Tech Productivity Issue #315 (So You Hate Your Job)

Issue #315 (So You Hate Your Job) 02/24/25

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A Hacker News reader asks a question that I think might be more relevant now that more people are working remotely or on distributed teams: How can I grow as an engineer without good seniors to learn from?

True, you can still have a lot of virtual contact with other more experienced engineers, but I don't think it's the same as it was when teams were in person.

Ryan Holiday, NY Times Bestselling author

There's quite a bit of discussion in the thread, but here are some of the suggestions that caught my attention:

Keep learning because tech changes rapidly
Contribute to an open source project
Read about your technologies, a lot
Learn from everyone around you, regardless of their status
Go to conferences
Use online communities and free courses
Start a side project

Interestingly, the original poster got a little bit of flack for not being clear on the circumstances surrounding his question, circumstances which are not bad at all, regarding pay, benefits, etc.

Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!

Tools & Apps

Page Assist — An open source browser extension that provides a sidebar and web UI for your local AI model, to allow you to interact with your model from any web page.

Align — A time blocking app for iOS that allows you to plan and organize your day with a visual timeline, with the ability to sync with your calendar and customize and recur your time blocks.

Dejal Time Out — A Mac app that gently reminds you to take a break at specified intervals, with ability to customize the break intervals or use the two default options of "normal" (10 minutes once per hour) and "micro" (15 seconds every 15 minutes).

Meco — Meco connects to your Gmail or Outlook email account so you can read your newsletters in a space built for reading (iOS, Android, and web). You can also create your own custom Meco email address to use for integration. sponsor

Wiki — Enter something you would normally look up on Wikipedia and this AI-based tool will generate a simple summary of the topic's Wikipedia article.

PrettyShot — A platform to beautify your screenshots with options for special effects, device mockups, ability to save preset transformations, and lots more.

Jelly — A team inbox as an alternative to regular company email that allows your team to stay in sync, easily know who's handling a task, and discuss email privately.

Articles & Resources

Every Entrepreneur Needs to Unplug to Unlock Peak Productivity and Creativity – Here's Why — An encouragement for periodically doing a 'digital fast' to combat burnout, boost cognitive performance, and improve creativity.

How Multitasking Drains Your Brain — From the author's book Your Stone Age Brain in the Screen Age, an exposition of the dangers of multitasking, which, as the author points out, isn't technically possible to do.

Seven Point Sunday — Join bestselling author Kabir Sehgal for a ~200 word newsletter every Sunday featuring 7 actionable ideas, covering life hacks, passive income tips, AI prompts, and music/book picks. sponsor

So You Hate Your Job — "Except in unusual circumstances, you don’t need a new job to be happy. You need a new perspective on your own choices and actions, one that fuels pride, confidence, and joy in whatever you are doing."

Your PR Process is Killing Morale and Productivity — Some advice for those working on teams who use GitHub or a similar tool for discussing and suggesting code edits.

10-Step Anti-Procrastination Checklist — From 2013, a short and timeless series of suggestions for avoiding stuff we're supposed to do. (Although the mentions of Tweetdeck and Skype do age the post!)

Stop Trying To Schedule A Call With Me — A somewhat bitter rant on SaaS sales people and how they often interact with us when we try out their product or sign up for a free trial.

Suggestions?

Have a suggestion for a productivity-related tool, article, or other resource? Send me a direct message via X (@LouisLazaris) and I’ll consider including it in a future issue.

Stay productive!

Louis
techproductivity.co
@LouisLazaris

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