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Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

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Re: Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

#21

Post by hinkley »

Norfair wrote: post #2

Having an organisation of highly-frustration-tollerant people is a great way of getting an organisation where nothing ever gets fixed.

The masochists are all too happy to do something the hard way in perpetuity. But they are in the smart-industrious quadrant and they will burn up man-hours like no tomorrow. Their goal is to fill a week not get stuff done.

You can be the person who jumps on the tedious tasks and that’s fine - as one personality in a diverse team. I worked on a project with all super senior people who never wanted to do any tedious work, ever. Over the course of a year the project started to more and more resemble Second System Syndrome, as each dev contributed an “engine“ or “framework” to perform Task Golf and never write any boring code. That’s just as bad as all masochists.

But a masochist that insists everyone else experience pain too is now a sadist. And from a progress standpoint that’s probably the worst monoculture to have.

Re: Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

#22

Post by hinkley »

fdpee wrote: post #4
Norfair wrote: post #2

Having an organisation of highly-frustration-tollerant people is a great way of getting an organisation where nothing ever gets fixed.

This, I'm the low frustration tolerance one and guess what ? I'm also the one that document the product and make it actually easy to onboard on

At a pivotal point in my career growth, I got stuck with a project I had grown tired of while a more stimulating project was being spun up with new hires. I was “too important” to the old project and shut out. I did not enjoy that experience.

I’ve always been a pretty decent writer, and a passable tutor. It wasn’t that I couldn’t divest knowledge to other people, we just hadn’t made the time. I never did get onto that other project, the company started spiraling before I convinced that manager the team could deal without me. But I have seen what happens when a senior person becomes the bottleneck, or when only one voice champions an idea in meetings, and I do a better job of carving out bits of subject matter to co-create with peers or bequeath to people I’m mentoring. There’s plenty of breathing room between Work Yourself Out of a Job and Being Indispensable, where you have enough capacity that you can participate in new ideas that strike your fancy.

Re: Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

#23

Post by nxobject »

This resonated with me, but not in its original context in navigating large organizations - it reminds me of chewing on a tough open-ended math problem, or other situations where you try a 100 solutions to find one that actually works. I hope it’s the same concept here.

Re: Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

#24

Post by ant6n »

In Germany, you have to be extremely frustration tolerant for surviving running a small startup. The bureaucracy is crazy and convoluted, the funding (including research grants) frustrating and obscure, the consultants (e.g. tax advisor) to help with these expensive and infuriating, the software (eg bookkeeping) infantile.

Re: Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

#25

Post by gffrd »

Schiendelman wrote: post #13
gffrd wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d be interested to hear how you’ve learned to moderate your response to frustration more effectively. Practices? Medication? Etc.

For me, it was better sleep, a healthier diet, and regular weightlifting nearly every morning.

Intersting.

I have noticed that on the mornings where I do some exertion before anything else—a run, some yoga, etc.—that my ability to "receive" and process the things that come at me is so much better. It feels like there's a waiting room, whereas otherwise, whatever comes at me gets a 1:1 response.

Have you found weightlifting to be specifically beneficial, or is that just your morning workout of choice?

Re: Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

#26

Post by jancsika »

nateburke wrote: post #10

"I learned that the world of men as it exists today is a bureaucracy. This is an obvious truth, of course, though it is also one the ignorance of which causes great suffering. “But moreover, I discovered, in the only way that a man ever really learns anything important, the real skill that is required to succeed in a bureaucracy. I mean really succeed: do good, make a difference, serve. I discovered the key. This key…

> "The underlying bureaucratic key is the ability to deal with boredom."

The key to excellence in any human endeavor is the ability to deal with boredom.

Wallace was a serious tennis player for awhile, surely he must know this.

It's as if he (and most of HN) has a kind of intellectual allergy to the word "bureaucracy" that suppresses his critical faculties.

Re: Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

#27

Post by gnkyfrg »

nateburke wrote: post #10

"I learned that the world of men as it exists today is a bureaucracy. This is an obvious truth, of course, though it is also one the ignorance of which causes great suffering. “But moreover, I discovered, in the only way that a man ever really learns anything important, the real skill that is required to succeed in a bureaucracy. I mean really succeed: do good, make a difference, serve. I discovered the key. This key…

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Re: Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

#28

Post by gnkyfrg »

jancsika wrote: post #26
nateburke wrote: post #10

"I learned that the world of men as it exists today is a bureaucracy. This is an obvious truth, of course, though it is also one the ignorance of which causes great suffering. “But moreover, I discovered, in the only way that a man ever really learns anything important, the real skill that is required to succeed in a bureaucracy. I mean really succeed: do good, make a difference, serve. I discovered the key. This key…

> "The underlying bureaucratic key is the ability to deal with boredom." The key to excellence in any human endeavor is the ability to deal with boredom. Wallace was a serious tennis player for awhile, surely he must know this. It's as if he (and most of HN) has a kind of intellectual allergy to the word "bureaucracy" that suppresses his critical faculties.

[dead]
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