediocre. Leave me alone.
I didn't mean to write this in a way that is prescriptive or judgemental in any way, I just wanted to ask to get more information for myself and others who may be interested. Please let me know if there is anything I could have done in the post to improve it, thanks!
If you were happy in your mediocrity this wouldn’t bother you.
The nootropics subreddit is probably a decent place to start, it’s mostly students and professionals (often with ADHD) looking to improve performance. But of course, with the help of supplements and drugs
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Reminds me of nootropics and biohacking communities.
Good point, those may be a good starting place for me to look. Thank you!
Read Art of Impossible by Steven Kotler
I love Steven Kotler's books, The Rise of Superman but not Art of Impossible. I will check it out, thanks!
It's the best and most practical
I've been a SWE/Research Engineer for a decade or so, but I come from a sports background* and I would like to carry over the gratifying elements of that world to my day job. This includes things like optimizing sleep and nutrition, deliberate practice, mindfulness, and more. In the end, it's about pushing yourself to be the best <something> you can be, in the same way athletes push themselves.
My question is: are there others who have similar attitudes towards their jobs? What is the best way to connect with them, e.g. is there an existing community here or on Reddit? If not, is there enough interest that I could create one?
Thank you!
*not professional, but Division 1 and then semi-professional. Good enough to be dedicated, not good enough to be impressive :)
PS: I want to make clear that this includes working in a healthy, sustainable way. I'm not pushing for rise-and-grind or hustle culture.