Today I'm gardening

#minfulness #mentalhealth #career

"I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired." - Anastacia

Earlier this month, I got laid off. It wasn't a surprise - the company was in obvious trouble. No customers eventually means no jobs. I almost told myself, "We had a good run, though" - but no, we didn't. It actually sucked big time.

Leadership was completely seduced by the fantasy of what AI might become. Watching management run in circles, unable to figure out where to place their bets, was exhausting. Honestly, getting cut was a relief. That atmosphere had become unbearable.

Don't get me wrong: I don't hate AI. I use it constantly, and I learn a ton from it. But Earth to Major Tom: AI simply accelerates whatever you feed it.

There is no:

"Prompting it right"

"Correct harness"

"Choosing the right model for the job"

"Just adding RAG"

"Magical agentic workflow"

"Silver bullet architecture"

"Missing context window that fixes broken product-market fit"

Treating those as magic fixes for a failing product strategy is just pure victim blaming.

So today - and probably for the rest of the week - I'm working in the dirt. No music. The phone stays inside. Just tangible, meaningful work without anyone arguing about whether I'm holding the shovel wrong. 🙄

To my fellow devs in transition: I hope you have a productive day while I go reconsider my life choices.

Today I'm gardening

Top comments (3)

Federico • Oct 23

Choosing a week in the dirt with the phone inside, instead of rushing into the next job, sounds like a very clear-headed reset. Your 'there is no…' list is also one of the sharpest reads on failing product strategy I've seen. After 18 years of building software, the 'reconsider my life choices' part is often where the good next step comes from. If it's useful, I have a one-page checklist that helps separate 'I'm done with that company' from 'I'm done with this kind of work'. Happy to paste it here. Enjoy the garden.

Theodor Heiselberg • Oct 25

Please share it 🙂

Federico • Oct 25

Here it is 🙂 Fair warning, it's more questions than answers:

Getting cut felt like relief. Was that about leaving that company, or about stepping away from building software for a while?
Picture the same role at a place with real customers and leadership that knew where it was placing its bets. Would you want it back?
What made the work feel meaningful in the good years, before the AI-fantasy phase?
In the garden the work is tangible, and nobody tells you you're holding the shovel wrong. Which of those has been missing more at work?
Over the last 18 years, when did you last feel trusted to just do the job well?
When you go back in, do you want to build the thing, or be one of the people deciding what gets built?
What could you try for a couple of weeks after the garden week to test that, without committing to anything?

If your answers keep circling back to that company and how it was run, a better-run team might be all you need. If they keep circling back to the work itself, that's worth taking seriously.

And honestly, your "there is no..." list deserves to be pinned up in a few boardrooms.