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Leitura de 13 min

The Zen Developer - What Are You Pushing On?

Summary

The episode explores the concept of ‘pushing’ - how developers use their mental and physical energy throughout the day. Host Jonathan Cottrell defines pushing as the striving and effort we put into our work and lives, whether it’s writing code, thinking through problems, or simply staying alive. He notes that humans often push in unproductive directions, either trying to change the past or control the near future, which takes us out of the present moment.

Cottrell introduces a practical exercise for listeners: to notice moments of strong negative emotion, particularly stress, and investigate what’s causing it. He encourages examining where on the timeline these stressors matter - do they matter today, in a week, a month, or years from now? This perspective shift helps reveal that many current stresses become trivial or non-events when viewed from a longer timeframe.

The host connects this concept to the Buddhist principle of non-attachment, referencing a previous episode on the topic. He clarifies that this isn’t about stopping caring about one’s work, but rather recognizing that failures, negative events, and stresses are fleeting. By adopting this mindset, developers can work with less anxiety and attachment to outcomes.

Cottrell argues that when we’re less stressed and less attached to specific results, we paradoxically do better work. We can focus more on proper procedures, slow down when needed, and maintain curiosity throughout the development process. The episode concludes with practical advice for implementing this perspective shift in daily developer work.

Recommendations

Communities

  • Discover.bot — An online community for bot creators mentioned as the episode sponsor, described as a place for learning, teaching, and discussing topics like bot personality design and framework selection.

Podcasts

  • Developer Tea episode on non-attachment — Referenced as a previous episode that explores the concept of non-attachment in more depth, recommended for listeners who find this episode inspiring.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to the concept of pushing and energy use — Jonathan Cottrell introduces the episode’s theme about how developers use their energy - both physical calories and mental energy - throughout each day. He defines ‘pushing’ as the striving and effort we put into our work and lives, whether it’s coding, thinking, or simply existing. The host explains that humans often push in unproductive directions without clear awareness of where our energy should be directed.
  • 00:03:02 — Sponsor segment for Discover.bot community — The episode takes a break for a sponsor message about Discover.bot, an online community for bot creators. Cottrell describes it as a place where good ideas gain strength through sharing, turning experiences and knowledge into shared innovation. He mentions specific discussion topics like designing bot personality and choosing frameworks, encouraging developers to join at discover.bot/developertea.
  • 00:04:36 — Practical exercise for emotional awareness — Cottrell presents a practical exercise for listeners: to notice moments of strong negative emotion throughout their day, particularly stress. He explains that while we can’t directly control emotions, we can observe how they affect us and respond differently. The host suggests using stress as a particularly good state to investigate, as it’s often linked with anxiety about future uncertainties.
  • 00:06:27 — Timeline perspective on stressors — The host encourages listeners to place their stressors on a timeline and examine when they truly matter. He asks listeners to imagine where they’ll be in 3, 5, or 10 years and consider how important current stresses will be at those future points. Cottrell notes that humans often push on things just out of reach - either the past or near future - taking us out of the present moment where we can actually effect change.
  • 00:08:29 — Connection to non-attachment and long-term perspective — Cottrell connects the episode’s theme to a previous episode on non-attachment, encouraging listeners to explore that concept if they find this discussion inspiring. He emphasizes the freeing idea that current stressors will eventually become trivial or non-events. The host clarifies that this isn’t about stopping caring about work, but recognizing that failures and stresses are fleeting experiences.
  • 00:10:12 — Benefits of reduced stress for developer work — The host explains the paradoxical benefit of reduced stress: when we’re less stressed and less attached to outcomes, we actually do better work. We can focus more on proper procedures, slow down when needed, and maintain curiosity throughout the development process. Cottrell concludes that this mindset shift allows developers to enjoy their work more while producing higher quality results.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2018-12-07T10:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:11:44

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] Every day, you use your energy to do something.

[00:00:10] And I’m not talking about some mystical concept.

[00:00:13] I’m talking about your literal energy, the calories that you burn.

[00:00:17] You actually use your energy to do something.

[00:00:22] That something may be simply staying alive, laying on the couch and watching Netflix.

[00:00:29] It may be writing code.

[00:00:32] And a lot of what you’re doing as a developer and as a human is your thinking.

[00:00:40] And I want to talk to you today about what you are pushing on.

[00:00:47] We’ll kind of define this term pushing for the sake of today’s episode in just a moment.

[00:00:52] My name is Jonathan Cottrell and you’re listening to Developer T. And my goal on the show is

[00:00:56] to help driven developers like you connect to your career purpose and do better work

[00:01:01] so you can have a positive influence on the people around you.

[00:01:04] The idea of pushing, the striving that we do as humans, it’s not always striving.

[00:01:13] It’s not always stressful.

[00:01:16] Sometimes it is us actually just moving towards something, something we’re attempting to do.

[00:01:22] We’re putting our energy into it.

[00:01:25] But as humans often we don’t have a great way of knowing where we should be pushing.

[00:01:33] Not only do we often prioritize poorly, we do things that don’t matter before we do the

[00:01:40] things that do matter or we do things in the wrong order and so the things that we do later

[00:01:45] would have been easier had we done them earlier.

[00:01:49] But beyond that, we have a mindset shift.

[00:01:56] And the idea that we are living at some point, we’re living at some point in a timeline.

[00:02:05] Now the timeline is relatively constructed by ourselves, us having memories of the past

[00:02:12] and having some predictions of the future and some perception of the present.

[00:02:19] There’s an interesting kind of wire crossing that happens for humans where we push on this

[00:02:25] timeline, we think about the past and we use our mental energy somehow trying to change

[00:02:35] what has already happened.

[00:02:38] We also have this strange kind of obsession with trying to change what is getting ready

[00:02:46] to happen, the near future.

[00:02:50] Unfortunately when we’re pushing on something that takes our kind of mental faculties, it

[00:02:56] takes our awareness to those points in time.

[00:03:02] We’re going to talk about today’s sponsor really quick and then we’re going to come

[00:03:04] back and talk about this subject a little bit more about where we are pushing and how

[00:03:10] we can shift our thinking a little bit and hopefully gain a little bit more of a kind

[00:03:16] of calm and stress, a lower stress outlook on both the work that we do and our lives

[00:03:22] in general.

[00:03:23] But first I want to talk about discover.bot.

[00:03:27] Discover.bot is an online community for bot creators.

[00:03:32] On its own, even a good idea isn’t always as powerful as it could be.

[00:03:37] But when a good idea is shared, it gains strength and momentum.

[00:03:41] It becomes capable of changing things in ways both small and large and a good idea shared

[00:03:47] becomes an innovation.

[00:03:49] Discover.bot aims to sit at the intersection of ideas and innovation.

[00:03:52] Discover.bot aims to help people turn their experiences, discoveries, stories, advice

[00:03:58] and knowledge into part of a shared canon that moves everyone forward.

[00:04:03] For veteran bot creators and beginners alike, discover.bot is a place for learning, teaching

[00:04:08] and talking.

[00:04:09] Go and check it out, discover.bot slash developer T where you can join in on discussions like

[00:04:16] designing personality, how bots express themselves through language or how to choose a framework

[00:04:21] for your next bot build.

[00:04:23] Again, head over to discover.bot slash developer T and join the discover.bot community today.

[00:04:30] Thanks again to discover.bot for sponsoring today’s episode of developer T.

[00:04:36] So as you go throughout your day today, assuming you’re listening to this in the morning or

[00:04:41] sometime midday, and if you’re listening to it in the evening, keep this advice for tomorrow.

[00:04:47] As you go throughout your day, I want you to recognize a moment where you feel a strong

[00:04:53] negative emotion, and this happens for virtually everyone at some point on most days.

[00:05:00] Emotions are not things that we can really control.

[00:05:03] We don’t really have a direct mechanism to prevent emotions from happening.

[00:05:10] But we do have the opportunity to observe how those emotions affect us and then respond

[00:05:16] to them in new ways.

[00:05:18] So I want you to kind of keep track, keep a mental note, kind of a trigger that whenever

[00:05:26] you feel that strong emotion or maybe shortly after you feel that strong emotion, think

[00:05:32] about what caused that strong emotion.

[00:05:36] A particularly good emotion or kind of state of mind to investigate is stress.

[00:05:44] Stress is the sense that we have something that is bearing down on us, that we are perhaps

[00:05:54] incapable of accomplishing or beating.

[00:05:57] This is often stress is kind of linked with anxiety in these kinds of discussions because

[00:06:05] The fear that comes along with this bearing down can create a sense of dread in the uncertainty

[00:06:15] that is inherent with the future.

[00:06:19] So if you investigate your stress and think about what it is that you’re worrying about

[00:06:27] and try to find a point on that timeline.

[00:06:32] Try to point out where that thing matters.

[00:06:38] Does the thing that is generating stress for you, does it matter today?

[00:06:44] Does it matter in a week or in a month, perhaps in a year, five years?

[00:06:52] Try to imagine exactly where you will be in three, five, ten years from now.

[00:07:00] And imagine the thing that you’re stressed about.

[00:07:04] How important is that thing in five years from now?

[00:07:09] How much of an effect on your life did it have or would it have?

[00:07:15] Are you still in five years from now as stressed about that thing as you are today?

[00:07:22] You see, the thing that we are often pushing on is right out of our reach, whether it’s

[00:07:28] the past or it’s the near future.

[00:07:31] We’re often taking ourselves out of the present moment and we’re putting our minds into a

[00:07:38] place that really they don’t belong.

[00:07:42] Humans are not very good fortune tellers or future tellers.

[00:07:45] There are too many variables for us to be able to control and predict all of them.

[00:07:51] So instead of pushing on this near future or trying to push on the past, I would encourage

[00:07:59] you to find the interval of time where the things that commonly stress you out no longer

[00:08:08] matter.

[00:08:10] At some point, and you have to allow yourself to think even beyond your own life in some

[00:08:17] cases for this to become truly relevant, but at some point those things will not matter.

[00:08:24] Now if we can adopt this idea, this is very similar, by the way, to a previous episode

[00:08:29] we did on the concept of non-attachment, I encourage you if this episode is inspiring

[00:08:34] to you, go and listen to the episode about non-attachment that we did, I believe it was

[00:08:39] the last week.

[00:08:41] But the freeing idea, the root idea here is that at some point the thing that seems to

[00:08:48] matter greatly to us today, the thing that is stressing us out to a, you know, unreasonable

[00:08:57] degree today, at some point in that timeline it’s not going to matter.

[00:09:04] So I encourage you to think, try to imagine what life is like when your stresses don’t

[00:09:13] exist, when the things that you’re stressed about are really, they’ve become trivial,

[00:09:19] they’ve become a non-event.

[00:09:21] I want to be very clear that I’m not recommending that you stop caring about what you’re doing.

[00:09:29] This isn’t intended to send the message that, well, if things don’t matter anyway, then

[00:09:34] why should they matter at all?

[00:09:36] Why should I put any effort forward at all?

[00:09:39] Instead, this is a message that the failures that you experience, the negative events that

[00:09:47] you experience, the stress that you experience is fleeting.

[00:09:51] That all of these things that we kind of over-inspect and we hold onto and we fear so greatly that

[00:10:00] they will pass and that we have the opportunity to live in a less stressed kind of mode of

[00:10:12] thinking.

[00:10:13] And when we’re less stressed, ironically, we will end up doing better work.

[00:10:19] When we are less attached to the outcomes of our work, we can focus more on the procedure

[00:10:27] that it takes to do something right, for example.

[00:10:31] Instead of being rushed because we feel like we have to get this very important thing done,

[00:10:37] we can slow down.

[00:10:39] We can enjoy and stay curious throughout the process.

[00:10:45] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer Tea.

[00:10:48] Thank you again to Discover.Bot for sponsoring today’s episode.

[00:10:51] over to discover.bot slash developer tea to join the discover.bot community.

[00:10:58] Thank you so much for listening.

[00:10:59] If you are enjoying today’s episode, I’d love for you to do two simple things.

[00:11:04] One, share it with another person you think can benefit from thinking about what they

[00:11:09] are pushing on today.

[00:11:12] And then number two, subscribe or review.

[00:11:16] There’s kind of a three options here, but subscribe or review.

[00:11:20] If you’ve already subscribed, I’d love for you to leave a review in iTunes.

[00:11:24] I read every single one of those reviews and they help me ensure that the quality of the

[00:11:29] show stays as high as possible, but they also help other developers like you find the show.

[00:11:34] Thank you so much for listening and until next time, enjoy your tea.

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