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  • How Open-Source Maintainers Can Deal with Toxic Behavior

    Three toxic behaviors that open-source maintainers experience are entitlement, people venting their frustration, and outright attacks. Growing a thick skin and ignoring the behavior can lead to a negative spiral of angriness and sadness. Instead, we should call out the behavior and remind people that open source means collaboration and cooperation.

  • How Organisational Culture and Psychological Safety Fosters Our Creativity

    Organisations need to create the right conditions and culture for creativity to flourish so as to stay relevant, compete and thrive for the future. An addiction to burnout and fixation on productivity can stifle creativity. What’s needed is psychological safety, inclusion, experimentation, growth mindsets and allowing thinking time.

  • Becoming Personally Agile for Mental Health

    Feeling the need to be constantly producing high-quality deliverables with a high sense of perfection can lead to stress and can cause burnout. You have to first accept that you have a problem to find your way out of burnout. Applying agile on a personal level can help you to achieve high goals while reducing stress and lowering the chance of getting burnout.

  • How to Embrace “You Build It, You Run It” with Paul Hammant at QCon London

    Paul Hammant talked at QCon London about having developers responsible for the first line of support in production, as the saying goes, “if you build it, you run it.” Hammant recommends following this practice only if there are proper support levels and escalation policies defined. As a result, companies could reduce the chances of burnout or staff quitting.

  • Getting More Work Done in Fewer Working Hours

    When Jason Lengstorf’s body was actively falling apart due of the way he was working, he decided to limit his computer usage and create pockets of high-focus effort. Working fewer hours prevents you from becoming overtired or unfocused. We need to treat downtime with the same level of care as we treat our uptime, using breaks to make creative connections, recharge, and to remember why we work.

  • How Personality Matters in Software Development

    Leaders have to orchestrate diverse contributions from individuals with different personalities to build great teams. Team members might decide to act out of character and engage in behaviour outside their comfort zone to advance the team goal. To reduce the risk of burning out or compromising physical health, there should be restorative niches in which they can be their natural selves again.

  • Dealing with the Impostor Syndrome

    The impostor syndrome refers to people who fear being exposed as a "fraud". They think that they do not belong where they are, don't deserve the success they have achieved, and are not as smart as other people think. According to Agile Coach Gitte Klitgaard, many high-achieving people suffer from the impostor syndrome. It hinders people in their work and stops them from following their dreams.

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