4 ms·

The trick to avoiding complete burnout is easy. First - don't care at all about your job. Remember that all corporations are by definition psychopaths and they

by eip 14y ago

The trick to avoiding complete burnout is easy. First - don't care at all about your job. Remember that all corporations are by definition psychopaths and they will treat you accordingly. Second - never do more then 35% of the work you are capable of doing in a day. Third - if you find yourself getting stressed out tell yourself repeatedly "It's only a stupid job. There is no point in stressing about it."

Devilboy 14y ago
This has worked for me.
antinitro 14y ago
+1
jbrooksuk 14y ago
I believe I've been doing more than my 35% worth. Time to slow myself down.
gordaco 14y ago
True. 35% may be a bit low, however, but I agree with everything else. On my first job, I didn't follow these guidelines. That's a mistake I won't commit again. I'd add: Fourth - say no to overtime, even if it's paid. Unless you're really in desperate need for money, think for a copule of minutes and you'll realize that your time (which you can use to do a ton of interesting things, and in fact is ultimately the matter life is made of) is usually more valuable than your money.
dnc 14y ago
> First - don't care at all about your job. Maybe it is counter intuitive but I think healthy dose of this keeps me more productive and more focused on the job. While at work I always try to keep somewhere in the back of my mind Bertrand Russell's quote: "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important". It helps.
- svachalek 14y ago
  Early in my career a more senior developer told me you can't do a good job unless you're willing to get fired for it. Coming from a nouveau middle class background, that was pretty shocking to me but over the years I have seen so many situations that have confirmed it to me.
  - cpeterso 14y ago
    Saving up a few months of living expenses in a bank account, so called "fuck you" money (or "take this job and shove it" money in polite company), can give you peace of mind about losing your job.
pawnhearts 14y ago
Totally agreed. And I'd add a fourth point in: - never ever try to please everyone. As @jaimebuelta pointed out in another comment[1], your bosses will see your kind disposability just as a capability to do more work for less charge. It happened to me when I was younger: I started working in a small company, only three employers, and I often was (secretly) asked to fix what other two coworkers made wrong. One thing led to another and one day, after 8 weeks that I was working there, the boss fired my two co-workers since I unknowingly proved him to be capable of doing alone a three-person job. Although in the very first place I was kind of proud of myself — I was showing evidence to be a reliable software developer and it was nice — after a while I realized that things just couldn't work out that way: tripled efforts and responsiblities for same amount of money and same deadlines, I had to work afterhours and in weekends, and I had no more time for social life and hobbies, feeling more and more depressed, it was just driving me crazy. At that point I thought to myself: "Why the hell people should see me as a sort of super hero? For whom or what am I doing this? I'm only in it for the money, this job pays my bills, I am not this job". Next morning I talked to my boss and my amount of work came back to what I applied for, and that was one of my best decisions ever. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5575761 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5575761
michaelochurch 14y ago
Second - never do more then 35% of the work you are capable of doing in a day. I'm a big fan of three-hour-per-day planning. "Metered work" (what your boss expects of you) should be limited to a 3-hour block, preferably a contiguous one. After that, find a way to sneak time into things that build your career. Don't mix the two. (You'll either cut the self-directed stuff and burn out, or give your job responsibilities the shaft and at zero, you might actually get fired.) When you need to spike, turn that 3-hour dedication to 4 or 5 or 6 for a little while. The nice thing about the 3-hour plan is that it accounts for slack, because things always take longer than they should. It takes your boss 15 minutes per week (on average) to tell you what to do. If you do 15 hours of metered work, you're giving him 60:1 leverage. That's enough not to get you fired. The trick to becoming awesome, I think, is to take that 25 hours of "working time" per week that most people spend on Reddit or Farmville or non-work IMing and turn it into Coursera or open source time (don't ever use it to write code you'll need for a side project; legal issues make it not worth it). It's not easy, though, because it's much harder to hide it when you're studying machine learning at 2:30 in the afternoon.
cpeterso 14y ago
I wasn't sure whether to vote your comment up or down, but it's definitely thought-provoking (so I gave you an up vote :)
jakebellacera 14y ago
Not sure about the first point. You should work somewhere you feel passionate about. But other than that, this is just what I needed to hear.

by eip 14y ago

Devilboy 14y ago

This has worked for me.

antinitro 14y ago

jbrooksuk 14y ago

I believe I've been doing more than my 35% worth. Time to slow myself down.

gordaco 14y ago

True. 35% may be a bit low, however, but I agree with everything else. On my first job, I didn't follow these guidelines. That's a mistake I won't commit again. I'd add: Fourth - say no to overtime, even if it's paid. Unless you're really in desperate need for money, think for a copule of minutes and you'll realize that your time (which you can use to do a ton of interesting things, and in fact is ultimately the matter life is made of) is usually more valuable than your money.

dnc 14y ago

> First - don't care at all about your job. Maybe it is counter intuitive but I think healthy dose of this keeps me more productive and more focused on the job. While at work I always try to keep somewhere in the back of my mind Bertrand Russell's quote: "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important". It helps.

svachalek 14y ago
Early in my career a more senior developer told me you can't do a good job unless you're willing to get fired for it. Coming from a nouveau middle class background, that was pretty shocking to me but over the years I have seen so many situations that have confirmed it to me.
- cpeterso 14y ago
  Saving up a few months of living expenses in a bank account, so called "fuck you" money (or "take this job and shove it" money in polite company), can give you peace of mind about losing your job.

pawnhearts 14y ago

Totally agreed. And I'd add a fourth point in: - never ever try to please everyone. As @jaimebuelta pointed out in another comment[1], your bosses will see your kind disposability just as a capability to do more work for less charge. It happened to me when I was younger: I started working in a small company, only three employers, and I often was (secretly) asked to fix what other two coworkers made wrong. One thing led to another and one day, after 8 weeks that I was working there, the boss fired my two co-workers since I unknowingly proved him to be capable of doing alone a three-person job. Although in the very first place I was kind of proud of myself — I was showing evidence to be a reliable software developer and it was nice — after a while I realized that things just couldn't work out that way: tripled efforts and responsiblities for same amount of money and same deadlines, I had to work afterhours and in weekends, and I had no more time for social life and hobbies, feeling more and more depressed, it was just driving me crazy. At that point I thought to myself: "Why the hell people should see me as a sort of super hero? For whom or what am I doing this? I'm only in it for the money, this job pays my bills, I am not this job". Next morning I talked to my boss and my amount of work came back to what I applied for, and that was one of my best decisions ever. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5575761 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5575761

michaelochurch 14y ago

Second - never do more then 35% of the work you are capable of doing in a day. I'm a big fan of three-hour-per-day planning. "Metered work" (what your boss expects of you) should be limited to a 3-hour block, preferably a contiguous one. After that, find a way to sneak time into things that build your career. Don't mix the two. (You'll either cut the self-directed stuff and burn out, or give your job responsibilities the shaft and at zero, you might actually get fired.) When you need to spike, turn that 3-hour dedication to 4 or 5 or 6 for a little while. The nice thing about the 3-hour plan is that it accounts for slack, because things always take longer than they should. It takes your boss 15 minutes per week (on average) to tell you what to do. If you do 15 hours of metered work, you're giving him 60:1 leverage. That's enough not to get you fired. The trick to becoming awesome, I think, is to take that 25 hours of "working time" per week that most people spend on Reddit or Farmville or non-work IMing and turn it into Coursera or open source time (don't ever use it to write code you'll need for a side project; legal issues make it not worth it). It's not easy, though, because it's much harder to hide it when you're studying machine learning at 2:30 in the afternoon.

cpeterso 14y ago

I wasn't sure whether to vote your comment up or down, but it's definitely thought-provoking (so I gave you an up vote :)

jakebellacera 14y ago

Not sure about the first point. You should work somewhere you feel passionate about. But other than that, this is just what I needed to hear.