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Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

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Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#201

Post by shrimp_emoji »

sigi45 wrote: post #150
sleepysysadmin wrote: post #9

There is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT(especially MSPs); which when not addressed grows into bigger mental health issues and even literal sicknesses. There just isn't enough skilled IT people. The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. The top performers and seniors, are then overwhelmed with work and the business is unable to hire more senior people to reduce workload. Then the business keeps growing a…

Have seen negativity as well also have been the source of it but luckily I realized it. But that's the problem: You are invested because you care and there is too much around you you can't control. Not caring is basically quitting inside. Is that better than negativity? Perhaps. Perhaps a new company would help but perhaps not.

You're retreading the exact thought process that great artists have put to song[0].

0: https://youtu.be/hO0TuYMIsGg

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#202

Post by andromedavision »

Baeocystin wrote: post #199
balabaster wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, that's the world we live in at this moment where too many people need to find validation by belonging to some virtue group or another because they care what other people think. In hindsight, I'm not sure why I even cared enough to defend my position. Perhaps I'm not so different as I'd like to hope.

Letting people know your honest thoughts in a straightforward manner is important. I know plenty of folks who hold opinions along the same line as the person you replied to. They are usually various degrees of shocked when I give them civil yet straightforward pushback, and more often then one may think, when done in person, it leads to real discussion, and ideas outside of normal worldview enter both our minds. It i…

That Kipling poem is flawless. Injecting virtue signalling dilutes its beauty. They don't even go together.

This is personal for me because it is the most profound thing I've ever read. For someone to come and refer to it as sexist is demeaning.

Savor it and quit being so wound up is all I'm saying. There's a place for everything and this was ill-placed.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#203

Post by fb03 »

icebraining wrote: post #140
fb03 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone who isn't me maybe realized he was pigging out on food and started eating consciously. The biggest change Someone Who Isn't Me told was being able to, by sheer observation and mindfulness, wait the "hunger pangs" out and finally differentiate between being hungry and wanting to eat , two completely different concepts which get completely mixed up and indistinguishable from each other as people progress abusin…

Is he any more content with his life, though?

That is a curious question. What do you think?

Swim is definitely better now. Better health, energy levels, improved sleep. Swim can now wear normal clothes and not be so self conscious about his body because he was usually the biggest person in the room :-)

Swim still eats junk food once a week so his old self still gets to indulge from time to time and not be depressed from eating healthy all day long. In fact, swim eats everything, the only thing he did is control his anxiety when putting food on his plate.

Swim used to get huge anxiety relief from eating (just like a lot of people out there that deny this fact). Swim had to change that behavior to walks, meditation, making music, gaming etc.

Swim also reports that his anxiety spiked when he started cutting down gorging on food. But that is now under control and swim is healthy and kicking!

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#204

Post by watwut »

sleepysysadmin wrote: post #9

There is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT(especially MSPs); which when not addressed grows into bigger mental health issues and even literal sicknesses. There just isn't enough skilled IT people. The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. The top performers and seniors, are then overwhelmed with work and the business is unable to hire more senior people to reduce workload. Then the business keeps growing a…

The overwork is purely organizational amd cultural issue. It has zero to do with lack of people.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#205

Post by otabdeveloper2 »

sleepysysadmin wrote: post #9

There is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT(especially MSPs); which when not addressed grows into bigger mental health issues and even literal sicknesses. There just isn't enough skilled IT people. The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. The top performers and seniors, are then overwhelmed with work and the business is unable to hire more senior people to reduce workload. Then the business keeps growing a…

> are then overwhelmed with work

No they're not. Most are doing pointless non-work (or negative work) because businesses need to show 'growth', usually by inflating head and report count.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#206

Post by silveroriole »

balabaster wrote: post #129
richardhod wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, of course, is the worst part of the poem, belying its Imperial age genesis, where men were men, and women were ignored. But, if you can ignore the wince-inducing ending, it's a very worthy poem and comes top of British polls of favourite poems almost every time.

> "of course"? You say this as if a foregone conclusion, a statement of fact. There's zero wrong with considering what it means to be a man. Just because I don't address what it means to be a woman doesn't make me sexist. It's not toxic to consider who you are and what values you hold dear. Perhaps the wince that's induced in you is projection on your part? It doesn't make me wince. Nor do I apologize for it. I don't…

‘Of course’, it does lead to the obvious absurdity that a woman who fulfills all the good qualities of the poem is a man! “The Female Man”, perhaps...

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#207

Post by balabaster »

andromedavision wrote: post #202
Baeocystin wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Letting people know your honest thoughts in a straightforward manner is important. I know plenty of folks who hold opinions along the same line as the person you replied to. They are usually various degrees of shocked when I give them civil yet straightforward pushback, and more often then one may think, when done in person, it leads to real discussion, and ideas outside of normal worldview enter both our minds. It i…

That Kipling poem is flawless. Injecting virtue signalling dilutes its beauty. They don't even go together. This is personal for me because it is the most profound thing I've ever read. For someone to come and refer to it as sexist is demeaning. Savor it and quit being so wound up is all I'm saying. There's a place for everything and this was ill-placed.

I agree wholeheartedly. I've always loved this poem. I think a lot of the values it presents are sadly lost in today's culture - we're in a post-chivalric era alas. But these are the values I grew up with and as a result form the man I am today. This is what happens when your childhood heroes and role models come from the pages of Robin Hood, Les Miserables and The Three Musketeers.

As with all though, you either evolve or you're doomed to irrelevance. This should be a familiar concept to any programmer in the past 20 years :P

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#208

Post by balabaster »

silveroriole wrote: post #206
balabaster wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "of course"? You say this as if a foregone conclusion, a statement of fact. There's zero wrong with considering what it means to be a man. Just because I don't address what it means to be a woman doesn't make me sexist. It's not toxic to consider who you are and what values you hold dear. Perhaps the wince that's induced in you is projection on your part? It doesn't make me wince. Nor do I apologize for it. I don't…

‘Of course’, it does lead to the obvious absurdity that a woman who fulfills all the good qualities of the poem is a man! “The Female Man”, perhaps...

I'll be honest, I think you'd be surprised just how many women are more of a man than most men are.

Having grown up as the child of a single mother, I don't think many men ever stop to think where we'd be without them. It's not a place I'd care to exist.

Most men are only as successful as they are because they had a loyal and dependable partner at their side to help propel them there - if by nothing more than taking care of all the shit they have no time for while they're so busy chasing their success. I wonder how many men would be half as successful without their partners supporting them and encouraging them forward.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#209

Post by BucketSort »

zanny wrote: post #190
BucketSort wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was your reasoning that lead you to believe that the social/political problems of the world won't be fixed with technology? I personally have come to the opposite conclusion. I think we need systems to help us reason about and model various social and political issues. Many issues of today go unresolved because they are hidden by complexity. We need systems to help us navigate this complexity. I'm tired of seein…

We have seen demonstrable evidence for over twenty years now that if you build a way to more easily inform yourself on reality, facts, historical accuracy, etc that people would rather use that system to justify their own preconceptions and biases than seek out truth that might influence their beliefs. Technology can only supplement a mindset where people are agreeable to solving problems in the first place. Most soc…

I'm not talking merely about platforms for discovering information, I'm talking about platforms for thinking. Have you ever seen https://www.bayesialab.com? I went to one of their workshops in NYC and they produced quite a convincing example of this.

The economy/society is not a zero sum game as you are suggesting. It's a cooperative game. In some local scenarios it is a zero sum game, but to look at the whole economy/society like that is misleading. But yes, if people are looking to destroy each other, then yes, technology will just facilitate that. It is in most people's best interest to cooperate though.

So you're saying even if we do have platforms for thinking that help people navigate complex issues, it wouldn't have any economic or political benefit?

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#210

Post by mattkrause »

wccrawford wrote: post #2

Correction: "Decided to become a therapist". >Shortly after beginning my Hakomi training, I applied and was accepted to the professional mental health counseling masters program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I'm studying and training through 2020 to get my licensure. Going through schooling is not the same as becoming something. The title implies that there was success found here, but so far…

The tail end of most of these programs usually involves practising under the supervision of an already-licensed therapist for 1000-2000 hours. If he's finishing in 2019-2020, he may already be in that phase, which is pretty close to "doing" it.
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