
Fighting micro-burn-out - joshuacc
http://blog.asmartbear.com/burn-out.html
======
gnosis
_"Thinking about how we are building stupid games for stupid people made me so
uninterested in doing work."_

This is not depression. This is reality.

Most people work at making things they don't care about, and serving people
they don't care for.

And yet they're expected to put on a cheery face at work and at all the
disgustingly fake work parties and cheerleading sessions, kiss up to the boss,
and give a shit that their company is making x% more or less widgets this
month.

I suppose it's good that he's found a way to put up with the cognitive
dissonance a bit longer before he suffers a full-fledged nervous breakdown,
but from another prespective it's pretty sad.

Ideally, of course, we should all find work that's fulfilling and meaningful
for us. But that's easier said than done.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
If you really feel that way about where you work, you need to get out. I've
only worked one place where I truly didn't care and that was for one week (end
of 2008 after being laid off...still couldn't stomach it). It's not hard to
care if you really look at your users as people who you can help be more
successful in their lives (even if just providing a pleasant distraction for a
busy nursing student/MA/mom like ZombieFarm does for my wife).

The vast majority of people I've met who chronically hate what they are
producing (and please understand I'm not saying this is true in your case, but
it is worth introspecting) believe they are better than the people using their
software. These engineers tend to be brilliant but difficult to keep focused
on the user. Personally, if you (generic, not gnosis :) aren't passionate
about my users, you don't work for me. My users are too important to me to
allow just anybody to write code for them, no matter how much of an artist
that developer is.

That differs from the micro-burnout mentioned in TFA. I have experienced that
and the best way I've found to deal with that is by communicating with my
users. For me, that's what makes the pre-release startup days the most
difficult: no users to talk to yet.

~~~
gnosis
In 90% of the jobs I've held, I don't even know the customers (as friends or
even acquaintances), and have never even met them. How much caring do you
really expect me to muster up for this faceless horde of people I'm supposed
to be serving?

And even when I have met the people I'm serving, they very rarely even make it
to the level of acquaintance. They're just a face, someone I talked business
with, someone who wants to make money off me, or get me to fix their problem
and nothing more. I'm just an expensive tool for them.

Why should I really care whether whether their stupid website is down or their
connection to the stock exchange is broken and they're losing millions every
hour?

Of course, if I get paid for it, I might stick around. And might even pretend
that I love fixing their worthless crap or making their inane widgets. But if
you really think that beyond this mask I'm putting up on for you, deep in my
heart I really give a shit, you are deluded.

With the exception of a handful of very lucky individuals who actually enjoy
their work and care about what they do, I think the work world is full of fake
people, and to make it there you have to be fake as well (unless you really
are soul-dead and don't mind that you are wasting your life doing meaningless
crap).

Actually, thinking back on it, I did used to enjoy what I was doing, when I
was young and the entire work world was new to me and the places I was going
to and the things I did seemed glamorous and exciting. But that quickly wore
off, and it became just another day at the office, for which I had to drag
myself out of bed for, despite getting paid very well for the trouble.

------
docgnome
All the Editors Notes were sort of irritating. "We've got a guest blogger
today! We think he's the cats pajamas but that's not gonna stop us from
butting in to get our two cents!" Seriously. Write a follow article next time.
This editorial style makes it difficult to read. Alternatively, if you must
add to this one, do it as footnotes.

------
gyardley
The line about 'building stupid games for stupid people' really took me aback.
Does he feel the same way about the people buying AppSumo deals - 'stupid
services for stupid wantrepreneurs'?

If you don't have contempt for your customers, you won't get burnt out as
often.

~~~
reitzensteinm
The guy is doing a post mortem of his state of mind at the time. Smart and
talented people fall into ruts of suboptimal behaviour, and there is
tremendous value in frankly discussing it.

Of course, if he _still_ believes his customer base was 'stupid', I guess
that's another thing entirely...

~~~
gnosis
_"Smart and talented people fall into ruts of suboptimal behaviour.."_

His "optimal behavior" might be to quit and get another job. Or opt out of the
rat race entirely.

------
Bkorsunsky
Relax people, the guy's article is cathartic expression. He's sharing his raw
experience of a topic that's hard to talk about for most guys and especially
most entrepreneurs.

------
luigi
Was it really necessary to mention the fact that his girlfriend sleeps
topless?

~~~
ctdonath
He uses her as an illustration of how comfortable, unto bragging, his life is.
She's flair, not a "for richer or poorer, sickness or health" commitment. The
inappropriate implication of nocturnal habits implies a lack of subsequent
dependents. I'll assume a due-every-month mortgage isn't involved either.

This guy doesn't know what stress and depression is, yet I'm supposed to read
his lecture on dealing with it? Stress is not knowing if you'll wake up after
surgery and see your baby girl again. Depression is being on the wrong side of
the >10% unemployment rate. This guy is suffering "micro-burn-out" because
life is too good, he's bored of his hobby, and a half-dozen people said "no"
two hours after a mass email blast.

~~~
gnosis
_"Stress is not knowing if you'll wake up after surgery and see your baby girl
again. Depression is being on the wrong side of the >10% unemployment rate."_

No. Stress is seeing your best friend's brains splattered all over you in a
firefight in which you lose your arms and legs. Stress is being the victim of
a serial killer or rapist. Stress is spending your entire life in jail. Stress
is living through the genocide in Rwanda. Stress is being waterboarded ever
day at Gitmo, despite being innocent, and being locked up there without a
trial for the rest of your life.

There are always people worse off than you, and compared to whom your troubles
are nothing. Does that mean that what you feel is worthless? That it isn't
worth mentioning? That you should "just deal with it" and be thankful you
weren't a prisoner at Auschwitz instead?

~~~
Splines
I've heard this, and I've said it, and I wonder if there's an answer. Are we
allowed to complain about the trivial?

I get a chuckle reading reddit.com/r/firstworldproblems, but some of those
things _do_ annoy me. I don't go around complaining about it, but it'd be a
lie to say that I go without want in my privileged life.

Where do you draw the line?

~~~
samlevine
Things that suck are always bugs, unless the suck is the feature (e.g. having
to walk 20 miles to get water is lame, but being able to hike over a weekend
can be fun for some people).

First world problems are still problems. It doesn't trivialize the crap that
most of humanity still has to deal with, but it doesn't mean that we can't
improve how we do things. And given how many small, annoying little things
everyone has to deal with on a daily basis I think that we'll still be
improving things for decades to come.

------
nhangen
I like that he talked about this, but I'm not satisfied with the answers.

~~~
pw
Why? :-)

I agree that some of them are just versions of the "time, relaxation, hiring
and pacing yourself" that he described as the solution to regular burn-out.

~~~
nhangen
Because in some cases, such as when you have deadlines or low income, taking
time off isn't really an option. Taking time off is a great band-aid, but it
doesn't really address the deeper problem, which is the psychology of money
and entrepreneurial depression.

I go through this as well, and I can totally relate to how getting sales
notifications in my inbox can make or break the day's mood.

But I do take time off, frequently to do things like boating, going to Disney
World, and the beach. It buys a bit of energy, but not much.

So for me, taking time off is a generic approach that's easy to recommend, but
not especially effective.

~~~
Willwhatley
Howdy,

So, what is effective for you re inspiration/recharge of energy?

Best,

~~~
nhangen
Well my favorite fix is more "sold!" emails, but that just fuels the
addiction.

It might not be welcome here, but listening to this guy:
<http://lamamarut.org> works very well.

~~~
pw
No, that's certainly welcome here ;-)

------
code_duck
Being affected mentally by the day's revenue is pretty common in retail. I did
it when I was in sales, I've noticed my friends who own brick and mortar
stores act like that. If they had a good day, everything is great and the sky
is rosy - if it was not so good, they talk like they're doomed. Unfortunately
people often lose perspective on last week, month or year.

------
pw
It seems like I'll read anything whose title includes "micro-[non-technical
thing]."

