> Nothing related to my workload changed The individual work is only part of the job, collaborating with the rest of the team and communicating with your peers

> Nothing related to my workload changed The individual work is only part of the job, collaborating with the rest of the team and communicating with your peers and managers is a huge part of it as well. That's something that I wish I really learned/accepted earlier in my career too. Appearing more friendly makes it easier for the rest of your team to interact with you, but on top of that just the act of smiling can actually make you happier so the change may even be deeper than just an appearances thing. It sounds like you tricked yourself into genuinely improving as a software engineer :)