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Introspection - Part 2 - Why & Why Not

Summary

In this episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Cutrell continues the series on introspection by focusing on how our core values shape our decisions and actions. He explains that having clearly defined values is essential for navigating life’s choices and provides practical questions to help listeners connect their daily activities to what they truly believe in.

The first key question is “Why?” Cutrell suggests repeatedly asking “why” about our actions until we trace them back to our fundamental values. This process helps identify whether we’re acting from internal conviction or external pressures like peer pressure or the desire to please others. He acknowledges that some actions, like pleasing a boss for job security, have practical justifications, but the exercise reveals which activities genuinely align with our personal belief system.

The second question is “Why not?” which demonstrates how values can function both constructively and protectively. Constructively, values can generate ideas and guide what we should do—forming our to-do lists based on what matters. Protectively, they help us know when to say no to opportunities that, while good in general, aren’t aligned with our personal path. Cutrell emphasizes that not every good opportunity is good for you, and values provide the measuring stick to make that distinction.

Cutrell encourages listeners to return to these introspective questions regularly, perhaps quarterly, as answers may evolve over time. The goal is to develop clarity that leads to better decisions about how to invest time and energy, ultimately fostering a more intentional and fulfilling professional and personal life.

Recommendations

Tools

  • Linode — A cloud hosting provider sponsored in the episode. Cutrell highlights that you can get a Linux server running in minutes, it’s built on fast SSDs, has excellent internal networking for distributed systems, and offers Node Balancers as a service. He mentions the entry tier starts at 20 credit for listeners.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to values and self-reflection — Jonathan Cutrell introduces part two of the self-reflection series, emphasizing the importance of knowing your values. He defines values as “things that are important to you” and explains they ultimately impact your behavior and decisions. Listeners are challenged to pause and write down their values if they haven’t already.
  • 00:03:00 — The first guiding question: Why? — Cutrell presents the first of two questions to point back to your values: “Why?” He explains that by repeatedly asking why you are doing something—like going to the gym at 5 AM or creating the podcast—you should eventually arrive at a core value. This process can reveal if actions stem from internal values or external pressures like wanting to please someone else.
  • 00:05:53 — Applying ‘Why?’ to tasks and priorities — A practical application is suggested: map tasks on your to-do list back to your values. This can help with prioritization; tasks that align with or maximize multiple values might deserve more consideration. The broader goal is to start recognizing things we’re doing that we might need to stop.
  • 00:08:28 — The second guiding question: Why not? — After a sponsor break for Linode, Cutrell introduces the second question: “Why not?” He explains that values can be used in two ways: constructively to generate ideas and tasks you should do, and protectively to judge what you shouldn’t do. Values act as a measuring stick for knowing when to say no.
  • 00:10:32 — Not every good opportunity is good for you — Cutrell elaborates on the protective use of values. In your career, you will encounter many generally good opportunities, but not all will be right for you. Someone else might succeed with it, but for you, it might be misaligned. The key is to use your values to discern which opportunities to pursue and how strongly to hold to those values in decision-making.
  • 00:11:33 — Conclusion and call to revisit questions — Cutrell concludes this two-part episode on introspection. He encourages listeners not to answer these questions once but to return to them regularly, perhaps quarterly. As you revisit them, your answers may change, your vision will clarify, and you’ll ultimately make better decisions with your time.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2017-09-11T09:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:12:53

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] What are your values? That seems like an open question, but of course, this is part two in a

[00:00:12] self-reflection episode of Developer Tea. What are your values? This is an important

[00:00:19] question to answer. It’s not the question we’re going to talk about in today’s episode,

[00:00:24] but it is important for you to have your values established, have your values determined to be

[00:00:31] able to work through some of the stuff that we’re going to be talking about in today’s episode.

[00:00:36] So I challenge you, if you don’t have your values written out, to take a minute. This is kind of a

[00:00:41] bonus pause in your day. Take a minute and write out things that are important to you. That’s

[00:00:47] really kind of the most basic way of describing what values are, things that are important to

[00:00:53] you.

[00:00:54] Things you believe in, perspectives that you think are important for your worldview.

[00:01:02] These are things that, as we’ll find out in this episode, ultimately impact how you behave in the

[00:01:09] world. They impact your decisions. We’re going to talk about how those values can impact your

[00:01:15] decisions in today’s episode. My name is Jonathan Cottrell. I already said you’re listening to

[00:01:20] Developer Tea, and my goal in the show is to help you.

[00:01:24] I hope you become a better developer. Sometimes that means helping you become more self-aware or

[00:01:30] sharing ways that I have found for myself to become more self-aware. I’m not a counselor.

[00:01:38] I certainly don’t have a degree in that subject. I don’t have a degree in psychology. So everything

[00:01:43] you hear on the show is really anecdotal. It’s more intended to share things, insights that I

[00:01:50] have found for myself in hopes that you will have a better experience. So I hope you become a better

[00:01:54] developer. I hope you become a better developer. I hope you become a better developer. I hope you

[00:01:54] have some common ground with me in hopes that some of these discussions will trigger something in

[00:01:59] your own experiences, your own mind that is positive and valuable for you. That’s the goal

[00:02:06] of this show. And I’m thankful to say that some developers have contacted me and they’ve said that

[00:02:12] the discussions that were promoted on the show and ultimately that they took into their own lives

[00:02:18] with their peers, they took on that responsibility.

[00:02:24] And they stood up and they started doing things differently after listening to the show. And I

[00:02:29] couldn’t hope for anything more than that. I couldn’t hope for you to do anything more than

[00:02:34] to take what we talk about here and apply it. Find out how it applies, if it applies in your

[00:02:42] own life, in your own situation. So thank you so much for listening to this show. It really means

[00:02:47] so much to me that I’m able to do this. For those of you who listen, thank you.

[00:02:53] So

[00:02:54] we’re asking this question centered around values. I have two questions that you can ask that will

[00:03:00] point you back to your values. It sounds unbelievably simple. And we’re going to go

[00:03:08] through both of those. The first question is why? Why am I doing this particular thing today,

[00:03:16] right now, in this moment? Why am I listening to Developer Tea? Why am I, for me, why am I

[00:03:23] creating Developer Tea? Why am I doing this particular thing today, right now, in this moment?

[00:03:24] Why am I going to the gym every morning at 5 a.m.? Right? There are multiple questions that you can

[00:03:32] ask that if you ask why, and then you continue to ask why, eventually at the end of that train

[00:03:43] of questions, at the end of asking why over and over, you should arrive at your values, right?

[00:03:51] There’s a possibility that you’re going to arrive at something that you’re not going to arrive at,

[00:03:54] well, I have to stay alive, right? But strangely enough, even having values provides you a way of

[00:04:01] asking the question, why do you want to keep living? This is a little bit more intense than

[00:04:08] we usually get on this show, but you can ask the question why, and the reason that you want to

[00:04:14] continue doing whatever it is ultimately should come back to one of those values, right? And this

[00:04:20] is a difficult thing to really ask that question. Why do you want to keep living? Why do you want to

[00:04:24] answer it in the right way that will lead you to a value? But it’s also enlightening to recognize

[00:04:32] the things that you can’t trace back to one of your values. These are things that you’re doing

[00:04:39] for some reason that you haven’t quite figured out yet. For example, a lot of times the answers

[00:04:48] that lead back to, you know, something that isn’t your core values, a lot of times those

[00:04:53] answers are related to peer pressure or wanting to please somebody else, wanting to not get under

[00:05:02] their skin or, you know, go against something that they want you to do. This is very important

[00:05:08] to recognize. If that is a pressure that you feel, then it’s important to recognize, you know,

[00:05:14] what is the purpose of continuing to appease that person? And you can ask yourself why on that,

[00:05:22] right? Why?

[00:05:23] Why do I want to continue pleasing this person? And a common answer would be, well, that person’s

[00:05:30] my boss, right? And that’s a good answer to that question. That person is my boss. They are

[00:05:35] in charge of my employability. And so I do things to keep them happy sometimes. That’s a perfectly

[00:05:41] fine answer. And you shouldn’t feel self-conscious about that answer. So I want you to ask yourself

[00:05:48] these questions. And really, you know, you can do this in multiple ways. One way that makes sense,

[00:05:53] is to create your task list and identify values that each of the tasks on your task list

[00:06:01] kind of points back to, right? And this can help you kind of prioritize your tasks. If you have one

[00:06:08] that really kind of maximizes all of those value orientations, it really hits, you know, checks

[00:06:16] every box on your list, then perhaps that one can receive a little bit more consideration and

[00:06:21] priority. Of course, we aren’t really talking about prioritizing tasks, but that’s another way,

[00:06:28] another way of judging, you know, priority for the things that you do in your day. Ultimately,

[00:06:34] you know, what we’re trying to do is start to recognize the things that we’re doing

[00:06:38] that we need to stop doing. And we’re going to take a quick sponsor break and come back

[00:06:43] and talk about the second question, why not? Today’s episode is sponsored by Linode. I’ve

[00:06:50] done so many reads for Linode. I’ve done so many reads for Linode. I’ve done so many reads for

[00:06:51] Linode because they are sponsored developer T. They’ve helped this show continue for so long now,

[00:06:57] but they do have an excellent product. And I don’t even have to have the read in front of me to

[00:07:02] explain to you the benefits of using Linode. You can get up and running with a Linux server

[00:07:08] in just a few minutes, and that server is going to perform excellently for you. It’s built on SSD.

[00:07:14] That means it’s super fast. They also have super fast internal networking between their servers.

[00:07:19] So if you wanted to create a, you know, a round robin,

[00:07:21] a distributed load system inside of Linode, you can do that. In fact, they have that as a service.

[00:07:29] It’s called Node Balancers. That is a fundamentally supported thing in Linode.

[00:07:36] You also get excellent support. You get this all at an industry rate that is the best deal

[00:07:42] per gigabyte of RAM, right? Dollar to gigabyte of RAM ratio. Linode is beating pretty much everyone.

[00:07:49] So you can start at $5.

[00:07:51] $5 a month, by the way, this is insanely cheap. If you don’t have a Linux server,

[00:07:56] then you’re going to have a hard time figuring out a better way to spend $5 a month. On top of that,

[00:08:02] Linux is providing you with $20 worth of credit just for being a developer T listener.

[00:08:07] Go and check it out. spec.fm slash Linode. Use the code developer T 2017 at checkout.

[00:08:15] Remember, again, it starts at 20 worth of credit. If you use that code,

[00:08:19] go and check it out. spec.fm.

[00:08:21] slash Linode. So let’s ask the next question. We’ve asked why. And in the previous episode,

[00:08:28] we’ve identified the things that we can be best at. We’ve identified the things that we need to,

[00:08:34] you know, stop trying to be better at because we know we’re never going to be the best at those

[00:08:39] things, right? That those things are things that we’re only going to be mediocre at.

[00:08:44] And then we’ve also identified roadblocks that we’ve placed in our own path that,

[00:08:51] that keep us from maximizing our, our potential. Of course, again, in this episode,

[00:08:57] we identified the fact that everything that we do should be able to be traced back to one of our

[00:09:05] values. Values are really driving us to do everything that we do and asking why, asking why

[00:09:12] I’m doing something should lead me back to my values. The final question that I want you to ask

[00:09:18] is why not?

[00:09:21] And really what this is outlining is that our values can be used in both a constructive

[00:09:39] and a protective manner. Let me explain that. A constructive manner means that you can use

[00:09:47] your values to generate ideas.

[00:09:50] You can use your values to generate ideas.

[00:09:51] You can use your values to generate ideas.

[00:09:51] You can use your values to generate what you should do today.

[00:09:55] You can use them to generate your to-do list.

[00:09:58] You can also use your values to judge what you shouldn’t do today.

[00:10:04] That is protective, right?

[00:10:06] So your values are going to generate the things that you believe you should be involved in,

[00:10:10] that you should put your attention and your energy into your time.

[00:10:15] And secondly, your values can be used as kind of a measuring stick to say,

[00:10:21] knowing when to say no, knowing when to turn down a decision, even if it looks attractive,

[00:10:28] even if it looks exciting. You know, this is going to happen more often than you may

[00:10:32] currently perceive that it will happen. You will, in your working lifetime,

[00:10:38] encounter many opportunities that are good opportunities in general. There’s nothing

[00:10:46] particularly wrong with them. And someone who takes that opportunity may become extremely,

[00:10:51] extremely successful. They may also be the worst thing that you choose to do.

[00:10:58] I’m saying this not to incite anxiety and not to make you indecisive, but rather to say that

[00:11:04] not every good opportunity is good for you. Not every positive decision or profitable decision

[00:11:12] is going to be aligned with your values. It’s important to know when and how to make those

[00:11:21] decisions.

[00:11:21] It’s important to know how strongly you want to hold to your values. How deeply do you want those

[00:11:28] values to protect your decision-making? Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of

[00:11:33] Developer Tea. It’s a part two of a two-part episode on introspection, asking yourself,

[00:11:39] interrogating yourself with difficult questions. These are questions that you’re not going to write

[00:11:44] down the answer to today and never return to them, hopefully. My goal is for you to return to these

[00:11:50] on regular basis. I would say even on a quarterly basis, return to these questions, bookmark these

[00:11:56] episodes, whatever you have to do, return to the questions and answer these questions again and

[00:12:02] again and again. You’re going to find that the answers are going to change. Your vision is going

[00:12:06] to be clarified and ultimately you’re going to be making better decisions with your time. Thank you

[00:12:12] so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer Tea. Thank you again to Linode for

[00:12:16] sponsoring today’s episode. Remember $5 a month.

[00:12:20] It’s so cheap, so affordable, especially for that entry-level tier. And for all of the things that

[00:12:26] Linode provides, $5 a month. Go and check it out, spec.fm slash Linode. You can get a one gigabyte

[00:12:32] RAM server for that 20 worth of credit

[00:12:36] just for being a Developer Tea listener using the code developertea2017 at spec.fm slash Linode.

[00:12:43] Thank you again for listening. And until next time, enjoy your tea.

[00:12:50] Thank you.

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