Vox

Leitura de 14 min

Accepting Change by Focusing on Continuity

Summary

In this episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Catrello opens with a personal announcement: he has left his position at Whiteboard after eight years to take a new role at Clearbit. He uses this career transition as a springboard to discuss a common challenge faced by developers and professionals: the fear of change.

Catrello explores how humans are biologically hardwired to resist change due to evolutionary instincts that prioritize safety and stability. He acknowledges that change can be intimidating, whether it’s a chosen career move, an unexpected layoff, or adopting new technologies. The fear of change often leads people to avoid potential growth opportunities and better career positions.

Drawing from Harvard Business Review research, Catrello presents a counterintuitive strategy for accepting change: focusing on what will stay the same rather than what will change. He explains that when people concentrate on continuities—the aspects of their lives that remain constant—they can better embrace transitions. This approach helps counteract the brain’s tendency to perceive change as an overwhelming threat.

Catrello shares his personal experience with this strategy, noting how he realized that many aspects of his daily routine—including his commute, parking location, and workspace—would remain similar despite the significant career shift. He encourages listeners to identify continuities in their own situations, whether facing job changes, learning new technologies, or adapting to new frameworks.

The episode concludes with an important reminder about human adaptability: people generally handle change better than they expect to, and resistance to change can create different risks, such as becoming outdated in one’s field. Catrello emphasizes that change is inevitable throughout life and that finding ways to accept it is crucial for professional growth and development.

Recommendations

Publications

  • Harvard Business Review — Cited as the source for research showing that people accept change better when they focus on what will stay the same. The research specifically addresses business-related changes.

Services

  • Breaker Upstream — A service from Breaker that allows listeners to support podcasts directly through ad-free subscriptions. Jonathan promotes it as a way for listeners to get closer to the podcasts they love.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction and Breaker Upstream promotion — Jonathan introduces the episode and promotes Breaker Upstream, a new service that allows listeners to support Developer Tea directly through an ad-free subscription. He explains how the service works and encourages listeners to check it out as a way to bring them closer to the podcasts they love.
  • 00:01:30 — Personal career announcement and episode focus — Jonathan shares his personal news about leaving Whiteboard after eight years to take a position at Clearbit. He introduces the episode’s main topic: how developers can deal with fear of change in their careers. He explains that while humans are hardwired to resist change, this episode will focus on strategies for accepting change rather than just discussing the fear itself.
  • 00:04:30 — Research on accepting change through continuity — Jonathan discusses research from Harvard Business Review showing that people accept change better when they focus on what will stay the same. He explains that this approach works because it reminds us that not everything changes, counteracting our tendency to perceive change as overwhelming. This strategy applies to various contexts including curriculum changes and organizational restructuring.
  • 00:06:48 — Risks of resisting change and technological obsolescence — Jonathan warns about the risks of resisting change, noting that while avoidance may seem to reduce risk, it can actually create different risks. He uses the example of not learning new technologies, which can lead to obsolescence as technologies become outdated. He emphasizes that change happens around us whether we choose it or not, and resisting it can be detrimental to our careers.
  • 00:07:31 — Personal application of the continuity strategy — Jonathan shares how he applied the continuity strategy during his own career transition. He realized that many aspects of his daily life—including his commute, parking garage, and workspace location—would remain similar despite the job change. This realization helped him accept the transition by focusing on what wouldn’t change rather than what would.
  • 00:09:56 — Human adaptability and concluding thoughts — Jonathan concludes by emphasizing human adaptability, noting that people generally handle change better than they expect to. He encourages listeners to find human ways to deal with change rather than resisting it. He thanks his former colleagues at Whiteboard and reminds listeners about the Breaker Upstream ad-free subscription option.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2018-08-17T09:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:11:09

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to talk about something that we’ve mentioned

[00:00:07] a few times in the show that launched last week.

[00:00:12] It’s called Breaker Upstream.

[00:00:15] This is a service from Breaker.

[00:00:18] If you haven’t used Breaker, it’s an excellent app for listening to podcasts.

[00:00:22] It’s currently available in the iTunes app store for iOS and it’s coming to Android

[00:00:28] soon.

[00:00:29] Breaker is already an awesome application for listening to podcasts.

[00:00:33] It brings quite a few new elements to podcasting.

[00:00:37] It kind of feels like podcasting 2.0 in my opinion.

[00:00:41] But beyond the app being awesome already, Breaker Upstream provides listeners like

[00:00:47] you with a chance to support shows like Developer T directly.

[00:00:53] So what you do is you download Breaker and sign up for an account and subscribe

[00:00:58] to shows like you normally do, but you’ll see some special premium feeds that you

[00:01:03] can subscribe to for a monthly fee.

[00:01:06] For Developer T, we’ve decided to create an ad-free version of our show.

[00:01:11] Go and check it out, Breaker Upstream.

[00:01:13] Use the Breaker app and subscribe to Developer T ad-free.

[00:01:18] Thank you again to Breaker for joining Developer T and allowing us to be a launch

[00:01:22] partner with this brand new product and for bringing listeners closer to the podcast

[00:01:29] that they love.

[00:01:30] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer T. My name is Jonathan

[00:01:34] Catrello.

[00:01:35] My goal on this show is to help driven developers like you connect to their career

[00:01:39] purpose and do better work so they can have a positive influence on the people

[00:01:44] around them.

[00:01:45] And I have some personal news to share today.

[00:01:48] This week was my last week working for Whiteboard.

[00:01:52] Whiteboard is the agency that I’ve been working for essentially for about eight years now.

[00:01:58] And I’ve decided to take a position with a company called ClearBit.

[00:02:02] You may have heard of ClearBit, and we certainly will be talking a little bit more

[00:02:06] about what ClearBit does in future episodes just because that’ll be my new daily experience.

[00:02:12] Whereas at Whiteboard, I worked with clients.

[00:02:15] That role will change and the focus will change as I move into my role at ClearBit.

[00:02:20] But in today’s episode, I want to talk about something that I think a lot of developers

[00:02:25] face, a lot of developers who are in my position trying to decide what to do with

[00:02:30] their careers, what you face, and that is fear.

[00:02:34] And more specifically, fear of change.

[00:02:37] We inhibit our actions very often because we are afraid of change without really thinking

[00:02:43] about the benefits of change.

[00:02:46] Of course, humans are kind of hardwired to do this.

[00:02:48] If you haven’t learned anything on the show, other than humans being hardwired,

[00:02:53] we are certainly hardwired to do things that may not necessarily be in our best

[00:02:57] interest.

[00:02:59] This is hardwiring that has come from many thousands of years of humans not needing

[00:03:04] to really change very much.

[00:03:08] I guess more specifically, once a human has found safety and sustenance and protection,

[00:03:15] then we don’t really have a drive to change.

[00:03:18] In fact, we have a drive to avoid change because if we found something that works,

[00:03:22] then if we change it, maybe it won’t work.

[00:03:26] Maybe we are in dangerous territory when we try to change something.

[00:03:31] And so we have this built-in fear of change.

[00:03:33] But I don’t want to just focus on the fear of change.

[00:03:36] We’ve talked about fear of change quite a bit on the show before.

[00:03:39] But instead, how you can help yourself accept change.

[00:03:47] And sometimes the change isn’t really something that you necessarily chose.

[00:03:52] Perhaps you’re a developer that got laid off.

[00:03:55] This happens all of the time in companies all over the world.

[00:03:59] Developers do lose their jobs.

[00:04:01] They do get laid off.

[00:04:03] Perhaps you have a recent life experience that has created change for you.

[00:04:08] Maybe you’ve moved away from home or had a relationship change.

[00:04:12] There are a lot of different types of change that we will always experience in our lives.

[00:04:17] And in fact, change is something that will happen from the day you are born

[00:04:22] until the day you die and well before that and well after that.

[00:04:26] So how can we deal better with change?

[00:04:30] Research shows, and this comes from Harvard Business Review,

[00:04:34] that in order to get people to embrace change,

[00:04:36] and again this is specifically in the business category of change,

[00:04:43] in order to get people to accept change,

[00:04:46] have them focus on the things that will stay the same.

[00:04:52] Think about this for a second.

[00:04:53] In order to accept change,

[00:04:56] focus on the things that won’t change.

[00:05:00] Some of the research is talking about changes in curriculum for students.

[00:05:05] Some of it is talking about changes in organizational structure.

[00:05:09] And we view change or differences in what we have been doing

[00:05:15] and what we plan to do in the future that can feel like a threat.

[00:05:19] And so if we’re focusing on the things that won’t change,

[00:05:23] perhaps there’s a few mechanisms that are at play here.

[00:05:26] Number one, you’re kind of reminding yourself

[00:05:29] that everything is not going to change.

[00:05:33] Maybe your brain is tricking you into believing that everything will.

[00:05:36] But in fact, most things,

[00:05:39] with almost any change you experience in life,

[00:05:41] most things about your life will stay the same.

[00:05:45] Of course, I’m adding my own speculation about why it is

[00:05:48] that if we focus on things that don’t change,

[00:05:51] that we can accept change a little bit better.

[00:05:54] But in your own life, in your own career,

[00:05:57] if you are actively avoiding change,

[00:06:02] then you’re also actively avoiding the good that change may bring.

[00:06:08] Yes, of course, you are avoiding risks,

[00:06:11] but you’re also possibly avoiding growth.

[00:06:16] You may be avoiding the opportunity

[00:06:18] that carries you to a much better place in your career.

[00:06:23] And even when you don’t accept change, even when you resist change,

[00:06:29] you may actually be putting yourself in a different risk category.

[00:06:35] If things are changing around you, and they are,

[00:06:37] there’s nothing you can do about that,

[00:06:39] if you choose to resist change,

[00:06:42] then your position relative to the rest of the world changes anyway.

[00:06:48] This is kind of a strange thing to imagine,

[00:06:51] but imagine that everything else around you is moving in a general direction.

[00:06:55] And if you choose to kind of dig your heels in and not move anywhere,

[00:07:01] that could have a detrimental effect on your career.

[00:07:05] If you choose not to learn new technology,

[00:07:09] this is the most common one, right?

[00:07:11] Then, of course, eventually the technology that you have become an expert with

[00:07:16] will become outdated or otherwise obsolete.

[00:07:20] So how can you focus on things that won’t change?

[00:07:24] What are the things that won’t change

[00:07:27] with your given change that you’re trying to accept?

[00:07:31] As it turns out, when I was trying to make the decision

[00:07:34] of whether or not I was going to leave Whiteboard and go to a new position,

[00:07:39] I often found myself negotiating on what was going to be similar,

[00:07:45] what things will actually stay the same.

[00:07:49] An interesting thing actually happened in this job search.

[00:07:53] My new life patterns, my new day-to-day patterns,

[00:07:57] and even my commute will be almost identical.

[00:08:01] I’m going to be parking in the same parking garage,

[00:08:05] and there’s a co-working space that I’m going to be working from

[00:08:09] that’s only a few blocks away from where Whiteboard is.

[00:08:13] So much of my day-to-day is not going to experience a flip on its head.

[00:08:20] So even though my life will change drastically in terms of who I work for

[00:08:26] and the kind of work that I’m doing,

[00:08:29] it may not really feel that drastic.

[00:08:33] So as I was making these decisions,

[00:08:35] those were the kinds of things that I kind of accidentally weighed.

[00:08:41] Those kinds of continuities between my old job and my new job,

[00:08:47] those became very important.

[00:08:49] So I encourage you, if you are trying to accept a change,

[00:08:53] if you’re considering a change,

[00:08:57] in order to accurately understand whether you want that change or not,

[00:09:02] take some time and focus on the things that actually don’t change.

[00:09:07] It may be as simple as you aren’t going to be moving away from your home.

[00:09:12] And so every night, you’re going to lay your head down in the same pillow,

[00:09:17] in the same bed, in the same house or apartment, wherever you currently are.

[00:09:22] Or the change may be something like learning a new language

[00:09:26] or adopting a new framework for your primary product.

[00:09:29] Let’s say you work in a product company

[00:09:32] and you’re adopting an entirely new way of doing things.

[00:09:36] Well, focus on the things that don’t change when those things do change.

[00:09:42] Will you create essentially the same product

[00:09:45] and perhaps for the same audience?

[00:09:48] Are you going to be working with the same people in the same place?

[00:09:52] I’ll leave you with one final note when it comes to change.

[00:09:56] Humans are incredibly adaptable.

[00:09:59] We deal with change better than we expect to.

[00:10:03] We expect change to be more drastic than it really is.

[00:10:08] And so I encourage you to not be resistant to change

[00:10:11] and instead to find the human ways to deal with it,

[00:10:16] to accept the change that’s happening around you.

[00:10:19] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer Tea

[00:10:22] and a very special thank you to the people

[00:10:25] that I’ve worked with at Whiteboard over the years.

[00:10:29] I can’t say experiences that I’ve had

[00:10:33] working with the people that I’ve worked with,

[00:10:35] both clients and the people who’ve worked at Whiteboard with me

[00:10:39] as colleagues, both recently and in the distant past,

[00:10:42] it seems at this point.

[00:10:44] Thank you all so much for making that experience at Whiteboard

[00:10:48] such a wonderful time.

[00:10:50] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer Tea.

[00:10:53] Don’t forget about Breaker Upstream

[00:10:56] and subscribing to the ad-free version of Developer Tea.

[00:10:59] Thanks again for listening and until next time, enjoy your tea.

Visão de gráfico