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The feeling you're describing is called anxiety. Some anxiety is normal, but constant anxiety that interferes with your life is a problem. I think it'd be worth
by sgentle 7y ago
The feeling you're describing is called anxiety. Some anxiety is normal, but constant anxiety that interferes with your life is a problem. I think it'd be worth trying that label on: call it anxiety, and ask "how do I reduce my anxiety?". About 1 in 4 people experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives, so there's a lot of research and good approaches out there.
One thing that stands out to me is that you've made some pretty big and scary claims without a lot of evidence to back them up. Are you actually not a good developer? Are smart people really "capturing" the opportunity (ie there is less opportunity over time)? Do people who aren't working all the time fall behind and never make anything of significance?
If so, prove it! Figure out what evidence you would need to definitively answer these questions, and research or experiment until you have that evidence. Anxious thoughts are like dreams: they seem perfectly reasonable in your head, but when you try to bring them into the real world they fall apart.
As far as evidence goes, I'd point you in the direction of two of my favourite Richards. The one who did Clojure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc and the one who got a Nobel for Quantum Electrodynamics: https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/kilcup.1/262/feynman.html https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/kilcup.1/262/feynman.html
- twox2 7y agoThis is right on. FWIW, my anxiety went away almost completely a few weeks after I quit coffee.
- sciencewolf 7y agoThis. It is unbelievable how much cutting down on caffeine helps with monkey-brain! I switched from coffee to tea with honey and have a much smoother energy than before.
- sergiotapia 7y agoTea has more caffeine than coffee
- zzleeper 7y ago????
- PascLeRasc 7y agoOunce for ounce coffee has more caffeine, but tea also has L-Theanine which calms caffeine's effects. I have anxiety like the OP describes and L-Theanine has been life-changing for me. I'd highly recommend trying it either as a high amount of green tea or a supplement.
- hhmc 7y agoTea leaves have more caffine than coffee beans, gram for gram. However a brewed coffee has more caffine than a steeped tea (i.e. the actual drinks).
- ubertoop 7y agoThat's interesting. I drink a lot of coffee, and I have for over a decade. I did quit for 1 month a couple years ago, and didn't notice much of a difference. Maybe I need to give it more time.
- ubertoop 7y agoThanks for helping re-frame the problem. Anxiety is an interesting way of looking at it. I just read the Feynman text you linked, and it was inspiring. When I started programming, I did it because I enjoyed it. I found it fun. I was just exploring it. Then it became my career... and over the years, it's become more about being good, making money, and being "proud" of my accomplishments. Maybe I need to take a step back, address my anxiety, and get back to playing. Easier said than done, but worth doing.
- malux85 7y agoHaving been in this pattern for so long it's also possible you have become addicted to the adrenaline of urgency. It took me a long time to break the "effort and accomplishment is not an unending linear graph", when I finally took the time to stop working so hard, I got a LOT further in life. Like a factor of 5. Income increase, responsibility decrease, and dramatic weight loss. You're going to have to say no to people. If youre agreeable this is hard, but if what you needed was easy, you'd have already dont it right? haha As a hyper industrious (80 hours a week normal) it was very hard for me to make this adjustment, it took about 5 months, and I, like you, had been coding 10 years at the time