Accept Your Missteps

Setting professional boundaries doesn’t mean that you have to be super rigid.

Give yourself some flexibility to get involved with new adventures and projects (and understand that sometimes you have no choice but to say “yes” to that urgent task your boss just assigned you).

There are almost always many different approaches to a particular problem, with no single “right way.” A lot of programmers get very good at advocating for their preferred way, but that doesn’t mean it’s the One True Path. 

Going head-to-head with people telling me I was Wr...

The blockage is not email itself, but where all these messages should ultimately go, which requires setting up the right downstream systems.

As you process each message, give yourself five (and only five) options: responding directly or sending the item into whatever system you’re us...