As you grow, it can be tempting to compare your career to other developers.
It's only natural that as you notice other people getting promotions, recognition, and opportunities to lead exciting efforts you consider:
"Would I like that too?"
But it's a slippery slope from discovering some new worthy goals, to chasing someone else's!
In this video I share some ways I've come to cope with many projects where I ask myself:
"How do I feel when someone else gets recognized?"
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Top comments (6)
Yes, this was and sometimes still is a problem for me too.
On the one hand I met really bad devs over the course of my career and had many customers pay me good money for my services.
On the other hand I see the OSS devs on Twitter/GitHub creating awesome frameworks and libraries and then getting hired by big corps.
I see that I shipped much projects which are used by many people, but I also see that I failed horribly in some interviews.
But yeah, the question is, what do you want from life and is it what other people want?
Sure, I don't work for Microsoft making 200k a year.
But I also just work 6-9 months a year and no 40h a week.
I also don't have a house or a wife and children.
I live in a shared flat, which cost much less and since I live polyamorous, I still have many people around me who I love.
There are many "non classical" ways to design your life :)
Great to hear your life and work decisions balance well for you! Thanks for sharing.
Great video. I think most of us suffer from this sometimes and you summed up the solution perfectly: self-awareness. People want to be rich or have status but only have a vague notion of why they want those things. I think happiness comes from lifting a load and doing something useful, whatever that means to the individual.
Thanks Shawn!
I agree and find more meaning myself from doing things that have an impact.
But I’ve been on some projects in the past with little impact but good pay.
That’s usually the perfect breeding ground for silly chasing of other people’s career decisions.
Love this, thank you for posting. I'm a frontend dev and it's incredibly easy to get overwhelmed with everything one "should" know in our industry, which makes me struggle with feelings of inadequacy/not learning fast enough/keeping up to date, etc. But as you mentioned, taking a step back and accessing where I want to be, how I'm on my unique journey, and how I'm valuable is a great reminder and reset to have a healthy mindset and attitude.
Looking forward to watching the rest of your videos, I think this type of content is really needed for our industry.
Thanks again!
I’m glad this one was relateable. ✌️
Feel free to hit me with any other insights you have here or on the YouTube channel.
Thanks for your feedback and support Bri!