Serious question, is the 'always say yes' advice actually hurting junior devs

I took that popular advice for 6 months at a startup in Austin and ended up burning out on three side projects that had nothing to do with my actual job. Has anyone else found that being selective actually gets you better opportunities in the long run?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamiew839d ago

Yeah that "always say yes" thing is the same bad advice people give about networking or dating or whatever. Just say yes to everything and something will stick. But in real life saying yes to three side projects at once just means you do three things half assed instead of one thing well. I noticed with my own hobbies that picking one thing and sticking with it for a few months always works out better than jumping at every shiny opportunity. Being selective is just being smart with your time and energy.

clark.faith8d ago

The whole "say yes to everything" mindset feels like it came from some motivational poster in a breakroom that nobody actually follows. Being a bottleneck for your own time just means everything suffers, not just the stuff you turned down.