4 ms·

Yep. Immense stress can also be a learned proactive tactic. You build up stress via procrastination until the level is high enough to overcome any disfunction.

tstrimple 2y ago
I called it anxiety based development when I was in dev roles. Worked okay up until the physical symptoms forced me to find alternatives. The alternative for me is I no longer write code for a living.
- _yb2s 2y ago
  What do you do now, and is it better?
  - tstrimple 2y ago
    I moved from development to architecture and that helped for a few years. New focus different things to learn. Then the same things started happening there. I moved more into management and was good there for a bit and then same patterns emerged. Jumped to consulting and it’s the same story. Now am exploring more “leadership” style roles. I realize I personally do a LOT better when I’m actively learning and doing new things in a job. If it’s something I know I can do and have done it many times it’s like my mind refuses to engage eventually unless the anxiety overrides it. It’s getting more difficult though. Especially with consulting giving me insights into how dozens of very large technology orgs are run. The problems are almost always the same and it’s rarely technical. I used to always enjoy starting at new companies. But more and more it’s just the exact same patterns and even that is rarely engaging. At some point I think I’ll have to leave tech altogether and explore something completely different. Just hope I can survive until the kids are out exploring on their own so I can take a break on the cash flow demands.
cbsmith 2y ago
It's taken me most of a lifetime to figure out that this is kind of the opposite of the right way to deal with the problem. You're effectively fighting fire with fire, and the whole thing needs to not be a fight at all.
seba_dos1 2y ago
Which works really well until it just doesn't.

tstrimple 2y ago

I called it anxiety based development when I was in dev roles. Worked okay up until the physical symptoms forced me to find alternatives. The alternative for me is I no longer write code for a living.

_yb2s 2y ago
What do you do now, and is it better?
- tstrimple 2y ago
  I moved from development to architecture and that helped for a few years. New focus different things to learn. Then the same things started happening there. I moved more into management and was good there for a bit and then same patterns emerged. Jumped to consulting and it’s the same story. Now am exploring more “leadership” style roles. I realize I personally do a LOT better when I’m actively learning and doing new things in a job. If it’s something I know I can do and have done it many times it’s like my mind refuses to engage eventually unless the anxiety overrides it. It’s getting more difficult though. Especially with consulting giving me insights into how dozens of very large technology orgs are run. The problems are almost always the same and it’s rarely technical. I used to always enjoy starting at new companies. But more and more it’s just the exact same patterns and even that is rarely engaging. At some point I think I’ll have to leave tech altogether and explore something completely different. Just hope I can survive until the kids are out exploring on their own so I can take a break on the cash flow demands.

cbsmith 2y ago

It's taken me most of a lifetime to figure out that this is kind of the opposite of the right way to deal with the problem. You're effectively fighting fire with fire, and the whole thing needs to not be a fight at all.

seba_dos1 2y ago

Which works really well until it just doesn't.