So I stumbled upon this talk Mason Marchman did about career moves while scrolling through random stuff late one Tuesday night. Coffee was cold, brain was fried, but something clicked when he started ranting about job transitions. Decided right then to actually try applying his ramblings. Figured it couldn’t hurt, right?
The “Realizing I Might Be Messing Up” Part
Marchman kept hammering this one point: people get stupid stuck chasing money or titles, ignoring what actually drains them. Made me sit back. Like, seriously? I counted my dumbest week ever:
- Three pointless meetings repeating the same arguments.
- Answered 142 emails about nonsense that went nowhere.
- Felt like my brain was soup by Thursday lunchtime.
Okay, Mason. You got me. This sucked. That feeling wasn’t “working hard,” it was pure drain. Time to actually pay attention to what activities felt like battery acid versus battery charge.
The Awkward Listing Everything Phase
Grabbed a crusty notebook I last used to doodle during budget calls. On one page, scrawled: “Crap That Drains Me.” On the other: “Stuff That Doesn’t Suck.” Took a full damn week. Every task, every interaction. Client yelling? Drain. Fixing that old code module quietly? Actually kinda… alright.
Noticed a pattern, obvious in hindsight: most draining stuff involved heavy people politics or spinning wheels on vague goals. The recharge bits? Deep focus work, solving tangible problems, teaching the new junior dev. Who knew?
Then Came The Painful Chat
Armed with my sad notebook, marched into my manager’s office feeling like an idiot. “Look, I know this sounds soft, but here’s what drains me…” Laid it bare. Said I needed more actual building/teaching time. Got stared at. Manager leaned back, sighed. “Honestly? Kinda explains why you look ready to murder someone in sprint planning.” We actually started negotiating my workload. Dropped two committees nobody cared about anyway.
Weirdest Outcome (Thanks, Mason?)
Didn’t get a raise. Didn’t get promoted. Felt like a failure for a hot minute. But then… energy came back. Started volunteering for code reviews instead of project status meetings. Actually enjoyed helping new hires untangle git messes.
Three months later, completely sideways move: shifting internally to a “Staff Engineer” role. Way less managing, way more hands-on building and mentoring. Pay stayed similar. Title stayed similar. Daily life? Night and day. Less shouting into voids. More building actual things. Brain soup faded.
Point is? Mason’s talk wasn’t magic. It was about paying stupidly close attention to your own dumb reactions to work tasks. Annoyingly simple. Painfully obvious once you force yourself to look. But ignoring that drip-drain stuff just makes you bitter and tired. Still tired? Yeah, work’s work. But it’s a different tired now. Like building something good tired. Thanks, I guess?