Hacking the Wetware 2 - Antipatterns (Burn Out & The Ego Trap)
Of Burn Out And Boiled Frogs
I can’t speak for everyone, but as for my own experience, burn out can be tough to self diagnose because it happens slowly, by degrees.
Career
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
I was recently in an online discussion about whether or not technologists should use “managed services” like the one I work for.
One gent essentially claimed that the move towards cloud and managed services represented an end game for our industry, and that we’d automate ourselves out of a job. This is what I said:
The Eternal Novice Trap
Introduction
It was the dawn of a new century in the tech world. We’d just survived the great Y2K scare which, for many of us, turned out to be nothing. I spent a memorably pleasant Y2K eve playing board games and sipping champagne at my company’s East Cambridge office, enjoying the company of my co-workers. I felt like I was on top of the world.
The Joy of DevOps (Or, Return of the Living Generalist!)
One of the things I have always enjoyed about what I do is that I have, from pretty much day 1 in the technology industry, worn many hats.
No matter what my job title said, I have always done pretty much whatever needs doing whether or not it crosses into what others might consider a discipline that’s not in my job description.
Face, meet Mr. Concrete wall.
As I mentioned here previously, my last big job search after I got laid off from MIT was decidedly Not Fun…
I ended up taking a job I would normally never take, because I felt utterly backed up against a wall by the economy, increasing competition in the tech sector, and the big skeleton rattling around in my closet - the lack of a degree.
A Short, Sharp Shock
One morning a few weeks back I was told to get in early to meet about an upcoming release that was happening…
Unfortunately, we were in for a big surprise.
Three of my co-workers and I were laid off that morning, along with 23 other unlucky souls from different parts of the lab.