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I get stuck on asking “why am I solving this problem” too much. I am surrounded by technical problems that it would give a dopamine hit to solve and I’d feel th
by jebarker 9mo ago
I get stuck on asking “why am I solving this problem” too much. I am surrounded by technical problems that it would give a dopamine hit to solve and I’d feel the pleasure of helping my fellow man, but 99% of them feel like they shouldn’t even exist and solving them doesn’t really lead to any meaningful progress beyond providing me job security and money. (How) do people deal with this?
- giraffe_lady 9mo agoDeciding which problems should be solved, identifying where there is business value in solving them, is pretty much the definition of business leadership. I think the only real answer is moving into management, where you can more effectively argue against spending effort on things that aren't worthwhile.
- jebarker 9mo agoWell that’s not what I wanted to hear! I think you’re right though, you get to choose your challenge: do you want your problem to be possibly working on things that don’t really matter or be responsible (and empowered) to figure out what really matters.
- giraffe_lady 9mo agoYeah it sucks but unfortunately this is the conclusion I came to after pondering on this for my own career. I think you phrased it as well as I've ever seen it put though. And of course there is always the other options. For myself I didn't relish either choice and now I teach programming and CS. But I'm old and this feels like a good way to end my working years.