Anxious tech workers are going to therapy • Hacker News Board

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#261

Post by tomhoward » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 5:17 AM UTC

lemm wrote: post #152

sharadov wrote: post #5

As usual, SV tech founders have a fix for all that ails mankind, one that takes a data-driven approach and is 10X effective!

And conveniently enough allows them to make tons of money!

Most startups fail, and can often cause the founders to lose much/all their savings or go into personal debt.

Where a startup beats the odds and starts to become successful, it needs to employ a lot of people (and generate other benefits for others, such as returns to investors and, oh yeah, valuable products to customers) before the founders can get personally rich.

Occasionally it goes well enough for the founders to "make tons of money", but it's not the norm.

In this case, founders of these companies will only "make tons of money" if they succeed in helping vast numbers of people overcome anxiety and other distressing states of existence.

Of the founders I know who are working on one of these startups to help people overcome anxiety and ill health, if you could talk to them, and see the sincerity with which they are dedicated to building something that makes life better for troubled people, you wouldn’t dismiss them with such cynicism and snark.

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#262

Post by bryan_w » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 8:04 AM UTC

exit_bag wrote: post #243

vincent-toups wrote: post #4

Everyone should go to therapy. I don't think I've ever met a person who doesn't need to talk things out, from time to time, with a semi-objective, third party. Most of us were raised by imperfect people trying their best who still made a lot of mistakes. Even people who had really prepared parents probably experienced things which might have left us with some unresolved issues. Go see a therapist. Its not a big deal.

are there any kind of online therapy options that are actually worthwhile? my past experiences w/ irl therapists were not very good & i think it'd be a lot easier to communicate effectively online without the stress that comes from things like eye contact etc. i think 8ch used to fill that roll for me but now it's gone and there's no one else to talk to & everything's spiraling out of control.

My dude, do a search, there's help out there. Text only therapists all the way to video chat. It only take 5 minutes to get started, but please look into it.

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#263

Post by agota » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 10:08 AM UTC

Bootwizard wrote: post #257

agota wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should create a landing page so that people who are interested in the book could subscribe and get updates.

I was thinking of making it a blog because that's kind of how I've been writing it for myself. And then organizing and compiling it into a book.

That's also a good idea which would allow you to get feedback.

I recommend you to read Taylor Pearson's article on how he approached writing and marketing his book:

https://taylorpearson.me/jesusmarketing/

A shorter version written by me can be found here:

https://www.writersincharge.com/taylor-pearson-sold-5000-cop...

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#264

Post by leonroy » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 10:23 AM UTC

webwielder2 wrote: post #12

crsmithdev wrote: post #9

Shocked that a normal and healthy practice that should be done more by more and different kinds of people is big news to the NYT, because tech. Watching the NYT (and others) from within tech over the past few years has done more to destroy any trust in mass media than anything else in my lifetime.

The NYT banging the Iraq war drum back in 2002-03 was enough for me to develop terminal cynicism about that particular august institution.

The Economist wasn’t great either. Around 02-03 I distinctly remember them raving at the effective political strategy of the Bush administration in bangig the drums of war as a ruse to bring Saddam Hussein to the negotiating table. It was apparent to even a kid like me that war was all the White House wanted.

Every rag has its issues. The pieces are written by people and edited by more people in turn. It’s more about reading the least worst of a bad bunch. NYT and FT are in that category for me at least.

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#265

Post by dbattaglia » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 2:46 PM UTC

Bootwizard wrote: post #132

tempsy wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally my issue with my work in tech is the cognitive dissonance between the collective belief that we’re all “changing the world” and the reality that most of us are doing very little to do that and/or that deep down we actually believe that the company we are working for actually has a net negative effect on the world.

I realized this about 6 months ago, and this is exactly why I decided to start my own company. People that truly want to change the world should do the same, unless you fear instability more than you desire to change the world.

Serious question: why does starting a company equate to changing the world? The vast majority of companies sell some good or service for a fee, which is of course super important for society but not exactly world changing. I guess the hope is you can grow your company large enough to have a major impact without selling out so much as to just care about profits and shareholders?

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#266

Post by diminoten » Sat, Sep 21, 2019, 7:22 PM UTC

ipython wrote: post #207

diminoten wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often do you consider possibilities that have never happened to anyone in human history, and try to account for them?

I’ll raise your snarky comment with a link: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/dtcgenetictesting/dtcinsuranc... Long story short this is a real issue and not something that “has never happened to anyone in human history”.

That's not what we were talking about, but okay...

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#267

Post by rewgs » Mon, Sep 23, 2019, 1:49 AM UTC

dbcurtis wrote: post #186

rewgs wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making video games is not even remotely similar to playing video games. Source: I work in the game dev industry. It’s brutal.

Yes, I said "producer" not "coder", not "artist", not "tester". Much less brutal in management. [edit: clarification]

Not true at all in my experience. Producers/managers have very tough jobs as well.

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#268

Post by paulcarroty » Mon, Sep 23, 2019, 11:54 AM UTC

skizm wrote: post #32

erokar wrote: post #26

If your job is making you unhappy, therapy will just be a band-aid. The solution is to quit and find something better to do.

Where can I find someone that will pay me a living wage to read fantasy novels, go to the gym, play video games, and occasionally travel?

Writing fantasy novels, fitness programs, games and travel reviews?

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#269

Post by Bartweiss » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 9:34 PM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #106

protonimitate wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value of boredom cannot be overstated. The "always on" culture that has become prevalent in the past decade has, in my opinion, contributed greatly rising angst/anxiety/stress. We don't give our brains any time to rest anymore. Most people start and end the day by injecting thousands of images, words, and ideas into their thoughts via screens with no time to process and "clear the queue" so to speak. I've start i…

After much back and forth and introspection on this topic I just went ahead and became a Zen Buddhist. I don't think we can function as humans without regular long, meaningful detachment from all these digital tools. There's a lot of ways to do it. But I feel like everyone needs to pick one.

If you don't mind, a question: do you believe in reincarnation?

That's always seemed like a barrier to consciously 'accepting' Zen, the way one might accept Confucianism or utilitarianism or any other moral philosophy.

Re: Anxious tech workers are going to therapy

#270

Post by CPLX » Wed, Sep 25, 2019, 7:38 PM UTC

Bartweiss wrote: post #269

CPLX wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After much back and forth and introspection on this topic I just went ahead and became a Zen Buddhist. I don't think we can function as humans without regular long, meaningful detachment from all these digital tools. There's a lot of ways to do it. But I feel like everyone needs to pick one.

If you don't mind, a question: do you believe in reincarnation? That's always seemed like a barrier to consciously 'accepting' Zen, the way one might accept Confucianism or utilitarianism or any other moral philosophy.

Interesting question. I would say that honestly I don’t, in the sense that I have any degree of certainty that it happens.

But I also have no degree of certainty that it doesn’t happen.

One of the core concepts of Zen is abandoning western concepts of duality. I’m increasingly willing to be confortable with the idea that I have no ability to conceptualize and verbalize the concept of myself existing before life or after death, and likely never will.

So it’s not that I will or won’t, it’s not really a yes or no answer. More like a NaN answer.