The Software Developer's Career Handbook

Chapter 30. Up to Nothing

In Silicon Valley, you burn a lot of calories.

It’s not just the daily burn of your gig; it’s everything else involved in staying afloat in a valley constantly reinventing itself. You sign up for every new service and spend the prerequisite 3.7 minutes determining, Does this matter? You surf the web; you tweet, you Slack...all of which brings a constant flood of new data that needs to be sifted, sorted, and assessed.

You have compatriots in this caloric consumption. They randomly walk into your office or your life, bringing additional reasons to burn more calories with them. “Have you seen this? You have to try it. In fact, I’m not leaving until you’re jumping up and down excited about this crucial thing.”

We are part of an industry that is addicted to enthusiasm, getting things done, and discovering the new; but sometimes the right move is stopping and putting this world on hold. You need to learn how to build quiet moments of nothing as a measure of balance.

Which is why I go to a bookstore.

An Essential Exercise in Inactivity

The moment I walk into a bookstore, I remember what I love about them. They are an oasis of intellectual calm. Perhaps it’s the potential of all the ideas hidden behind those delicious covers. Or perhaps it’s the social reverence for the library-like quiet. Don’t yell in a bookstore; you’ll piss off the books.

A bookstore is where I rediscover that while I might be addicted to the nonstop calorie-burning Silicon Valley lifestyle, ...