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How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

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Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#141

Post by pwdisswordfish9 »

Juliate wrote: post #132
johannes1234321 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Daily standups shouldn't be necessary with a team constantly communicating. I don't agree there. Constant communication is important for a good team, however in constant flow it often is being lost, what is important. Important things easily get lost between other noise. Whether a daily is the right approach can be argued. Maybe a weekly is enough. However having a time where everybody listens and things can be bro…

He's not denying that (constant) communication isn't important. But that, planned, too frequent, mandatory, with a prescriptive format, meetings (which dailies/weeklies are) is harmful. I've been 21 years in this industry, the past 7 in Scrum/Agile infested companies/teams and I've never seen such a sterile and unproductive way of work.

> He's not denying that (constant) communication isn't important.

I also agree that it isn't as important as they make it out to be.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#142

Post by goodpoint »

creakingstairs wrote: post #13

I _know_ I have it really good. But I still feel unhappy and unfulfilled. I'm planning to have a sabbatical next year to see how that pans out for me. I honestly don't know how my parents worked until retirement.

> I _know_ I have it really good.

A big of the problem is the culture that measures everything in terms of money and perks.

It's well proven that a big source of burnout is misalignment between personal goals and your job. Humans crave meaning.

Being paid a ton of money to optimize some algorithm to manipulate people into buying something they don't need is the opposite of meaningful work.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#143

Post by sibit »

Trasmatta wrote: post #56
sibit wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Developers are expected to attend meetings more than ever. The focus required to deep dive into complex issues get's broken with meetings that developers shouldn't be attending. You can attend meetings or you program rarely can you do both effectively on the same day and rarely can you get the focus you once had. I recently started a new job where we have weekly recurring "standups" with clients. Most of the gaps b…

I'm curious, how did your boss respond to that?

He let me change my hours so I now work 6:30am to noon. The rest of the day I play video games, watch tv, walk my dog, go grocery shopping, etc. I just make sure to show up to the the 15 - 30 minute "standups" throughout the afternoon.

It might not be an ideal schedule for everyone but I have almost 4 uninterrupted hours in the morning and I naturally wake up early so it works for me.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#144

Post by ptr »

freedom2099 wrote: post #96
twblalock wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being in meetings means you get to be in the room when decisions are made. Even if you aren't an active participant, you get to at least listen in. Almost all problems are really people problems, and people problems can only be solved by communicating with other people. Some engineers seem to want to work for long stretches uninterrupted, like monks copying sacred texts. That is not the way to succeed. To succeed you…

True… but I can’t have 5h of meetings a day and be expected to produce much…

Yes you can, if you take into account the impact of what it is you produce.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#146

Post by stevage »

I had a lot of trouble understanding what was meant here:

> The world has gotten more complicated: it seems that most dangerous traps now are picking up frameworks that bypass mimic the current meta. And the worst thing is, they're not even fun.

What does he mean by "traps"? And "mimicking the current meta"? I feel like there are some references here I don't have?

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#147

Post by wvh »

twblalock wrote: post #89
ipaddr wrote: post #44

As someone who has been in the industry for 20+ years I've noticed changes that may have lead to this point. Daily standups, meetings, gluing frameworks Daily standups are is a one size solution to a communication problem. Daily standups shouldn't be necessary with a team constantly communicating. Daily standups leads to cutting projects into small daily tasks. This leads to a system of micromanagement and it doesn't…

Being in meetings means you get to be in the room when decisions are made. Even if you aren't an active participant, you get to at least listen in. Almost all problems are really people problems, and people problems can only be solved by communicating with other people. Some engineers seem to want to work for long stretches uninterrupted, like monks copying sacred texts. That is not the way to succeed. To succeed you…

You wouldn't interrupt a fireman that is on active duty in a mission, though. "Stop extinguishing that fire, put down the hose and have a random meeting with me who is not directly involved in the actual process".

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#148

Post by makeitdouble »

onion2k wrote: post #133
makeitdouble wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point sounds to me like: "It's your fault if you're miserable. It's up to you to confront your peers and fight your organization to protect your sanity " It might be true in many settings, but I'd see that as a toxic and hostile environment we shouldn't be accepting as normal. Some people will sure enjoy Fight Club kind of places, I still wouldn't assume they are "a very simple fix" to shitty companies. Quitting…

Your point sounds to me like: "It's your fault if you're miserable. It's up to you to confront your peers and fight your organization to protect your sanity" No one automatically just knows when people are unhappy with a process if they don't talk about it. There are lots of people who think agile ceremonies are a good thing, and they think they work, and in a lot of cases they do work . People don't question that if…

There’s to me a decent gap between discussing processes, voicing opinions, and straight declining meetings and making yourself unavailable.

If you’re in need for tricks and tough love to get away from meeting hell, it’s already beyond “talking about it”, and beyond minor annoyances IMO. And sure it must happen because other people believe it’s a good, or at least a necessary thing. Working with people that value your time isn’t as exotic or rare as we make it sound, and it often will be enforced through the whole org to avoid having each one fight on their own.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#149

Post by mlac »

wvh wrote: post #147
twblalock wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being in meetings means you get to be in the room when decisions are made. Even if you aren't an active participant, you get to at least listen in. Almost all problems are really people problems, and people problems can only be solved by communicating with other people. Some engineers seem to want to work for long stretches uninterrupted, like monks copying sacred texts. That is not the way to succeed. To succeed you…

You wouldn't interrupt a fireman that is on active duty in a mission, though. "Stop extinguishing that fire, put down the hose and have a random meeting with me who is not directly involved in the actual process".

You might if the fireman is pointing the hose at the wrong house, or a larger fire has broken out and you need to figure out whether he should change what he’s doing.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#150

Post by lloeki »

stevage wrote: post #146

I had a lot of trouble understanding what was meant here: > The world has gotten more complicated: it seems that most dangerous traps now are picking up frameworks that bypass mimic the current meta. And the worst thing is, they're not even fun. What does he mean by "traps"? And "mimicking the current meta"? I feel like there are some references here I don't have?

> mimicking the current meta

Probably "Most Effective Tactic Available. It's basically what works in a game regardless of what you wish would work.", a gaming term.

Imagine a PvP game, there are rock-paper-scissors rules and devs try to balance the game, but inevitably mistakes are made and the game has an imbalance leading to a rock-paper-scissoss-well situation (the well always wins or ties), so people end up mimicking that, gaming the game, otherwise they don't stand a chance, which ruins the game itself. Then devs adjust that by cheesing the weapon or whatever, but may introduce another imbalance. So there's a game atop the game (a meta-game), which is "how to game the game" by finding meta-strategies that are almost guaranteed to work.

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