(This is a continuation from part 2 of “Depression and the Software Developer”.)
[Note: This is a recounting of an experience from several years ago. Read the story from the beginning in order to catch up.]
According to psychologist Joe Griffin, the cycle of depression starts when innate needs are not being met. Among these are a [...]
By J. Timothy King
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Also posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Personal Improvement, Stories, True Stories
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Tagged biography, depression, programming, SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Software Development, software engineering, stress
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(This is a continuation from part 1 of “Depression and the Software Developer”.)
If one of the most powerful weapons against depression is hope, one of its most powerful fuels is hopelessness.
I attacked my next job with gusto and enthusiasm. The company had previously outsourced a project to an offshore contractor, and now that the fit [...]
By J. Timothy King
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Also posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Personal Improvement, Stories, True Stories
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Tagged biography, depression, programming, SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Software Development, software engineering, stress
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April 17, 2009 – 11:10 am
Knowing what I know now, I wonder how I avoided depression for as long as I did:
Stress causes depression.
Perfectionists are more prone to depression.
Isolation reinforces depression.
As a software developer, those frequently go along with the job description. Seasonal Affective Disorder has gotten the rap for at least some of the funk, because many software guys [...]
By J. Timothy King
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Also posted in Confessions of a Veteran Software Developer, Personal Improvement, Stories, True Stories
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Tagged biography, depression, programming, SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Software Development, software engineering, stress
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Software developers have a wonderful explanation for why there are so, so many software bugs. Unfortunately, it’s a highly technical explanation that’s very difficult for the layman to understand. I’ll try to summarize, but be aware that the following is a gross oversimplification.
The root problem is that software is complex. And it’s not just that [...]
March 21, 2009 – 10:00 am
One way to deal with poor communication on a software project is simply to ignore the people around you and do what you wanted to do anyhow. Of course, this strategy can backfire, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. But in that case, you probably won’t know enough to notice it backfiring, so [...]
February 7, 2009 – 10:58 pm
I ran across the video below at the SDLC blog: “Hug a developer… They’re in terrible pain.”
This came at an significant time for me, because I too have been working on a project that is quite painful for me. It’s painful, because I saw the disaster coming, because I warned about it, because I was [...]
January 16, 2009 – 9:07 am
From NETTUTS, a humorous summary of 10 bizarre programming languages, namely:
Ook!
Piet
Whitespace
LOLCODE
Shakespeare
Befunge
reMorse
FALSE
Whenever
l33t
The conclusion one draws from this list is unmistakable and undeniable: There are programmers in the world who have far too much free time on their hands!
-TimK
January 2, 2009 – 5:23 pm
I’m helping out with a project I used to work on, one in an organization that uses SourceSafe to manage its source code. Fortunately, this time, I don’t have to deal with SourceSafe this time. All I have to do is to submit my diffs against a baseline, and someone else will have to deal [...]
November 21, 2008 – 9:45 am
As reported in the New York Times:
When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.
Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to [...]
October 17, 2008 – 4:00 am
Just a quick note: I’ve started a new website at JTSE.com about software engineering and custom web development. Like most of my sites, it’s a blog (or pseudo-blog), and there’s an RSS feed. If you’re interested in software-development topics (especially if you subscribed to this blog back when I was talking a lot more about [...]