Getting unstuck — the only question that matters
Why we get a sense of growing helplessness in our careers and how we can address it
I got a question from a CTO I know the other day around how they can deal with their sense of disillusionment in the tech industry at the moment. Having been a reader of this blog they asked me how I dealt with it. (hint: always happy to answer questions as frequently they provide inspiration to write).
Now, on the one hand there seems to be an astonishing amount of bullshit growing within the tech industry at the moment. There’s the whole religious crusade about remote and in-office work (more on that in another post). There’s the moral decline of tech giants previously held up as shining beacons. There’s the ongoing attempts to make software engineers fungible and measurable. There’s the hype about AI where everyone wants to do an AI project (even if they haven’t the skills — which is code for they want you to do it for them).
But, when it comes down to it, whenever we’re feeling stuck or helpless there is a growing temptation to look at the outside world as something that needs to change. The reality is that when we’re stuck the best course of action is to look at ourselves specifically at what we have control over. When I’m in this situation there is one question I ask myself first to get myself unstuck.
