Opt Out of Cynicism
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Opt Out of Cynicism
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Re: Opt Out of Cynicism
#2the #1 advice I would give to a young engineer entering their career is to do everything they can to avoid becoming cynical. technology has cycles, but it also moves forward. it's a helix. most people who churn through a few cycles end up becoming cynical, failing to see the orthogonal dimension of progress.
how to avoid cynicism? the primary way is to remove cynics from your life, and add optimists. second to that, keep working on new enough areas that you maintain a beginners mindset and can offset some of the pattern matching that leads one to thinking everything worthwhile has been done before.
Re: Opt Out of Cynicism
#3the #1 advice I would give to a young engineer entering their career is to do everything they can to avoid becoming cynical. technology has cycles, but it also moves forward. it's a helix. most people who churn through a few cycles end up becoming cynical, failing to see the orthogonal dimension of progress. how to avoid cynicism? the primary way is to remove cynics from your life, and add optimists. second to that,…
step 3 — quit reading twitter
Re: Opt Out of Cynicism
#4the #1 advice I would give to a young engineer entering their career is to do everything they can to avoid becoming cynical. technology has cycles, but it also moves forward. it's a helix. most people who churn through a few cycles end up becoming cynical, failing to see the orthogonal dimension of progress. how to avoid cynicism? the primary way is to remove cynics from your life, and add optimists. second to that,…
In fact, I would call it a hyper-dimensional helix. :-) With each new iteration (or rewrite), we're often expanding in a conceptual dimension we couldn't realistically reach or even imagine before.
Re: Opt Out of Cynicism
#5the #1 advice I would give to a young engineer entering their career is to do everything they can to avoid becoming cynical. technology has cycles, but it also moves forward. it's a helix. most people who churn through a few cycles end up becoming cynical, failing to see the orthogonal dimension of progress. how to avoid cynicism? the primary way is to remove cynics from your life, and add optimists. second to that,…
One thing I've noticed is that if I talk about the stuff in tech I'm passionate about - people tend not to give a shit.
If I talk about the things I dislike, I am flooded with imaginary internet points.
Re: Opt Out of Cynicism
#6the #1 advice I would give to a young engineer entering their career is to do everything they can to avoid becoming cynical. technology has cycles, but it also moves forward. it's a helix. most people who churn through a few cycles end up becoming cynical, failing to see the orthogonal dimension of progress. how to avoid cynicism? the primary way is to remove cynics from your life, and add optimists. second to that,…
Just make sure you fill your life with healthy optimists, and not dreamers.
Re: Opt Out of Cynicism
#7This is timely! "Why are you so cynical?" looking at cynicism from the perspective of a defense mechanism. https://youtu.be/1dIcpXMv3QY
Re: Opt Out of Cynicism
#8Steve Yeggie's Note from the Magic Bus[1] is a decade old, & rambles through the particulars of the day, but it's still the canonical read on how you predispose yourself, on whether you opt into belief or disbelief. It's lessons have stuck with me for a long time. There's a lot of concern & fear & doubt, skepticism about the corporate environment, about other engineers, and the skepticism is all so due; there's a responsible & safe desire to stick to the known & secure. And yet, and yet...
Steve helped me unshackle myself; kick-started a thinking about what values were really important to me, not just professionally, but what kind of a person I wanted to be amid the environment in which I am thrown. The corporate capitalist world (& to a lesser degree the young-guns-ultra-productive engineering departments) deserves deep cynicism. I've heard so many good & great intents put off, and so many wild betterments ignored. But Steve helped me find an inner stoic that insisted on, that demanded- that believed in- progress, in other engineers, in trying for extra, in myself, in doing good, even when it probably wasn't going to be convenient or easy. Engineering is filled with cynicism & this made clear what a spectrum our opinions lay across, laid bare how cynical, how pessimistic most of the world about me was.
I endeavor to help & support others, to try for good, in ways that I would never have thought about for reading Notes from the Magic Bus. I still await such a clear & obvious life-changing post appearing ever again. This one's alright. But it doesn't deal close enough with the conflict, with how horrid it can be, suffering the un-smart gumption of the erring-do-wellers. It helped convince me to try to help see things along a lot, even if the picks & choices aren't necessarily totally what I would do. To be optimistic, not just in my own sphere, but in working with others. Please, read. Let me, let us know what you think.
Re: Opt Out of Cynicism
#9the #1 advice I would give to a young engineer entering their career is to do everything they can to avoid becoming cynical. technology has cycles, but it also moves forward. it's a helix. most people who churn through a few cycles end up becoming cynical, failing to see the orthogonal dimension of progress. how to avoid cynicism? the primary way is to remove cynics from your life, and add optimists. second to that,…
step 3 — quit reading twitter
twitter can be good or bad depending on who you follow + engage with
Re: Opt Out of Cynicism
#10the #1 advice I would give to a young engineer entering their career is to do everything they can to avoid becoming cynical. technology has cycles, but it also moves forward. it's a helix. most people who churn through a few cycles end up becoming cynical, failing to see the orthogonal dimension of progress. how to avoid cynicism? the primary way is to remove cynics from your life, and add optimists. second to that,…
One thing I've noticed is that if I talk about the stuff in tech I'm passionate about - people tend not to give a shit. If I talk about the things I dislike, I am flooded with imaginary internet points.
The cynics are reading & commenting, the optimists are busy building? ;)