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Ben Halpern

My bad days, especially early in my career, tended to be VERY LENGTHY, and generally feel hopeless.

I’m the kind of person who can, in the face of a problem, stay attached to it until I break through. And sometimes that meant staying up all night trying to figure something out that I didn’t understand.

The most motivating thing I can do is to think about how much I tended to learn in these episodes of hardship so that when I am in the middle of something like that I can think of it as more than thankless agony. I can also remind myself how useful it can be to just go to sleep or take a break and come back with fresh eyes. This mindset helps me avoid these situations these days.

Bad days suck and teach you a lot if you’re willing to listen to the lessons.

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Arika O

@ben Yes, I guess it makes sense for the bad days to be longer when you're just starting out. Since we didn't yet learn how to cope with these situations, we'll probably repeat this cycle (I don't know anything -> this is not so bad -> I'm a genius -> I don't know anything) for quite a while. Just going to sleep when you think it's too much is such an underrated advice :). Thank you for your input.

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Mike Bybee

@ben I can relate all too well to this. That tunnel vision, not even realizing you may have been on the right path hours ago because you're so simultaneously locked in and panicking and being harder and harder on yourself the longer it takes to figure out. Hellish.