In case anyone is wondering:
Pistachio shortbread PCB substrate, lemon soldermask, and chocolate marzipan DRAM chips.

You have a discord?

What you’ve done to not only me but my friends isn’t something that I can ever forgive, but know this, I don’t hate you, I see a hurt person who needs help, not a monster. Find help, stay safe, never stop trying to be better.

Yeah

Don’t, it’s not worth the trouble

Also, where’s the evidence neon? Let me see the evidence I want to see it with my eyes if I am to believe you

Yes you are

I’ve got your back now and forever osi

Stay safe friend

Repeating a "we're fucked" narrative is the fastest way to learned helplessness. I know this intimately, having sat in the cage myself for two years. But while we don't have control over our stressors, we have control over our *reactions* to the stressors. Our thoughts, emotions, THAT,we can control

When we have the feeling that we can do nothing, that we are under the control of others... that's good old "learned helplessness." That wrecks people. That's the dog in the cage getting electric shocks who never moves to the other side of the cage, even when someone opens the door to let them out.

It was like watching my last day job implode. We knew it was fucked. So how do we live in it? How do we focus day by day on what we can control? On small changes we can make? Turns out actual actions that work toward something are more satisfying than sitting around in the floor in state of despair

And, that, there: "talking about how fucked we are changes nothing about how fucked we" that I took into the other parts of my life. I was tired of pointing out how fucked we are. It FEELS like action, but it's not. By end of 2025, there was nothing left to say, for me.

So story became "Every day, I'm going to look at one small thing about this job or processes here that drive me crazy, and address that. I'll stop telling a snarky depressing story of how fucked we are during team meetings. We all know we're fucked. Talking about how fucked we are changes nothing."

While I was pulling out by early 23, I made conscious choice during worst days of my last day job in 2024 to tell a different story. Sure that place was fucked, but I still had to operate there. So what small changes could I make? What could I control? I was tired of hating every day. Tired of dread

I was on a slow slide after 2016, but 2020 I fell off the cliff. By end of 2020, my mental map was "what the fuck is the point?" and "none of this matters." And that outlook bled into my behavior. As accurate (or not) as it may have been at time, my brain reacted appropriately. My world shut down.

So, what story are we telling ourselves today?