> some people in tech companies will identify people like me and wring us out in ways that only benefit them
Absolutely. They inevitably get promoted to managers, because they are able to parasitically get things done.
I'm addicted to being useful
201–210 of 322 posts
Re: I'm addicted to being useful
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah so far there's not enough nuance in the discussion. I also like to separate between 1) solvable vs unsolvable problems: e.g. you cannot solve a deceased relative. Also 2) first time vs multiple repeat problems If find it very irritate someone is venting to me repeatedly about solvable problems. But if it's a 1 time unsolvable problem, then it's important to be in listening mode.
You are missing the point, though. The complainer decides whether it's a solvable problem or not, not the listener. So "I'll listen if it's unsolvable (to me)" is a non-starter.
Well I decide if it’s annoying to me and I’m going to tolerate it or lend support.
Re: I'm addicted to being useful
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a great analogy. I first came across it in Gerald Weinberg's 'More Secrets of Consulting: The Consultant's Tool Kit', where he spends some time talking about burnout, what it means, and how to get out when you find your way in.
For a more spiritual audience: the analogy is also widely recognized in the Bible
I spend a lot of time reading the Bible, and examples aren't coming to mind. Can you give some examples?
Re: I'm addicted to being useful
#204I can relate to this and in my journey, I was able to maintain feeding my need to be useful to the world around me and do well money-wise. The latter was my desire to be there for my family so they can focus on their health.
The best part about HackerNews, is that you get a very good sense of the envious and jealous nature of people. A lot of the "hate" or "angry" comments, are basically people who hate their relationship with "work".
To the author, I think you'll continue that process of being useful, but you'll see that in this new world, you're usefulness now scales..
Re: I'm addicted to being useful
#205This concept comes up a lot, especially on this site. I am sometimes surprised how seldomly it is mentioned by this name:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai
Re: I'm addicted to being useful
#206It’s great to be useful as living for your purpose is the best way to achieve life satisfaction. But it’s important to establish boundaries and avoid developing codependency and not to define yourself through the perception of your acts towards others. Having a skill that helps others gives you a sense of mastery. The fact that you have this skill and apply it in good faith should be enough to establish a good sense…
Yes, equanimity is a great quality to possess. It means that you never get too high or too low. When things are really going your way, you know that things can change for the worse. Yet you can be content. When things are not going your way, you know that things can change for the better. And you can be content.
This doesn't mean that you don't try to achieve anything. It means that you can still be content whether you succeed or fail.
Thank you for reminding me about this word.
Re: I'm addicted to being useful
#207It's not addiction. That makes in sound like self pat on the back disguised as a problem.
It's the equivalent of being neat freak. Some people are annoyed when they see breadcrumbs on the floor and feel a compelling urge to clean it. You experience a compelling urge to fix tech problems.
I think many people have that on various subjects.
It's not really a problem though. More an obsession than an addiction really. Being obsessive about your work is not a problem as long as you maintain proper live/work balance.
Re: I'm addicted to being useful
#208One of thing I have noticed of good software engineers is while they are trying to solve problems, they also communicate with clarity to upper management chain. The clarity they bring to the table was always appreciated and also puts them in the career growth path easily.
Every good engineer is an excellent communicator. Everyone who is not an excellent communicator is not a good engineer. Everyone hates that this is true but it remains true. A lot of people are very good programmers who have mistaken that for being good engineers, however.
people who do not understand orthogonality also take poor measurements.
Re: I'm addicted to being useful
#209Nothing wrong on the surface with this, and the author explicitly acknowledges this risk, but it bears repeating: Corporate environments are almost always toxic places to fulfill your emotional needs. It is true that finding a job that "resonates" with your personality is key to living a fulfilling life, and that software engineering is the kind of profession that is really going to fit certain personality types extr…
I have similar reservations that this expresses, and it leaves me wondering as to what kind of person is suited for this kind of environment. Perhaps that's a pointless question, although I think that there is at least one useful answer to it: I'm not the kind of person who's suited to those environment. I'm not well-suited to take such a huge chunk of my life and basically throwing it away by creating a barrier between it and my emotional life; I find it difficult to imagine even asking another human to do such a thing, and wonder how 'natural' it is to members of a species that evolved without such artificial separations between work and emotions and life.
Re: I'm addicted to being useful
#210does it not bother you that your company is not useful to society?
I thought this meant he worked for a blood diamond trader or maybe Ticketmaster, but no, he works for GitHub. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a Philip Dick novel where the world is not what I thought it was.
I am not sure where you found this, but I would agree that GitHub is very useful, for code backup and for sharing with the world.