Hacker News Reader

"We're constantly thinking about all of the stuff that's gone wrong with our applications previously, what new things could go wrong with them now"

I really feel this. I'm supposed to be half coding and half support but the support has expanded to fill all my time and I don't write anything more than 30-line kludges that only I will see any more.

That's partly just the nature of support always taking up all the time, but also I feel really paralysed when it comes to coding, because I just think of all the stupid corner cases I've been bitten by and how bad it felt to lose data or cause downtime or just look stupid.

And yes, the answer might be "write more test cases, code review" but that little voice in the back of my head goes "you thought you'd caught all the edge cases last time, and it still did a dumb thing you'd never thought of". I find it really demotivating, and start to put things off until I feel cleverer (which I never do), and then my lack of productivity depresses me, perhaps to the point you'd call "burnout" even.

Well, glad I'm not alone. Any tips on thinking my way around it welcome.

You can try your best but bugs seem to me to be a necessary tradeof for “getting stuff out there”. Some are generally acceptable given that the applications we write these days generally aren’t for life threatening devices etc.

What I’d do in your situation is bring these issues up with the team and think of what if anything you can do to help reduce the amount of support tickets coming through.

I’d look at reoccurring support tasks and prioritise the proper fixing of these based on the frequency these tasks come up.

I’d raise specific bugs that have come about recently and ask if you as a team could have prevented these in any way. What lessons do these have for the future?

Maybe you can get a “story sign off” from the product owner once tasks are done you demonstrate that the feature works as expected.

Another thought is to write up more formal acceptance criteria with various scenarios in story cards “As a, I would like, so that”, “Given When Then” kinda stuff. Might need to google on that one.

Anyway, I think if you take the actions you can take and maybe reframe the way you think of bugs, you can rest a bit easier. Just remember it’s a team effort, and hopefully your team members can help pitch in to help solve these with you.

> We spend so much time dealing with tools that tend to be extremely pedantic and detail-focused.

This in combination with deadlines has caused my resting face to develop into an angry expression. As soon as I stop smiling and return to my “neutral” face, I look like I am angry, ready to kill someone. I now make an effort to smile while walking so people don’t get frightened.

You've just described my face since I joined my current company (about a year now). My old job was half the stress and I worked with people that were fun and respectful of each other. Now I work in a place with an unscalable pace of work with people that are angry and hate each other. My resting face is one of anger and despair even when I'm not working.

I recommend cardio. You can't be depressed or anxious if you are at high heart bpm.

Indoor exercise bikes are super cheap. I pair mine with noise canceling headphones and a tablet and I can exercise comfortably while being entertained.

The best cure for my brain by far (that or riding a motorcycle -- another experience that puts your conscious firmly in your body).

I harness that mindset-spillover by playing board games as a hobby.

Playing some board games almost feels like meditation because it makes time slow down as you wait for the other person to complete their turn. It’s quite nice, really, although I found it mildly frustrating at first.