Technical Debt of Life

Ignoring work-life balance accrues like technical debt. At some point in our lives, we will need to pay down that debt before the system becomes completely unusable. In retrospect, we can look at the history of our decisions and actions as line items on a balance sheet that brings us to the present day. What debt on the physical body do we need to compensate for exercise or physical therapy? What debt on our mental health do we need to pay down with counseling or medication? The tradeoffs toward our health debt seem worth it at the time, but when we take a moment to reflect, investigate, and be curious about our present mental and physical states, we need to be honest about whether previous work-life tradeoffs have resulted in an overall net gain.

Like the metaphor of the frog in a boiling pot, we don’t necessarily recognize how each unhealthy habit compounds over time until we’ve reached the point of no return. Our biggest fear becomes backsliding in our careers. Going down the ladder. We feel anxiety when we’re not progressing. We feel shame and disappointment when we regress. We rarely feel content in the present moment.

Take a moment and ask yourself these questions:

• Do you have a debt mindset around career advancement? Do you believe that the present work-life trade-offs will be worth it in the long run?
• Does this mindset seem sustainable?
• Is there a clear end in sight?
• If so, are you sure that is really the end?
• What makes it different from where you are now?
• What does it give you that you can’t get any other way?
• Can you increase the margin around tasks in your life to find more contentment while progressing?
• What other aspects of your life are you putting your career ahead of?

We hear from others and then tell ourselves that to succeed in our careers, we should be obsessed with our jobs. But obsession creates an imbalance. Obsession dominates the mind and consequently, our motivations, actions, and decisions.

But does obsession lead to success? Do our personal lives reflect the success of our obsessions?

The answer is most likely yes; obsession can lead to what the world refers to as success. But at what cost? Are you willing to make work your whole pie and have only a tiny slice left over for your family, hobbies, friends, and everything else that matters to you? If you don’t want to make work your whole life but are struggling to find a way out, please know that we feel you. There is absolutely nothing wrong with career advancement or wanting to be good at your job. We are simply encouraging you to put yourself first.

The tech industry has an extremely powerful pull that we can easily start to adopt. When we first enter tech, it seems overwhelming because it’s so obvious we know so little compared to the knowledge of our co-workers or fellow learners. As we grow in knowledge, relationships, and our careers, it is so easy to lose ourselves. The pie of life is filled up almost completely by tech, and our identity is now that of a developer, founder, industry leader, open-source servant, or whatever you do.

Our goal is simple but not easy. We want to chip away at the obsessive work mentality and say: I am not my work. I am more than just what I do. I am a person, and I come first, not my work.