Suffered a stroke in 2004 (migrainous infarction). Became half blind. Rested for a good year.
Became a photographer for 8 years, then switched back again to software development.
From then on, the limits were: WFH only, limit stress, run away from job if things go bad again. Nap if brain feels exhausted. Sleep, more and better.
20 years later (53yo), I'd say I'm doing great! Also fitness helps remind me to take care of the body...
Tech has built literal industries of people trying to stress you out, and they mostly don't have actual tech skills or the empathy that comes with them so back it up.
For me, I usually try to avoid anything where the working practices are strongly defined. Agile has long been a bad word.
Unfortunately while the intentions around agile were noble it's pretty much a direct way to burnout or worse. The human mind is not designed to "sprint" run a marathon, metaphorically speaking, forever.
I see older devs being active in the trade well into their 60s but even as I much younger person I don't see how agile development is sustainable for a ~50-year career.
Reminds me of this Indian boss I had whose only agenda used to be calling me up and telling me that others had complaints about my work. After 2 years of listening to his stories, I had to tell him off one morning. I quit about 4 months later. The guy was a completely talentless aggregator. I don't get how some Indian firms promote people and this wasn't a small firm either. He ended up being promoted upwards.
> For me, I usually try to avoid anything where the working practices are strongly defined.
I'm grateful I've managed to avoid this so far. My favorite place to work has been more akin to "we need X done in Y system before Z date, but how and when it's done is up to you".
The worst part is how these people almost always work on the most boring, rote crap. They could be selling mens hair loss medication on the internet (cough) and key individuals in the organization are convinced what they do is life-and-death, future of humanity, work nights and weekends, we're the next Google. It's so deeply cringe-worthy. Meanwhile, I know a ton of people in the traditional pharma industry (e.g. not Novo, but Novo-adjacent); those companies broadly treat their employees pretty well, very minor amounts of overwork, they're well-staffed, some still have pensions, people spend their whole working lives there.
Tech sucks. It's filled with talentless hacks who think "because we use computers" means you've got a blank check to make every individual do the work of three individuals. And then your company gets gutted by private equity anyway, because it turns out hiring talentless hacks and overworking has consequences.
This is a weird take, but I genuinely and deeply believe the world would be a far better place if everyone experienced a life-threatening but recoverable major medical event and/or had children, while young. Perspective-shifting events that are core to the human condition and help ground your reality in work not being everything. By the way: The businesses our society would build would also be stronger.
> WFH only, limit stress, run away from job if things go bad again
I’m facing a similar set of health-based restrictions, it’s edifying and impressive how you’ve pushed through. I’m curious: how do you broach this with potential employers and shape your job search/career path around it?
Applying for pure remote positions puts one in direct competition with younger people who can pull obscene hours with no accommodation needs. Leading with disability/accommodation needs feels like the opposite of the ‘best foot forward’ honeymoon phase salesmanship associated with new jobs, and kinda soul crushing regurgitating the circumstances for chronic illness while hoping for a job. And uncontrollable management changes can eliminate medical protections and acceptable working environments, leading to an enhanced need to be able to hop jobs (exacerbating both the previous situations).
I’m fortunate my primary skills are amenable to straightforward accommodations, but you gotta get the job to do the job…
> kinda soul crushing regurgitating the circumstances for chronic illness while hoping for a job
I have to do this every time now because I have a resume gap. I don’t have to explain in detail, but even revisiting those three years for a brief explanation sucks.
I’m sure there’s an implicit realization that I will likely ask for accommodations when I explain the gap which likely reduces my chances of being hired.
I'd be interested in how you managed the impact to your vision, any particular technology improvements you made? My dad had a stroked over the summer and lost vision on his right side - he's older but still works at a computer and is pretty particular about workflows so I don't want to muddle with what works for him too much.
Hi! I hope your dad gets better soon. My vision got better over 3 months, then more slowly over a year. I keep a "small" blind spot in my field of view (where I can hide my hand).
I didn't need more management of this condition but rest.
I remember the first months, trees felt exhausting to look at because of their complexity, and I couldn't watch an action movie because it felt too intense.
I'll modestly add that my sight was getting better and wasn't really an obstacle. It started with an activity of carbon ink large format B&W art prints for other photographers... then I became one too.
The "irony" didn't appear to me at that time, someone had to tell me it was ironic!
Why do you guys downvote - is it because the comment sounded snarky? It wasn't meant to be, I think it is (obviously) an impressive feat to work as a photographer when your eye sight is severly limited.
As a migraine sufferer this sounds scary and only today I have learned about it. What was it like? If I may ask. Is there a way to prevent it? I googled it and it seems to appear rather arbitrarily and suddenly.
It's very rare. I was a migraine sufferer, but this is how that time it was different:
- I was under severe stress at work
- I woke up with aura, realised it when looking at the mirror, I had only one eye
- visual symptoms (aura) didn't go away after 1 hour. That's the limit where you MUST seek medical advice
- having "a migraine" that day raised my stress level... because work...
- symptoms persisted... and after getting better over a year, what was left became permanent (blind spot where the migraine started in my field of vision)
DO NOT take triptans during the aura. DO NOT take any vasoconstrictors during aura, since it's a phase where blood flow is restricted. That could have caused my stroke.
When a migraine hits, I take aspirin, stop all stressors, ALL stressors, try to calm down (I've used anxiolytics occasionally), breathe and rest. I'm often off for 2 days. It happens about once a year.
Again, migrainous infarcts are VERY rare. You'll be fine, just let the aura pass, and know to seek medical attention if it doesn't.
Had a stroke 2 months ago at 55, after an entire life (professionally since I'm 16) as a dev. I mostly followed these rules apart from when I got dragged into a project that was sufficiently interesting that I started overworking. 12-14h days.
Just don't do that. I used to do that just fine and that's why I thought I was OK. I mean, I USED to go on in huge coding benders, did'nt I ? Well apparently not at 55, when the pressure has been on for months instead of weeks.
Other things to watch -- diet! With the work came less free time, put on weight etc and all the good habits I had built for years, disappeared.
And the worst bit you can think of is "Oh but I'm so CLOSE to being done, I'll just fix it up later when I can relax". Just don't.
I lost all sensation on the right side. It is coming back slowly. I can still work, didn't lose speech or mobility or strength, I consider myself super-mega-lucky in that.
> when I got dragged into a project that was sufficiently interesting that I started overworking
This is what bites. I have some really narrow interest areas that I can end up being obsessive about, to my own detriment. We have to be careful.
Glad you didn't lose mobility and speech! I also feel lucky. I met others in neuro-rehab in far worse situations. For three months I couldn't walk and now thankfully do so with a stick and ankle brace. The hard stuff isn't the stuff you can see visually though. People see my floppy leg, and might presume that's the main thing, but nope. The big thing is the epilepsy, this constant monster present in the background. It's the invisible stuff that's often hard.
Strikes close to home. 8 years ago I was in a bike accident that took me out for 4 months. I instantly felt dumber. The headaches became a fact of life, and the need to get out of the house early in the day to avoid brain fog creeping in became a routine.
It... sucks. I've still progressed my career and made significant strides, and come to appreciate things that I never would have noticed if I kept on my previous trajectory, and while I don't think about it much anymore, for years it ate at me.
For those in workplaces that treat you well. One suggestion that is not in OP: Tell others, explain, expand, give presentations on what you went through. Not only will it help your environment understand WHAT you are doing, they then are also able to understand the WHY. I've had my share of colleagues with afflictions. Your environment must know to understand! Otherwise, you are only allowing them to react to resulting situations, without understanding of the why. Second order benefit is that if people would do this more, general kindness towards how personal situations influence business situations would rise. We need more kindness, from understanding each other. (I understand this is an advice that does not work for those workplaces where HR is the enemy, the boss is their to get you, co-workers are in a free for all for bonuses and promotions. I hope most of us are not in that kind of work situations.)
Interesting to see all the people in this thread who had a stroke. I had a mild and then moderate cerebellar stroke within a 7 day span about two years ago. I remember being on the stroke neurology floor of the hospital with a lot of bed ridden people who had also suffered them. I know because, within 24 hours, I was doing hourly walking laps with my nurses because I was bored. In other words, I was one of the lucky ones. Within a week I was back at work — not because I felt pressured to by them, they were completely understanding, but because I had no more symptoms that were experienced simply because I was sitting down to work.
I also see some advice about listening to your body after the fact, which I fully agree with. In my case, without going into too much detail, the stroke might not have happened if I had listened to my body beforehand, as it was caused by an injury I could have prevented.
So if I could give any advice from this place of experience it would be to listen to your body, and try to hear it when your fears and ego are shouting.
As I understand it, post-COVID a lot more people are having strokes at younger ages, primarily from PFOs. 10–15% of us are walking around with a small pathway between the atria of our hearts, and if a clot happens to form, it can pop into the other side of your heart and get pumped straight to your brain.
I was exceedingly lucky in that it cleared up on its own after about an hour. I was unable to speak and unable to move so much as a finger or toe on the right half of my body. I was completely incapacitated. They had me in the CT when it cleared up, and I immediately was back to my original self with no lasting defects.
I know a vascular neurologist who says that the average age of his patients has dropped by nearly a decade in the last five years. Many more "young" (<60) men with minor strokes, and more frequent serious strokes in the 40s for both sexes. He's treated as many under 30 y/o stroke patients in the last two years than he did in the first two decades of his career. He's a few years from retirement and basically completely rattled by this sudden shift.
I have an out-there hypothesis I’d want to test. Much of the population has one or more MTHFR mutations, which can increase homocysteine if left untreated and that’s been linked to increased risk in stroke. Treatment includes more B vitamins. I wonder if the declining nutrition in foods and lack of B vitamins has anything to do with this.
I had a stroke roughly eleven years ago. When the stroke started, I got really creeped out. I was in an elevator and I thought a stranger was reaching around me from behind to grab me. It was my right arm. I cracked a joke about it, I didn't know it, but I wasn't soeaking. Just mumbling and making creepy gutteral noises when I thought I was laughing. Then the face droop. Followed by my right hand becoming locked in a fist. It took months on rehab to get it open. And it lost a lot of function.
> HEADPHONES, blinders, and 'No'. Eliminate unwanted inputs at the earliest point of entry.
Open-floor offices, non-stop emails and chat messages, several meetings scattered throughout the week and the day.
This kills productivity and increases stress and fatigue for people that need to concentrate to work on complex stuff. There's also the time you need to properly switch contexts.
The word "blinders" really stood out to me in this. Does anyone have a recommendation for something that is literally like horse blinders but for people? I genuinely feel like my peripheral vision is "too adept" and overwhelming sometimes. If I cup my hands around my temples and over my brow, I feel a sense of calm. Trying to find a real product that does this - but I suppose I could just try to prototype my own with an old baseball hat or visor that has some vertical pieces on the side.
This might sound silly: I used post-it notes as human-blinders.
I turnt the post-it note sideways, wrote `FOCUS TIME`, and put it on my temple, to block out my vision in that direction.
I joked about it with my team before, and then just did so when I felt comfortable enough with them. I utilize this strategy at home for deep focus in a chaotic living room setup.
2x Post-its, baseball cap, and over-the-ears noise-cancelling headphones is peak `focus-time` I've found.
I haven't had a stroke but I did get a nasty tropical mono when I was young. You never quite recover from that one. I've got ibs since. My stomach just gets tired and stops. My mental focus feels the same. I sleep 9 hours a night, often 10 and I'm still tired.
I feel I always have less stamina than other people.
So this list is close to what I have always preached.
Time as in energy is my most precious resource.
Don't let processes suck the life out of you. They're there to serve the people not the other way around.
Gut directed hypnotherapy has worked wonders for my IBS. The research on it is really solid and was recommended to me by a registered dietician. The one I followed is called Nerva. Might be worth a try for you.
Readit News
For me, I usually try to avoid anything where the working practices are strongly defined. Agile has long been a bad word.
I'm glad you're doing well now.
I see older devs being active in the trade well into their 60s but even as I much younger person I don't see how agile development is sustainable for a ~50-year career.
I'm grateful I've managed to avoid this so far. My favorite place to work has been more akin to "we need X done in Y system before Z date, but how and when it's done is up to you".
Tech sucks. It's filled with talentless hacks who think "because we use computers" means you've got a blank check to make every individual do the work of three individuals. And then your company gets gutted by private equity anyway, because it turns out hiring talentless hacks and overworking has consequences.
This is a weird take, but I genuinely and deeply believe the world would be a far better place if everyone experienced a life-threatening but recoverable major medical event and/or had children, while young. Perspective-shifting events that are core to the human condition and help ground your reality in work not being everything. By the way: The businesses our society would build would also be stronger.
I’m facing a similar set of health-based restrictions, it’s edifying and impressive how you’ve pushed through. I’m curious: how do you broach this with potential employers and shape your job search/career path around it?
Applying for pure remote positions puts one in direct competition with younger people who can pull obscene hours with no accommodation needs. Leading with disability/accommodation needs feels like the opposite of the ‘best foot forward’ honeymoon phase salesmanship associated with new jobs, and kinda soul crushing regurgitating the circumstances for chronic illness while hoping for a job. And uncontrollable management changes can eliminate medical protections and acceptable working environments, leading to an enhanced need to be able to hop jobs (exacerbating both the previous situations).
I’m fortunate my primary skills are amenable to straightforward accommodations, but you gotta get the job to do the job…
I have to do this every time now because I have a resume gap. I don’t have to explain in detail, but even revisiting those three years for a brief explanation sucks.
I’m sure there’s an implicit realization that I will likely ask for accommodations when I explain the gap which likely reduces my chances of being hired.
Could you get the job without these conditions and then drop the bomb on them as a disability accomodation
Well, I said "I'll never do IT again"... and when I say never, it usually happens in the end ;-)
I remember the first months, trees felt exhausting to look at because of their complexity, and I couldn't watch an action movie because it felt too intense.
I don't think most people wouldn't be able to, financially.
Pretty sure you'd be covered in a lot of western countries, and if not you have relatively cheap insurances that cover these things.
Impressive.
I'll modestly add that my sight was getting better and wasn't really an obstacle. It started with an activity of carbon ink large format B&W art prints for other photographers... then I became one too.
The "irony" didn't appear to me at that time, someone had to tell me it was ironic!
- I was under severe stress at work - I woke up with aura, realised it when looking at the mirror, I had only one eye - visual symptoms (aura) didn't go away after 1 hour. That's the limit where you MUST seek medical advice - having "a migraine" that day raised my stress level... because work... - symptoms persisted... and after getting better over a year, what was left became permanent (blind spot where the migraine started in my field of vision)
DO NOT take triptans during the aura. DO NOT take any vasoconstrictors during aura, since it's a phase where blood flow is restricted. That could have caused my stroke.
When a migraine hits, I take aspirin, stop all stressors, ALL stressors, try to calm down (I've used anxiolytics occasionally), breathe and rest. I'm often off for 2 days. It happens about once a year.
Again, migrainous infarcts are VERY rare. You'll be fine, just let the aura pass, and know to seek medical attention if it doesn't.
You give me some hope things will get better for him.
Sounds like senior management
Just don't do that. I used to do that just fine and that's why I thought I was OK. I mean, I USED to go on in huge coding benders, did'nt I ? Well apparently not at 55, when the pressure has been on for months instead of weeks.
Other things to watch -- diet! With the work came less free time, put on weight etc and all the good habits I had built for years, disappeared.
And the worst bit you can think of is "Oh but I'm so CLOSE to being done, I'll just fix it up later when I can relax". Just don't.
I lost all sensation on the right side. It is coming back slowly. I can still work, didn't lose speech or mobility or strength, I consider myself super-mega-lucky in that.
This is what bites. I have some really narrow interest areas that I can end up being obsessive about, to my own detriment. We have to be careful.
Glad you didn't lose mobility and speech! I also feel lucky. I met others in neuro-rehab in far worse situations. For three months I couldn't walk and now thankfully do so with a stick and ankle brace. The hard stuff isn't the stuff you can see visually though. People see my floppy leg, and might presume that's the main thing, but nope. The big thing is the epilepsy, this constant monster present in the background. It's the invisible stuff that's often hard.
It... sucks. I've still progressed my career and made significant strides, and come to appreciate things that I never would have noticed if I kept on my previous trajectory, and while I don't think about it much anymore, for years it ate at me.
But it does get better with exercise. I was able to reduce weekly headaches to about 1/month.
It is unfortunately very common and becoming more common with the rise of PE.
I also see some advice about listening to your body after the fact, which I fully agree with. In my case, without going into too much detail, the stroke might not have happened if I had listened to my body beforehand, as it was caused by an injury I could have prevented.
So if I could give any advice from this place of experience it would be to listen to your body, and try to hear it when your fears and ego are shouting.
As I understand it, post-COVID a lot more people are having strokes at younger ages, primarily from PFOs. 10–15% of us are walking around with a small pathway between the atria of our hearts, and if a clot happens to form, it can pop into the other side of your heart and get pumped straight to your brain.
I was exceedingly lucky in that it cleared up on its own after about an hour. I was unable to speak and unable to move so much as a finger or toe on the right half of my body. I was completely incapacitated. They had me in the CT when it cleared up, and I immediately was back to my original self with no lasting defects.
Indeed. My first thought was "....just how common is this?"
Open-floor offices, non-stop emails and chat messages, several meetings scattered throughout the week and the day.
This kills productivity and increases stress and fatigue for people that need to concentrate to work on complex stuff. There's also the time you need to properly switch contexts.
I turnt the post-it note sideways, wrote `FOCUS TIME`, and put it on my temple, to block out my vision in that direction.
I joked about it with my team before, and then just did so when I felt comfortable enough with them. I utilize this strategy at home for deep focus in a chaotic living room setup.
2x Post-its, baseball cap, and over-the-ears noise-cancelling headphones is peak `focus-time` I've found.
I occasionally use them while I’m working for the reason you mention.
I love my pash. Highly recommend.
I feel I always have less stamina than other people.
So this list is close to what I have always preached.
Time as in energy is my most precious resource.
Don't let processes suck the life out of you. They're there to serve the people not the other way around.