[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How Do You Psychologically Manage Being Thro...
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Ask HN: How Do You Psychologically Manage Being Thrown Around as an
IC?
I've been through a few med and small fast growing companies
companies. I always find eventually the need for "fast" causes
priorities to make whiplash turns constantly. As an IC I find it
frustrating because I usually need a bit of ramp up time to
understand what I'm doing and then invest a lot of time into
working on something before being picked up and thrown into a
different direction. Sometimes the directional change then being a
180 back to what you're doing, and you think to yourself "I just
wasted a day investigating something for nothing". I'm starting to
notice signs of burn out in myself. What do you do to manage this?
I know boundaries at work help, but in the 8 hours that you're in
the madness what do you do?
Author : thwwaway8282111
Score : 9 points
Date : 2024-11-26 17:07 UTC (5 hours ago)
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Find a better org. This is a symptom of poor management.
| tacostakohashi wrote:
| Totally agree with this. It's a sign that what you're working
| on is just one of what will be a series of half-baked ideas,
| pivots, etc. as random stuff is being thrown at the wall to see
| what sticks.
|
| Find yourself a job on a profitable / cash cow product and you
| won't have this problem.
| codingdave wrote:
| Keep in mind that whatever you are doing day-to-day has value,
| even if it gets thrown away. Sometimes you need to build a
| feature so that people can see it, react to it, and realize it is
| not what is actually needed. That was not wasted work, it was
| research. If you are doing what the business is asking of you,
| your job is getting done, even if you are whip-lashing around and
| nothing you do actually sticks.
|
| It can be frustrating, but it helps to think of yourself as more
| than someone who slings code... think of it as being someone who
| is helping to explore possibilities.
| chingchan wrote:
| You can't. Better not to work at big corp. I did that for 16
| years and everyday I was miserable. High performer, always but
| big stress. I had chronic back pain.
|
| One day, I simply quit and started my business. We are doing
| $200k in MRR now with two of us. Business is mix of software and
| physical store.
|
| My suggestion is to work on and for yourself.
|
| Disclosure: Not a finance or health advise
| 2024user wrote:
| That sounds like the dream. I just need to think of any idea
| like that
| mcflubbins wrote:
| How I mentally cope with this is:
|
| I get paid regardless of what I'm working on. If management asks
| me to shift gears (which they do, often) its because that's the
| most valuable thing for me to do at that time. At the end of the
| day, my goal is to provide value to the company.
|
| Does it suck. Yes. But its part of my current job.
|
| I've worked at other places where this happens much less often as
| well, such places do exist.
| bootstrpppin wrote:
| Try and reframe those 8 hours of "wasted time investigating" as
| an opportunity to:
|
| - learn something
|
| - explore different parts of the codebase
|
| - think about new/different problems to solve
|
| ...and try and enjoy the ride.
|
| Small companies do tend to thrash around, but it's pretty
| unavoidable and often can be a small companies competitive
| advantage. Doesn't make it any easier, I appreciate.
| brudgers wrote:
| [delayed]
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(page generated 2024-11-26 23:02 UTC)