我与职业倦怠斗争了18年。
我编程已经18年，遇到过各种各样的问题。但可能最重要、最困难的问题——对我来说也是最大的瓶颈，我想对很多人来说也是——就是身体有其极限。这被称为“职业倦怠”。
职业倦怠是一个非常广泛的术语，仅模糊地描述了实际发生了什么，以及为什么你无法——或者根本不想——工作。这个话题困扰了我很长时间：它让我无法高效工作，无法取得成果，也阻碍了我建立初创公司的进程。
在这段时间里，我收到了大量的建议——来自亲友、医生、ChatGPT、Gemini、网络上的文章和评论等等。我尝试了很多方法：
- 番茄工作法计时器；
- 鼻贴；
- 严格按照设定的时间工作；
- 大量步行和锻炼；
- 维生素B、辅酶Q10、L-茶氨酸、肌酸、L-精氨酸、5-HTP；
- 抗抑郁药；
- 晚上9点到10点上床睡觉；
- 完全改变饮食，戒掉糖，或者相反，增加糖的摄入。
这么多变量……我不能说我找到了一个解决方案：每次情况都不同。我对此感到厌倦。
最近，多亏了人工智能——更准确地说，是一个大型语言模型——我发现了一个有趣的工具。一天晚上，我在散步时打开了Gemini，开始抱怨：我又累了，没效率，感到倦怠。像往常一样，它给出了大量建议。我真的受够了！我说：“去你妈的，我已经厌倦这些建议了。我尝试过所有的方法，我不想再听了。你能不能停止建议？只问问题就好。更好的是——像认知行为疗法的治疗师那样提问，让我自己深入挖掘原因。”
然后，奇迹发生了。它真的停止了建议，开始最多问一两个问题。那时，工作开始了，洞察力开始涌现。有些问题和答案让我泪水夺眶而出。这真是不可思议。
最后，我发现了一些我从未考虑过的原因。原来我对部署有恐惧。我害怕一切会崩溃。这种恐惧导致了拖延：我开始无休止地准备，搭建安全网以免摔得太疼。我陷入了准备的漩涡，不断添加更多功能；完成变得更加困难，部署则更加可怕。我陷入了焦虑：部署让我感到恐惧，截止日期不断推迟。为了赶上进度，我工作和思考得更加频繁。我的认知资源耗尽——就这样。
根本原因并不是我晚上睡得晚，而是恐惧。一旦我意识到这一点，我决定备份所有内容，拍摄快照，并将其部署到测试服务器，而不是像以前那样直接部署到生产环境。毕竟，我是一个独立的自创企业创始人。
没有其他人能帮助我深入挖掘到这一点。我花了好几个小时，日复一日地回答Gemini的问题。我发现的事情真是太棒了。没有人像这样帮助过我。
大型语言模型不仅帮助我们编写代码——它们还帮助我们发现自己的问题。我感到无比兴奋，必须分享这一切。
查看原文
I’ve been programming for 18 years and have run into all sorts of problems. But probably the most important and hardest one—the biggest bottleneck for me, and I think for many others—is that the body has its limits. It’s called burnout.<p>Burnout is a very broad term that only vaguely describes what actually happened and why you can’t—or just don’t want to—work. This subject has tormented me for a long time: it keeps me from working a lot, from working productively, from getting results, and from building a startup.<p>Over that time I’ve gotten tons of advice—from loved ones, doctors, ChatGPT, Gemini, articles and comments on the internet, and so on. I’ve tried a bunch of things:
– a pomodoro timer;
– nasal strips;
– working strictly during set hours;
– lots of walking and exercise;
– B-vitamins, co-enzyme Q10, L-theanine, creatine, L-arginine, 5-HTP;
– antidepressants;
– going to bed at 9–10 p.m.;
– completely changing my diet, cutting out sugar, or, conversely, upping my sugar intake.<p>So many variables… I can’t say I’ve found a solution: every time it’s different. I’m sick and tired of it.<p>Recently, thanks to AI—more precisely, an LLM—I discovered an interesting tool. One evening, while out walking, I pulled up Gemini and started complaining: once again I’m tired, unproductive, burned out. As usual it spat out a huge wall of advice. I was so fed up! I said, “Fuck, I’m already sick of these tips. I’ve tried everything, I don’t want any more. Can you stop advising? Just ask questions. Better yet—ask like a CBT therapist so I can dig down to the cause myself.”<p>And then the magic happened. It really did stop advising and started asking at most one or two questions. That’s when the work began, the insights started flowing. Some questions and answers brought tears to my eyes. It was incredible.<p>In the end I uncovered causes I’d never even considered. Turned out I have a fear of deploying. I’m afraid everything will break. That fear led to procrastination: I began preparing endlessly, laying down safety nets so the fall wouldn’t hurt. I’d get so caught up in prep that I kept adding more features; finishing became harder, and deploying even scarier. I slid into anxiety: deploying felt terrifying, deadlines slipped. To catch up, I’d work and think even more. My cognitive resources would hit zero—and that was it.<p>The root wasn’t that I go to bed late; it was fear. Once I realized that, I just decided to back up everything, take snapshots, and deploy to a test server instead of straight to prod, like I used to. After all, I’m a solo bootstrap founder.<p>No one else could have helped me dig this deep. It took me several hours answering Gemini’s questions, day after day. The things I uncovered are fucking awesome. No one has ever helped me like that.<p>LLMs don’t just help us write code—they help us discover our own problems. I’m absolutely thrilled and had to share.