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I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

startingdotneprogramming.blogspot.com

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Re: I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

#41

Post by S4M »

DigitalSea wrote: post #2

This is sadly a lot more common than people think. I have a similar story from a prior employer, a system administrator who was often asked to fix problems usually caused by bad managerial decisions of which he always flagged initially as being problematic but nobody listened to him, even after it turned out he was right from the start, he was one of those guys who knew their shit. He was a really nice, quiet and res…

Your story is really sad. I makes me wonder, do you know if that sysadmin had tried to look for another job before he got totally burnt out?

Re: I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

#43

Post by krichman »

codewright wrote: post #7

Your job is to produce surplus value for your employer in exchange for reduced risk and possibly to specialize into work you find interesting. (Machine Learning doesn't happen without division of labor.) You do not owe your employer your sanity or anything above and beyond what's reasonable. (As decided by your personal satisfaction and the standards/mores of your culture.) If you're seeking to put more into the pot…

Something like this should be passed out to every young person that enters the workforce along with a pamphlet outlining the expected odds of being promoted from a low-level position to a managerial position.

Re: I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

#44

Post by Swizec »

derefr wrote: post #36
Swizec wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps doing more office politics than productive work is your job's signal it's time to leave. Do you want to work at a company where more resources are wasted on keeping the lights on so to speak than providing value to users? I sure don't. If you can't talk to the CEO or CTO, if you're technical, on your first day physically at the company, that's a Bad Signal (tm).

I was assuming a context of "you become aware that your company has this problem, and yet you persist in wanting (or needing ) to work there." For example, you might you need the money, live somewhere crap for jobs, and your mortgage is underwater so you can't move somewhere better. If that's the case, then you should, in all pragmatic cynicism, think about your "real job" at the company. Actually, perhaps I need to…

Ah, pragmatic cynicism. Never was a fan of that, always more of a fan of unpragmatically changing things for the better. Especially these days when the global unemployment rate for programmers is ~3%, you will get a different job and you will get it quickly.

I'm told life looks very different if you have done anything resembling settling down. But I haven't been there yet and my glasses have rose coloured lenses.

Re: I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

#46

Post by fabriceleal »

I hope he gets better soon. I can relate to him.

The pressure one might feel is overwhelming: you're expected to work extra-hours because you have a salary greater than the region's average (not only company's average!...); you're expected to work extra-hours, otherwise you're not motivated; you're expected to work extra-hours willingly, not because you're asked or it's needed, and be happy about it; you're expected to work extra-hours because someone gave a deadline to a costumer that's technically and humanly unfeasible, and now there's no going back.

All this stress and a mental illness in a parent of mine are scaring me.

The thing is, if I had a mental breakdown and ended up in a mental institution, I would probably repeat the "pen and paper to write a program" episode. My brain is so wired to program, either for work or for leisure, that I can't stop thinking about it. If I'm not doing "something" (reading, watching a movie, ...) I'm thinking of something lisp-y. Its exhausting.

Re: I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

#47

Post by yen223 »

oyvindeh wrote: post #13

This is sad, but it's also plain old human psychology. If you help someone out, you put yourself in an inferior position. If you're always the one sacrificing yourself, people around you will feel more and more superior to you. At some point, they will start expecting that you sacrifice yourself whenever shit hits the fan. This doesn't mean it's bad to help out, or to sacrifice yourself once in a while. But in order…

> If you help someone out, you put yourself in an inferior position.

What? This doesn't make sense. When you help someone out, you are putting that person in an inferior position. Does a beggar feel superior to you because you tossed him a quarter?

Re: I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

#48

Post by ryan-allen »

auctiontheory wrote: post #11

Mental illness is very common. This story has nothing to do with programming, except that technically strong people are given a lot of leeway for strange behavior, meaning that folks who need treatment often do not get it soon enough. The other point, and I think by now all of us should know this, is that we are each responsible for our health and our careers - we cannot look forward to a lifetime with a paternalisti…

Thank you for pointing this out. Your downvotes are not deserved. I imagine a number of mentally healthly programmers looking to prove a point in regards to unscrupulous employers would prefer that this not be chalked up to mental illness.

Though the story to me reads like a classic case of mental illness and eventual breakdown. I posted a comment on the blog asking for follow up of the individuals case. Despite citing human factors I bet they don't know, nor care.

Re: I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

#49

Post by masklinn »

annymsMthd wrote: post #25
DigitalSea wrote: post #2

This is sadly a lot more common than people think. I have a similar story from a prior employer, a system administrator who was often asked to fix problems usually caused by bad managerial decisions of which he always flagged initially as being problematic but nobody listened to him, even after it turned out he was right from the start, he was one of those guys who knew their shit. He was a really nice, quiet and res…

I had a similar situation happen to me, minus the going crazy part. If you constantly have to clean up because of the bad decisions of a manager then you should just leave that company. Don't bust your ass trying to make a difference and change minds that don't want to change. If you are an employee you are expendable.

> Don't bust your ass trying to make a difference and change minds that don't want to change.

Exactly. Either leave or just coast by doing the necessary minimum and keep your stress buffers and brainpower for interesting personal stuff

Re: I Knew a Programmer Who Went Completely Insane

#50

Post by d4nt »

derefr wrote: post #20
Zenst wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly it is more common than people even think. Oddly enough it is always the ones that are most productive and I know from personal experience you can clear 200 tickets in a week and somebody doing the same job and paid more gets thru that in a year and you are the one being shafted as you spend your time doing the work instead of office politics.

Perhaps, instead of seeing your job as "what the job description says", you should see it as "whatever actually gets me rewarded." Which is to say, at some companies, playing office politics is your real job. "Work" is just a signal you can emit to show that you are willing to submit enough to not get fired.

This is spot on, in many engineering jobs getting the right technical decision made requires you to exercise influence over management and peers. And having some influence in the bank involves a careful tending over a long period. If that makes you unhappy, try to think of it as building up karma so you comments go straight to the top of the list.
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