3 ms·

Replace “software development” with “life”. People usually crave security and certainty, and go to great lengths to attain it. The thing is, while there are c

Replace “software development” with “life”. People usually crave security and certainty, and go to great lengths to attain it. The thing is, while there are certainly variables in life one can control, things you know you know, or know you don’t know, there are also those things beyond your information horizon, beyond your control. My takeaway was that there’s no real certainty in anything, and you can either spend your life trying to attain perfect certainty and never succeed, or revel in the uncertainty, the adventure, the unknown and maybe unknowable. I gave up long ago knowing everything I could know about software development, as the pool of knowledge is immense - and that in and of itself is a joy, to know that I can keep at it, at practically any discipline, software or otherwise, and never stop learning and experiencing novelty.

matwood 5y ago
> Replace “software development” with “life”. Agree. Outside of the physical benefits of exercise, getting comfortable being uncomfortable is one of the big mental benefits. A more extreme version is something like jiu-jitsu. I have found that routinely being uncomfortable through exercise leads to being relaxed in other uncertain life situations - software development included.
skinney6 5y ago
And what is it exactly that is so uncomfortable? Is it the idea of failure or is it the feeling itself? What if you got comfortable with all your uncomfortable feelings? When we were growing up we got use to all kinds of new, uncomfortable feelings. Why not keep doing that? Let the feelings happen, get use to them. You might find yourself freed from a prison you didn't even realize you were in.