2 ms·

It occurred to me that you probably need an healthy amount of "carelessness" at work. You need to be interested enough to be happy and efficient, but disinteres

by jraph 5y ago

It occurred to me that you probably need an healthy amount of "carelessness" at work. You need to be interested enough to be happy and efficient, but disinterested enough so you don't care too much about decisions you don't like. And scratch your own itches during your leisure time if needed. And that last thing means you need to have enough time for you. My work should be something as meaningful as possible to me and in accordance to my values. If I work on something meaningless to me or goes against my value, I'll probably burn out fast. And yes, I work where I work because I need money. Otherwise I'd work on something that is even closer to what I want to do / solve.

pram 5y ago
I think that might come with experience, or age. When I was starting out I was unreasonably concerned with design and implementation decisions. This led to a lot of pointless arguments and hostility. Now I can’t even imagine summoning up that kind of energy over a work thing. I used to think “old guys” were lazy and apathetic… and well, here I am ;P
- joshstrange 5y ago
  Are you me? I used to stress so much and get very emotionally invested in decisions, then I'd get angry when I felt the wrong decision was being made. My last company finally broke me of that habit (but not in a good way). Now I get worked up way less. I'm still just as opinionated but once the decision is made I don't care anymore. I'll advocate for what I feel is the best path forward but I'm not going to lose sleep over bad decisions or pretend that the future of the company rests on my shoulders. Honestly I was scared to make this change, for the longest time I thought my emotional investment was what made me a good developer, "I actually cared". While that might have helped the companies I worked for, it did not help me nor my general wellbeing. I'm much more laid back and I'm quick to say "I'll implement it however you decide" and not really care about the outcome. I'll aways warn about side effects or how a decision might affect us down the road but I don't get angry anymore. If you find yourself getting angry at work about decisions or you get into heated discussions how to implement things (like I did) I recommend you consider taking a step back and realizing that it doesn't really matter and it's not worth getting worked up about.

by jraph 5y ago

pram 5y ago

I think that might come with experience, or age. When I was starting out I was unreasonably concerned with design and implementation decisions. This led to a lot of pointless arguments and hostility. Now I can’t even imagine summoning up that kind of energy over a work thing. I used to think “old guys” were lazy and apathetic… and well, here I am ;P

joshstrange 5y ago
Are you me? I used to stress so much and get very emotionally invested in decisions, then I'd get angry when I felt the wrong decision was being made. My last company finally broke me of that habit (but not in a good way). Now I get worked up way less. I'm still just as opinionated but once the decision is made I don't care anymore. I'll advocate for what I feel is the best path forward but I'm not going to lose sleep over bad decisions or pretend that the future of the company rests on my shoulders. Honestly I was scared to make this change, for the longest time I thought my emotional investment was what made me a good developer, "I actually cared". While that might have helped the companies I worked for, it did not help me nor my general wellbeing. I'm much more laid back and I'm quick to say "I'll implement it however you decide" and not really care about the outcome. I'll aways warn about side effects or how a decision might affect us down the road but I don't get angry anymore. If you find yourself getting angry at work about decisions or you get into heated discussions how to implement things (like I did) I recommend you consider taking a step back and realizing that it doesn't really matter and it's not worth getting worked up about.