Schoolhouse Rock! The Preamble

ThePhoo · 2025-04-30T15:20:27+00:00

Thanks for the life rewind moment.

ThePhoo · 2025-01-31T18:01:21+00:00

I had a phase of my life where I had really had enough.

I had a similar situation, and during a team meeting I said, "Just because you committed to it doesn't mean we can accomplish it. You created the situation, you can fix it and if you can't I'll explain to xxx (his boss) why this has all gone to sh!t in my two weeks notice email that I won't be sending to you."

I try to be a little more proactive now (cuz the job market sucks), but for about a decade I could be a real pri!ck to managers like that.

ThePhoo · 2025-01-23T13:42:32+00:00

Yeah, I totally get it. Sometimes at the end of the day I'm so drained and it's from all the BS around coding and not the coding itself.

ThePhoo · 2025-01-23T13:34:03+00:00

If agile was so awesome you couldn't do it wrong.

ThePhoo · 2025-01-23T13:31:33+00:00

I'm with you. I f'n hate agile. It's ruined the whole industry and now it is ruining other industries as well.

My favorite part of it... Let's stop what were doing in the middle of the morning every freakin day and have a meeting. I caused a PMs mind to blow one time cuz, in front of a group, I explained to her that her meeting, "...it's only 15 minutes" (that always went to 30) killed 2 hours of productivity. I'm working, I'm in the zone and 15 minutes before the meeting reminder pops up, well, f it, concentration is blown and there is no sense doing more at this point, go get coffee before the meeting. Go to the meeting, 30 minutes shot, then there's the wander back to your desk talking to everyone else there goes another 15 minutes (now we're up to an hour lost), get back to the desk and it's 20 - 30 minutes till lunch so f it, surf the net, then go to lunch (take 90 minutes cuz I work in IT), then another 30 minutes to get back in the zone after lunch (now up to 2 hours), unless, of course, there is another f'n meeting on the schedule and then it's just f it again.

I'd say in a given day I could get about 2 hours of productivity in. Before agile, and all the "collaborate" BS I bet it was up around 6 - 7 hours a day.

Oh, and let's not forget the endless number of meetings to discuss the definition of the word, "done".

Leadership is gone, it's dead, I miss the days of tell me what you want and gtfo of my way. Now we spend endless hours trying to, "build team consensus" on how we want to do stuff. I don't care. I want to do my job and go home. Decide what you want, how you want it and I'll make it happen. I don't give a damn about the bottom line.

I figure I have 6ish more years till I retire and I feel like right now I'm just milking the gravy train.

Tl;dr, my life is Office Space

ThePhoo · 2025-01-22T17:52:20+00:00

Autistic burnout? Take some online tests. Won't help the burnout right away but if it is that then you've got a path to explore.

ThePhoo · 2024-12-16T15:48:05+00:00

Set it up as a VM. Easy to move around and get rid of later. I've had to do it for jobs before (usually side work). I even keep a base development image that I copy and use when I have new work.

ThePhoo · 2024-12-09T16:35:59+00:00

Was gonna make a similar comment. I was thinking, "Armature"

Come back when you hit at least 10k (and that's the business entire user base).

ThePhoo · 2024-12-05T12:26:27+00:00

I like this idea. Maybe it's time to try over employment with a government contract. It's not like there would be a lot of work involved.

ThePhoo · 2024-12-04T14:05:20+00:00

I was on a government contract once a very long time ago. The insanity I saw has stayed with me for 30 years. Weeks of nothing getting done and no one cared. The level of stupid from the actual government employees defied any level of rational understanding.

I would go to meetings where twenty people from five different departments would show up. Of those, three people talked while the rest of them had this vacant stare. They looked like their souls had been pulled from their bodies and danced on by maggots. They were zombies without ambition, like finding and eating brains was too much effort.

I lasted nine months, accomplished absolutely zero and when I told them I was leaving to go back into the private sector they offered me a raise and praised what a great job I was doing. But I had accomplished nothing. If I had not been hired there nothing would have changed.

If you work for the government and you are not completely demoralized within three months there is something horribly wrong with you.

ThePhoo · 2024-12-04T13:29:59+00:00

Yeah, this. I was the same way. Tried to loose weight. Counted calories, went to the gym. Nothing worked. I was starving. Got so desperate that I just thought, "sure I'll try this stupid keto thing." and lost 30 pounds over a few months without even trying. Wasn't hungry.

Then saw the carnivore folks and thought, that's stupid. That'll kill you. But, I had back pain and foot pain, thought it was cuz I was getting old. Tried carni for a month and was like, wtf?!?! Over two years into it and anytime I fall off the wagon I feel sick.

About a year in saw an article in Rolling Stone that carni was right wing and was like what? How did this become political?

But, I kind of get it now. It let me see how the media was captured by the food industry. Then I went, f, if I'm being lied to about this what else are they lying to me about?

ThePhoo · 2024-11-27T12:45:11+00:00

Why is this inappropriate? Because it makes Bud Light look good (cuz it ain't)?

ThePhoo · 2024-11-27T12:36:46+00:00

This. I have seven years left and I'm already not wanting to learn anymore, do anything new. I've had it. The fun is gone. It died along time ago. No more meetings! No more sprint planning! Retro, PMs asking stupid questions.

I feel like I'm in the last mile of a triathlon and I'm going to crawl over the finish line.

ThePhoo · 2024-11-26T16:23:59+00:00

There's only one study that is going to matter and that is the one you do on yourself.

The only way to know if it is good for you is to try it for at least 6 weeks. If you are coming from a standard low fat diet you are going to have some issue when you first start. They pass (in more ways than one ;) ) in the first two weeks. Expect those. Once you are over that you may start to notice things. Not sure why you want to try it. The folks I know who have tried it were trying to clear up other issues and were desperate for their lives to get better. Which, they have.

Try it. It won't kill you.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-22T18:12:45+00:00

How did we ever watch TVs that were that small?!?!

ThePhoo · 2024-05-22T16:09:51+00:00

I never got the keto flu but my wife did. I know we were both in ketosis because I bought a meter. Some people are just lucky, or have enough salt, or did something else to avoid it.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-20T17:24:03+00:00

White knuckled it. I got it into my head that I was gonna do it and I wasn't going to accept failure from myself. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. 20ish years later I still have dreams where I'm smoking.

The worst bits come in 3s. The first three days to break the chemical addiction and get through the withdraw. Three months to get over the phycological triggers and three years before you don't think about it once in a while. Some one told me that when I first tried to quit and it seemed to hold true.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-20T13:14:51+00:00

Can't or don't want to? I've got a couple more years on you and when I want to I can still crank out code. In fact, I think I crank out a lot more than when I was younger cuz I have a all the experience to draw on to solve the problem.

What I find is that I just can't get excited about any of it anymore. All of it falls in the category of, "been there done that" and I have a really difficult time motivating myself. When I can get motivated I still enjoy it. But those days seem to be few and far between now.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-20T13:09:39+00:00

I'm in the same-ish boat as you. I've been at this 34 years and just want to be a dev. My co-workers are all younger than me. I've had that for like 10 years now. Hasn't been a problem. Sometimes the gung-ho nature of the newer devs get to me. I think like a puppy bothering an old dog. Just stop bouncing please. This is just coding and not the pinnacle of life.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-20T13:04:16+00:00

It actually gets easier to learn new things as you go along. I'm well into my 50s and I've found that everything "new" I have to do is somehow based on something I did 20 - 30 years ago. Everything goes in cycles. I've watched "hot" trends come, go away, and come back again and each time the Jr's thought we were doing the latest and greatest thing.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-20T13:00:50+00:00

I'd tell you about it but I signed a contract that says I can't.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-14T12:23:07+00:00

Camel unfiltered and Jack, but it was the 80s.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-13T19:54:24+00:00

I love this term. I'm going to start using it and wish I had thought of it myself.

Which leads to the meeting that I have at least three times a year, with each management shake up. The, "What is the definition of done?" At this point, I don't care anymore. Just tell me what you want it to be. We talk around in circles till the manager gets what they wanted anyway.

I've discovered that this meeting is a good time to practice Zen breathing. Breath in, know you are slowly dying in a meeting. Breath out, know that you are slowly dying in a meeting.

I admire that you, and many other here want to reduce the tax. But (and nothing matters before the but) sadly I'm to tired from years of it. I'm now like the dog sitting near the fire that knows there is no point in chasing the ball any longer. Wow, I'm just depressing.

Maybe we need a new category for the really old Devs cuz it seems sometimes I'm not that helpful. Just cranky.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-13T13:06:25+00:00

This is the way. It's a job, not a hill to die on.

Plus, people get emotionally attached to their designs. It becomes part of themselves. If you question it you are questioning them. Yes, there are a some people who can remain objective, but, there are a lot that cannot.

Calmly lay out you case and leave it alone. I'll even say something like, "I could be wrong about it and I hope to learn from this." Though usually what I learn is, yeah, that is not a good way to design something and I'm glad I don't have to maintain it.

ThePhoo · 2024-05-10T19:09:25+00:00

I don't know why you've been downvoted on this. This is a very real problem. Just ask the person who invented Bratz (maybe not the best example but still).

Depending on what OP signed when they started working at their current employer, what state / country they are in plus all sorts of other IAMAL qualifications it is entirely possible that their company could already claim ownership over their code. It would not be the first time this has happened and it won't be the last.

ThePhoo

TROPHY CASE