pdfernhout/High-Performance-Organizations-Reading-List on Hacker News

Anxiety is not identical to depression, but consider: "The Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression: Where Is It Going?" https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/02/chemical-imbalance-theo... "The spurious chemical imbalance theory of depression…

comment by pdfernhout · 2025-06-16 · in Social anxiety disorder-associated gut microbiota increases social fear

Some tangential thoughts and rambles on this to try to get at the deeper issues, first from Jeff Schmidt about his book "Disciplined Minds" which encourages solidarity of intellectual workers: https://disciplinedminds.tripod.com/ "Who are…

comment by pdfernhout · 2025-03-21 · in The Burnout Machine

> Physicians were initially unaware or dismissive of brain zaps due to limited information and a focus on downplaying the addictive nature of antidepressants. Seems like another example of: "Deadly Psychiatry and Organised Denial"…

comment by pdfernhout · 2024-10-12 · in In SSRI withdrawal, brain zaps go from overlooked symptom to center stage (2023)

How much value is there in formal proof that a program optimally meets precisely-described requirements if the requirements themselves are sub-optimal for the problem area of concern? In other words, "software is hard":…

comment by pdfernhout · 2024-08-20 · in On the cruelty of really teaching computing science (1988)

I put together a "High Performance Organizations Reading List" which includes a reference to "Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness" by Frédéric Laloux. You and…

comment by pdfernhout · 2024-07-07 · in Advantages of incompetent management

To support your point that we we make choices among alternative, see this document I put together circa 2010 with about 50 alternatives -- some good, some obviously bad -- we can use to address the socio-economic changes needed to maintain…

comment by pdfernhout · 2024-04-23 · in Amazon grows to over 750k robots, replacing 100k humans

Thanks for posting this question. I've been through that sort of thing a few times myself over the past 40+ years of programming in a variety of social contexts. There's a lot of good advice here on a personal level both on dealing with…

comment by pdfernhout · 2022-05-08 · in Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

https://tlc.ku.edu/ "We were never designed for the sedentary, indoor, sleep-deprived, socially-isolated, fast-food-laden, frenetic pace of modern life. (Stephen Ilardi, PhD)" From that link: "Across the industrialized modern world,…

comment by pdfernhout · 2021-05-25 · in Having a successful career with depression, anxiety and imposter syndrome

Better options are available than prescription drugs in almost all cases. Almost all psychiatric medicines are essentially placebos -- often with harmful side effects including psychosis and where treating side-effects lead to a treadmill…

comment by pdfernhout · 2020-07-17 · in Let’s avoid talk of ‘chemical imbalance’: it’s people in distress

That must be difficult -- especially feeling isolated as an immigrant. Kudos to you for doing a lot of hard work emotionally to stick with an unpleasant situation for so long for your kids and planning to tough it out for another few years…

comment by pdfernhout · 2020-07-12 · in Beware of Being “Right”

Or maybe you are perfectly adapted to your circumstances according to "The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office”"? https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-... "The Sociopath (capitalized) layer…

comment by pdfernhout · 2020-01-05 · in Ask HN: I've been slacking off at Google for 6 years. How can I stop this?

Some ideas I've collected on making better organizations: https://github.com/pdfernhout/High-Performance-Organizations... You may also find some jobs posted at Idealist of interest (although many may have their own issues as the non-profit…

comment by pdfernhout · 2020-01-03 · in Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

In the book "On Caring", philosopher Milton Mayeroff wrote: "Through caring for certain others, by serving them through caring, a man lives the meaning of his own life. In the sense in which a man can ever be said to be at home in the…

comment by pdfernhout · 2019-11-05 · in Life Is a Ponzi Scheme (2009)

Here is a collection of related advice I put together useful for managers of software developers: https://github.com/pdfernhout/High-Performance-Organizations... It includes, among other things, a link to the Khan Academy Engineering…

comment by pdfernhout · 2019-03-25 · in Interviews with developers who became managers

You might want to look into "The Lifestyle Cure" which has a fairly high cure rate for depression using a combination of omega-3s, sunlight & vitamin D, exercise, social interactions, mental habits to avoid negative ruminations, and…

comment by pdfernhout · 2019-02-16 · in Everywhere and Nowhere: A Journey Through Suicide

See also: Out of the Nightmare: Recovery from Depression and Suicidal Pain by David Conroy https://www.amazon.com/Out-Nightmare-Recovery-Depression-Sui... "Out of the Nightmare. An all-out assault on the barriers that stand between you and…

comment by pdfernhout · 2019-02-15 · in Everywhere and Nowhere: A Journey Through Suicide

As others have said, key at this point is going to be to prioritize in relation to business needs. As hard as that all will be, the process will only get more difficult the longer you wait. I'd also suggest one thing you prioritize…

comment by pdfernhout · 2018-07-13 · in Ask HN: As a team lead how to handle project going off the rails?

Thanks for those links, especially the first to Jamie Zawinski's 1998 post on "vast volumes of email" and interwingled data. Yes, that is the sort of concepts and implementation I am talking about (and had hoped perhaps to move Thunderbird…

comment by pdfernhout · 2018-02-15 · in Email is your electronic memory

The right kind of work for the right person can be uplifting; for example on the joys of being a professional carpet cleaner: https://web.archive.org/web/20030807105050/http://www.unconv... "More than a few people agree the best career…

comment by pdfernhout · 2018-01-24 · in Does Depression Have an Evolutionary Purpose? (2017)

Thanks. A couple resources to maybe add: http://www.islandone.org/MMSG/aasm/ http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/1... (Discussed here: https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/12/14/1639204/space-is... ) Definitely…

comment by pdfernhout · 2017-12-15 · in Ask HN: How can I use my web development skills for space exploration/tech?

Some resources you may find of interest: * "Have Fun at Work" by William L. Livingston -- Livingston provide examples of how organizations are often incapable of hiring the people who might help them most. * "The Murdering of My Years:…

comment by pdfernhout · 2017-12-02 · in Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

Here is also some more recent (as-yet-mostly-unrealized) ideas (put together for a 2013 Knight News Challenge) towards helping people make sense of their own health issues (depression or whatever they may be) when confronted with a mass of…

comment by pdfernhout · 2017-10-12 · in The Depression Thing

Yes, I was waiting for that sort of ending too. Not that it is inevitable -- just that is seems likely given what makes humans human has a lot more to do with emotions than intelligence (see the book "Descartes' Error" on how emotion…

comment by pdfernhout · 2017-10-07 · in The Last Invention of Man

You might like this reading list I put together towards creating and sustaining High Performance Organizations: https://github.com/pdfernhout/High-Performance-Organizations...

comment by pdfernhout · 2017-06-02 · in On the Unhappiness of Software Developers