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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

#261

Post by willmhorne »

cwkoss wrote: post #254
willmhorne wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My question is: If drugs "remove the long standing subconscious filters and biases that one has built over their life," what replaces them? Does one simply continue living into posterity without filters? I argue not, and in fact that, over time, the filters tend to come back without repeated exposure to drugs and drug-thought, and one is given a choice: return slightly-modified to regular life, or commit to taking dr…

An interesting analogy I heard for psychedelics: Your brain is like a snowy hill. As you ride a sled down it, you develop ruts/grooves in the snow. Eventually, no matter where you start sledding from, you'll end up at one of only a few locations at the bottom of the hill. Psychedelics are like a fresh coat of powder, they let the brain reset some of the ruts, so certain starting conditions will end up in new resultin…

Interesting. This reminds me of Freud's Mystric Writing Pad: http://cscs.res.in/courses_folder/dataarchive/textfiles/text...

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#262

Post by mfoy_ »

gowld wrote: post #231
mfoy_ wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's very possible to read the last few lines in a non-gendered light. You have to want it to be misogynistic in order to interpret it as such.

I'm not sure I agree, madam. There is a gulf between "misogynistic" and "being part of a culture that largely ignores women". It strains credulity to claim that the words "son" and "man" don't draw males closer and push females away. Any one poem is a "micro", but it adds up across the culture.

I'll play the historical context card here. At the time the poem was written, that language perfectly evoked the image the author was going for.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#263

Post by NeoBasilisk »

genezeta wrote: post #175
ben7799 wrote: post #90

Maybe too many people are trying to find all their meaning in life through their work. It's not a recipe for success for most people, I think the media plays it up a bit too much. They're only covering the success stories in terms of people who are single minded and who make their work everything. The author of the article doesn't mention any relationships or other interests in life, no passion for anything but work.…

> Maybe too many people are trying to find all their meaning in life through their work. You probably shouldn't make your "meaning in life" reside completely in your work. But then again, you can't work at a job that is completely meaningless to you. The problem with burnout generally comes from the feeling of pointlessness. And IT excels at that feeling. We 've built an industry that is accustomed -almost to the poi…

>you can't work at a job that is completely meaningless to you

You absolutely can, and millions of people do every day.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#264

Post by gboudrias »

arandr0x wrote: post #149
gboudrias wrote: post #26

Hey I'm doing the same thing! We have little else in common though, mainly I just figured I really want to help people and tech helps in such an abstract way it doesn't feel rewarding. I do meditate though, so my own process isn't entirely devoid of spirituality. Also, being from Canada, I find it really odd that you can just dive straight into the master's degree and become a psychotherapist (I know this varies by s…

Where in Quebec are you located? I know a few psychologists here but nobody who actually left tech for it, it sounds like an interesting combination of skills.

Montreal. I'm not a therapist yet, and most people get rejected for the doctorate, but I figure worst case I'll have a bachelor's degree in psychology so with my programming experience I could look into AI companies.

Most likely I'll stay in the mental health field though, as I doubt I'll find passion for anything tech again. I mostly lurk on this forum because I'm still a geek at heart :)

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#265

Post by kazinator »

ben509 wrote: post #255
kazinator wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is obviously some command to run on a Cisco router. A CCNA certification is squarely about knowing networking from a Cisco equipment point of view. So this would be like some "Unix certified engineer" not knowing "ps" or "netstat", right?

It is, I have a grand total of a few hours experience with Cisco routers, and even I recognize it. But doing my degree, I knew several people who hung out at the computer lab and relentlessly pestered people to do their work for them. And now people routinely pay for school essays. I'm pretty sure there are a large number of people who invest enough effort into cheating that they could have learned the material.

Okay, but you'd think first rule of a CCNA cheater should be "know enough real material to at least fake it through interviews: like 'show run'".

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#266

Post by NeoBasilisk »

ben509 wrote: post #250
zanny wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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. I'm fairly certain the problem is the systems are written to reward those behaviors. It's technically not hard to s…

You don't need social media to learn that climate change is a thing. Just read Wikipedia. Look at the citations. And yet, a sizable portion of the US public believes it's a hoax.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#267

Post by shaman1 »

jeofken wrote: post #169

For years I struggled to become financially independent (as Mr Money Mustache). Years upon years of watching the clock until it hit 17:30, hating the dumb coders who made a mess for me to clean up (because I know FP, and if we had types these bugs wouldn’t be here in the first place!). A year ago, I pulled the plug, and retired. Finally, I could work on my dream project every day. I did so for 6 months, and travelled…

Have you consider aiming higher? Like working for a company in which you believe in or qualifying in a new domain?

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#268

Post by retsibsi »

asdfman123 wrote: post #234
ben7799 wrote: post #90

Maybe too many people are trying to find all their meaning in life through their work. It's not a recipe for success for most people, I think the media plays it up a bit too much. They're only covering the success stories in terms of people who are single minded and who make their work everything. The author of the article doesn't mention any relationships or other interests in life, no passion for anything but work.…

To me, this guy sounds like he's suffering from classic burnout. I know because I could have written the exact same thing when I burnt out in undergrad: "I tried prioritizing my work, focusing on the things I felt the most passionately about, but when I tried to work on the projects at the top of this list I couldn't summon any energy. Yet I spent hours and hours thinking obsessively about the ultimate point of my wo…

If you're comfortable sharing, what did you do to get out of that state?

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#269

Post by mfoy_ »

gowld wrote: post #228
silveroriole wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

‘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...

Just change the last line to "you'll be an adult, my child" or "you'll be a woman, my girl" and move on. If you can't make a trivial fix to a simple problem, you aren't paying attention to the poem's message.

I can't understate how bad changing "you'll be a Man, my son" to "you'll be an Adult, my child" would be.

It would be like, in the pursuit of lowering your sodium intake, making bread without salt. Is it healthier? Maybe. What does it taste like now? Cardboard.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#270

Post by vl »

pureliquidhw wrote: post #216
jeofken wrote: post #169

For years I struggled to become financially independent (as Mr Money Mustache). Years upon years of watching the clock until it hit 17:30, hating the dumb coders who made a mess for me to clean up (because I know FP, and if we had types these bugs wouldn’t be here in the first place!). A year ago, I pulled the plug, and retired. Finally, I could work on my dream project every day. I did so for 6 months, and travelled…

You're still enjoying the FI part of FIRE. Being financially independent means you can just leave when shit gets intolerable, which in-turn raises your level of tolerance for, well, shit. Once upon a time, I hit my number,the FI mark. Then I had a kid. As soon as I had the liability of a child, I was no longer truly FI. I felt the walls at work close in again. It has much less to do with the work and the processes an…

What is FIRE?
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