Manufactured Crises And Overcommitting

My toddler has a new trick: she dumps a box of toys on the ground, exclaims "Oh no!" and then starts uncontrollably crying.

At first, it was endearing. Now, as I try to pick up the pieces while consoling her, I can't help but think that she's manufacturing a crisis.

I know it's just a phase and that she will grow out of it, but it got me thinking about times I've figuratively done the same absurd thing.

I remember a specific point in my career some years back when I oversubscribed myself with disastrous results.

That particular week I was: 1) on-call for the team, 2) conducting three on-site interviews, which required me to interview, write up feedback, and lead a debrief, 3) writing and presenting a design document, and 4) implementing a tricky piece of concurrent code to replace a critical component of the system. The sprint ended that Friday, and I wanted to mark the sticky as "Done-done."

Why did I agree to all of these things? Because I thought that's what senior engineers do.

Each of …