How to Get Unstuck
Headspace for 'Technical Difficulties'
When systems crash, when tools malfunction, it is all too easy to panic and to isolate. Looking for wisdom, this week, I turned to early-career professionals, asking how to cope with techno-crises in four very different spots in today’s knowledge economy. Andrew Holmes is a warehouse associate for UPS. Tyler May-Gruthusen is a hardware engineer at Allegion. Rosalia Portillo is an executive assistant at the Walgreens Boots Alliance. Javairia Taylor is an employee relations specialist at GardaWorld. This interview has been stitched together from four separate interviews and edited for clarity and brevity
Craig: I think when we say, “We seem to be having technical difficulties,” we are being ironic. Does that sound right to you—and, if so, why do you think that is?
Tyler: My guess is that at one point it was a serious thing—“Hey, this is what's happening.” And then at some point, the way that we said it was infused with how we all felt.
Javairia I would say it's serious business, but also a joke. “Oh, good job. You broke the machine.”
Craig: So, the phrase has a vibe. “Technical difficulties” names an affective experience.
If it's one of those things I have zero control over, that's when tech becomes hostile. I have to leave the situation. Stop thinking about the problem. Distract myself. And then, I can come back to it. - Tyler
Rosalia: It could be a very Midwestern point of view: “Oops, sorry about that!” Maybe as a woman too—that might be a part of the dynamic of it.
Craig: Oh, right! I hadn’t thought of gender norms in problem-solving!
Andrew: There's an expectation that males are mechanically inclined and that they have this magical commonsense that just descends on them all. I don't know exactly where that mythos comes from, but it's a pervasive feature.
I was positioned to feel like a fake man because of those expectations about how men are technically competent and work with their hands and all this kind of stuff. - Andrew
Craig: Ouch. Okay, let me try this question on you all. Even when our office spaces or warehouse floors look nothing like Tony Stark’s lab, our tools and systems can take on a mind of their own. What’s your stance towards them? Do you experience your tools as willing partners or outright hostiles or misfit oldsters or mischievous collaborators or—something else?
Tyler: Oh, I definitely get hostile. I have always been this way and I have no idea why. I have to go walk it off or something. I guess, if it's one of those things where I have zero control over it, that's when it becomes a hostile. I have to actually leave the situation. Stop thinking about the problem. Distract myself. And then, I can come back to it.
Andrew: I would mostly align myself with the mischievous collaborator in in the sense that, especially at UPS, while we do deal with a lot of simpler machines, there’s lots of computer processes on top of mundane mechanical--telescoping lifts and things like that. But my capacity to troubleshoot the system is so limited, because they don't train me to troubleshoot—that’s not something that they want to pay me to know. So there's a lot of times when it's like, OK, How do we do this without having what we actually need to do this? Things break. It's the entropy. Whether it's miscommunication from people or the breakdown of actual physical components, things go awry. From a certain perspective in the chain, for me, the only thing that that can look like is black magic at work. I don't know who has it out for me, but all I know is that I have to start improvising.
You know, when issues go wrong, everything seems like an emergency. Sometimes it’s as simple as turning on and off the computer. “Oh, okay, there’s everything!” - Javairia
Javairia: When I think about tech, I think about systems that we use. I would say, “Willing Partner.” Now as far as helping someone set up their tech, I would say “Mischievous Collaborators.” Part of my job is virtually helping someone set up their computer. I'm very anxious. I can't say, “Okay, I’ll look at your screen” and, “Click here, do this.” I have to say, “Walk me through what you're seeing.” I think we're on the right path, but I'm not sure exactly.
Rosalia: My boss uses touch screen a lot and so she'll end up in meetings where it's like this [showing just forehead and eyes at the bottom of the screen] “How do you not realize that I can't see you?” Technology isn’t very black and white. Sometimes it can be gray, and there's funk to it. It's almost like a horse you're riding that you have to kind of keep on track. And if you don't pay attention to it, sometimes it'll veer and you have to bring it back.
Work is important, but don’t let it stress you out to the point that you can't function. You get that feeling of stuckness, because you build up such high stakes. - Rosalia
Craig: Would you all pardon a trip down a bibliographic lane? I think it was twenty some years ago that I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, but I still think about Robert Persig’s description of stuckness: “It's a miserable experience emotionally. You're losing time. You're incompetent. You don't know what you're doing. You should be ashamed of yourself. You should take the machine to a real mechanic who knows how to figure these things out.” When things break down, how do you find the headspace to get through the stuckness?
Rosalia: I think I can empathize with that feeling. But I don't give up very easily. There’s always a different way of going about it. I feel like that has been an ongoing thing for me through mindfulness practice, particularly. “What's going on right in this moment? How can I work with what's going on right now, sit with it?” And in doing that, I find that you allow yourself to be open to other possibilities. In general, taking things with humor, like when bad things happen—I like the word “mischievous” because I think that's the lightheartedness everyone has experienced. It's a commonality that we share. So even if someone is frustrated, if you acknowledge it and name that—people know that you're dealing with this little thing that doesn't want to work. I'm sure that just happened to them yesterday.
The crazier things get, the calmer I get. But that's after years of practice. In your day-to-day when things aren't working, instead of choosing frustration, take a deep breath and chill out and give yourself a break. Which is difficult to do. - Rosalia
Craig: What do you do when you get into stuckness with tools and systems?
Andrew: It sounds like Persig’s kind of alone with his machine. But for me the biggest lesson that I've had to learn is how to ask for help. He's describing the judgmentalism that will arrive in those moments. And that's part of the reason that it has been important for me to lean into collaboration, to get a new set of eyes, to shake up the way I'm looking at it
Javairia: Phone a friend.
Craig: Right, phone a friend. Rosalia, you brought up mindfulness. What about that practice has been helpful to ease you into an appropriate attentiveness?
Rosalia: I still get upset. Mindfulness is all about allowing yourself to be in the moment. If sounds happen or a feeling comes in your body, instead of investigating it and saying, “What can I do to fix it?”—just allowing it to pass through you. “I know that this was an issue in the past, but frustration from the past is not gonna be helpful in the moment.” So allowing yourself to say, “OK, what's going on, and where can I start to see what some solutions might be?”
I constantly have to remind myself that I don't have to stress myself out. Work is important, and I should take pride in my work, but I shouldn't feel the urgency of life or death with work, because it really just stresses you out to the point that you almost can't function. You get that feeling of stuckness, because you build up such high stakes.
I just got a performance review: “Rosie is weirdly able to stay calm.” The crazier things get, the calmer I get. But that's after years of practice. In your day-to-day when things aren't working, instead of choosing frustration, take a deep breath and chill out and give yourself a break. Which is difficult to do.
Andrew: I had to learn to take a look at my history. Learning to contact my actual history and say, “What is reasonable for me to expect myself to be able to do right now?” I'm not supposed to be some island—totally self-sufficient.
I had to learn to take a look at my history. Learning to contact my actual history and say, “What is reasonable for me to expect myself to be able to do right now?” - Andrew
Javairia: You know, when issues go wrong, everything seems like an emergency. Super important. And one time, it was as simple as turning on and off the computer. “Oh, okay, there’s everything!”
Craig: I love that phrase, Oh, there’s everything. Javairia, there’s a book for you to write! So, if I’m hearing you right, you’re saying the mindset change can be, “Maybe this isn’t an emergency. Maybe this is a simple thing.” That sounds like the wisdom of the low-key. Okay, last question: Is there anything that you feel like you've had to unlearn in order to resolve technical problems?
Javairia: That's a really good question. I've had the tendency to rush through things. “OK! Spent an hour trying to figure out how to get your computer fixed, when it probably should have taken 30 minutes. Now we have to make up for lost time.” Which doesn't make a good experience for everybody, because they feel like they're getting gypped of information.
Tyler: I have always been a solo learner. You have to sign off on stuff. You're always thinking. You’re always questioning. You’re always pushing the envelope. At the same time, you can overdo that and hold the team hostage to your own thoughts.
Andrew: I was listening to psychologist Hillary McBride talk about her concept of “the man box.” There's this closed system of expectations and those create certain types of fears, certain patterns of behavior. In some ways, I was positioned to feel like a fake man because of those expectations about how men are technically competent and work with their hands and all this kind of stuff. That's been the process for me.
One thing I’m thinking about after listening to these rising professionals is that technical difficulties aren’t like hurricanes that blow in all of a sudden, decimating the day’s plans. Breakdown is where we live. But we are so often tranquillized by our own tools that we forget to move slowly and to be watchful. Maybe that’s wisdom to keep close in digital overwhelm.
Really grateful to Andrew, Tyler, Rosalia, and Javairia! And also for you.
The Mode/Switch is off next week. Happy Thanksgiving.
- Craig