How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer • Hacker News Board

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#121

Post by yamtaddle » Wed, May 03, 2023, 4:26 PM UTC

kochthesecond wrote: post #67

thenerdhead wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody loves a job where people constantly make bad decisions(or decisions you're not involved in) and you don't feel like you're doing the right thing(when you could be). You're morally hijacked. That's no way to live a working life.

The thing is, I just don't get it. Management treat the decisions like they don't have consequences, always getting stuck on local minima. If the plans had a vision with logical steps A --> B --> C where they would build and enhance on each other, we could make a great product. Why they seem incapable of stringing together a chain of priorities that actually make sense (synergy) I have concluded, is that they don't r…

One of the more surprising things I've discovered is that, across the board, top-to-bottom of the social and economic pyramid, there seems to be a lot less concentration of competence, intelligence, and sense as one moves upward, than one might think. Not none, but... very little. Shockingly little.

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#122

Post by yamtaddle » Wed, May 03, 2023, 4:33 PM UTC

boredemployee wrote: post #84

tarruda wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your manager or anyone else in the team harassing you? If not, then your anxiety might come from an expectation that you must love every part of your job. Use something like pomodoro (this is simple and works: https://brainpls.work/ ) to do one task at a time. Once your work day is over, go do something you enjoy.

>> Is your manager or anyone else in the team harassing you? No that's not the problem. I suffer a lot with context switching all the time, I'm responsible for many serious things that could lead the startup to a completely failure. I'm really not sure if I have the skills for the task/challenge, etc. People like me and my job, but I'm pretty sure I don't have the skills for so much just yet, I think that is the sour…

> I suffer a lot with context switching all the time, I'm responsible for many serious things that could lead the startup to a completely failure.

See if you can get some juniors to take on some of this. Agitate for some hiring, if you need to.

Delegating is how you move up the org chart. Which seems super-weird, like how you can just pay someone some money and then you own what they did—like, what? How does that work? Feels dirty and wrong. But, in fact, it's how everything works above the lower tiers of an organization, and at the top you really are just paying people money and then owning everything they did while you were paying them (then your job is to get someone else to pay you for that stuff—or, uh, to tell some other people to do that part for you, too).

However much it doesn't feel like it, telling others to do work isn't just work (well, "work") it's more prestigious work than actually doing stuff. A career-advancing response to having too much to pay attention to can be, I shit you not, finding other people to do it instead.

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#123

Post by quechimba » Thu, May 04, 2023, 12:10 AM UTC

MD3XTER wrote: post #102

quechimba wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been there. Find someone to talk to before you crash. And take a vacation if you can. Travel to a different country, experience something completely different. Also, find another job. All companies are different. Stress is good if there's a lion praying on you and you need to take immediate action to avoid being eaten. With this constant work stress it's like there's a lion nearby all the time. It's difficult to…

True! You are your best friend. All the answers are within you already!

Yeah, you have to be... Treat yourself as if you were your best friend. What would you tell your best friend if they were in the same situation? Then do that.

That's what a friend told me once. However in reality it's usually not that simple because it's easy to make up excuses... It's not easy to be human.

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#124

Post by avinassh » Thu, May 04, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

IAmGraydon wrote: post #43

Stress generally comes from being or feeling powerless to change your state of being. It's the negative feedback your mind gives you in an attempt to spur you to regain control. There are two ways you can overcome it: gain control or relinquish the desire for control. You just don't want to be in the middle, craving more control but having none. This is the position most employees find themselves in, unhappy but trap…

> There are two ways you can overcome it: gain control or relinquish the desire for control.

What if both of these are difficult? and how would you relinquish the desire?