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The psychology of stress and burnout

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Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#151

Post by icc97 »

adrianratnapala wrote: post #30
karmacoda wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had similar, but not with skydiving. I've only done one dive, and it was pleasant, lovely view, but did absolutely nothing for me in terms of adrenaline, at all. What did work for me was commuting by cycle in London, flat out race with everything for 10km. Legs burning, drop the temperature, maybe some snow in the eyes, bring on the elements. Great stuff. Winter is great for that, cold at first, but ride hard, w…

I love cycling in London, because it teaches me not to be shy. But once that lesson is learned -- there's not much need for adrenaline. Just rational aggression.

Teaches you to look in the eye of the guy in the car behind you at the lights to make sure they've noticed you :)

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#152

Post by rb808 »

reflexive wrote: post #123
manmal wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it that burns you out most? (fellow freelancer here)

The thing that burns me out about freelance is the client just views you as a cost center. Always want more work in less time. I start to fantasize about the "camaraderie" of being on a team. Maybe there needs to be a Freelancer's Local Union.

You need to learn to say no more often & get also get some new clients.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#153

Post by icc97 »

wonder_er wrote: post #59
alexgotoi wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you are afraid of extreme sports? What alternatives would you recommend?

If you live near an indoor rock climbing facility, I'd recommend checking it out! Rock climbing can be done in an "extreme" way, but also can be done in a very beginner-friendly, incremental way. I climb, have lots of friends who climb who do software. The two seem to go together well.

Yes - it's a wonderfully technical activity.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#154

Post by icc97 »

alexgotoi wrote: post #40
emilburzo wrote: post #7

It's all in your head, for better or worse. Extreme sports or intense physical exertion have been key, for me, in dealing with daily stress. And no, I'm not some superstar adrenaline pumped athlete, just an amateur that loves skydiving/paragliding/fast motorcycles/hiking/etc over the weekend. I didn't realize how much these activities help me, until I had to take a break from them for whatever reason (e.g.: winter wh…

What if you are afraid of extreme sports? What alternatives would you recommend?

I did rowing ('crew') at University. There's something quite geeky about rowing - there were 6 CS guys rowing in the boat with me. There's something about perfecting one stroke that you do over and over again. You don't have to be a teenager to start doing it either - most clubs will accept novices of any age.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#156

Post by pasbesoin »

quickben wrote: post #24

I have a friend that is to damn good as a developer and allowed one of the big Canadian companies failed projects to burn him out thoroughly. He is looking into opening a bakery now, and by the look of it, no amount of convincing is going to change his mind. So no matter what you do, your mental robustness and coherency comes first. Don't let anybody every come close at touching that. Btw opening a bakery is an amazi…

Growing up, I was "taught" / conditioned to "endure" severe, chronic stress.

This led to an accumulation of adverse events I was too stressed to effectively manage. Including especially physical injuries that had lasting negative effects.

I "hung in there" until my early 40's, when a career blow knocked the last pin out from under me.

I knew what I needed and wanted to do next. But I was frozen.

Physical health issues have continued to accumulate and to paint me into a corner.

Guard your physical health! Without it, life is much harder, and one problem tends to become two, become three...

Your physical health is the basis of your mental health and well-being. When you are physically unhealthy, it is much harder to be positive and productive. Especially when symptoms weigh on you persistently and take away your ability to focus and think effectively and to be comfortably social.

There is precious little in life that is worth the sacrifice of your physical health. And beware of scenarios that suggest or demand a trade-off against some future promise.

Those reassurances most often simply serve the person or system demanding the sacrifice. And it is a sacrifice -- don't expect to "get it back."

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#157

Post by sedachv »

beachstartup wrote: post #117
skybrian wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most restaurants fail. It doesn't seem like a way to avoid stress?

i think stress really just depends on the kind of work, and the expectations of your customers. yes, most restaurants fail, but most businesses fail, because people think of it as some kind of paid vacation rather than an actual job. getting up at 5am and making croissants is a very different thing than getting up at 5am and dealing with people screaming at you because an api endpoint isn't functioning.

It is very easy to fail as a restaurant because you signed the wrong lease/for the wrong place/at the wrong location/in the wrong neighborhood, or any combination thereof. Everyone I personally know in the food services industry works harder than anyone I know doing computer programming. Every task that happens in back and front of house has a very specific start time and a very specific duration allowance - there is no flexibility and no opportunity for pacing or giving yourself some slack.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#158

Post by CocaKoala »

agumonkey wrote: post #140
CocaKoala wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, okay. My experience was with an independent bakery doing both retail and commercial production; that is, we would bake mix, proof, and bake bread/pastries in house for direct sale to the public, and additionally provide bread and pastries to local restaurants for resale. I worked there for almost but not quite two years, and by the end I was managing the bread dough for all the mixes (moving things in and out of…

Pardon the slight arrogance, but isn't most of this a technical problem that can either be solved mechanically or you end up knowing by heart after a few months ?

When it all goes smoothly, it's a technical problem that can be solved mechanically or with a schedule that you know by heart after a few months.

If you're curious, please don't hesitate to ask me how often things went smoothly.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#159

Post by tonyarkles »

emilburzo wrote: post #43
alexgotoi wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you are afraid of extreme sports? What alternatives would you recommend?

> What if you are afraid of extreme sports? There's a quote in a jump plane that I really like: "you just have to get comfortable with fear"[1]. > What alternatives would you recommend? Anything that requires you to be 100% focused on the task at hand, or physical exertion (or even both). The catch is that you need to feel satisfaction from it, and humans suck at predicting what activity is going to give them satisfa…

I'm chuckling at "You can usually tell within the first few minutes if it's for you or not." in the context of Skydiving. I did a 10kft tandem jump for my first, and it was the first time I'd ever been on a plane. It was terrifying! I was actually more comfortable under the chute than I was in the plane.

You're right though, some activities give me a big ol' "meh", and some make me feel joy right off the bat. Don't know for sure until you try it.

This year's new activity is going to be snowkiting, if we get any snow... (Snowless-November in the Canadian Prairies? What the heck?!)

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#160

Post by npizzolato »

toast_coder wrote: post #98
CocaKoala wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of mental stress working in a bakery. You have a 100# mix of french bread, and it isn't rising properly. Will it continue to rise if you leave it in the proofer long enough, because the water it was mixed with was too cold? Maybe the guy doing the mix forgot the salt, or the yeast (because trust me, unless you're doing the mixes yourself, those things are going to happen). If the mix will rise eventual…

Point taken, but.... Humans have been baking bread for thousands of years. At this very moment I could find 100 sources of information, free and for sale about the specifics of baking bread. I could get these in the context of baking at home, baking for a group, or baking for commerce. Contrast that with the poster's problem of implementing an architecture for an identity access management system. (I have experience…

Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/793/

I think it's really easy to look at something from the outside and think "how hard could that really be?" I bet if you asked someone who wasn't in CS how hard an identity management system is, they wouldn't think it is all that hard. Only once you get into the details do the challenges become apparent, and I suspect that's very true for bakeries as well.

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