One of the things about fear, is that it is not a useless reaction.<p>Fear isn't really an "emotion." It's a "reaction." It's a temporary state that we are designed to engage when we are in danger, and exit when the danger is past.<p>And it works very well. When we are scared, our adrenaline amps up, our capillaries expand, our blood pressure increases, our senses sharpen, etc. There's been a gazillion studies on the physiological manifestations of a state of fear.<p>Our thinking also gets affected. It becomes fairly "binary." Stand very still, or run away. Don't just stand there thinking. Make a decision. Do something. No time to evaluate. No grey areas. It's either good, or bad.<p>Anger is really a manifestation of fear. The reactions are quite similar.<p>They are both reactions that are designed to be <i>temporary</i>. Being in either a state of fear, or anger, for extended lengths of time, is corrosive to our health; both mental and physical.<p>But the really dangerous thing, is that the "binary" thinking is bad; especially in areas where we are making long-term decisions. If we need to make a decision to run, we don't look further than the next bend. That's why a squirrel runs in front of a car, escaping someone walking down the sidewalk (happened to me a couple of days ago. The squirrel was fine, because the driver saw them, and jammed on the brakes).<p>Many managers work on fear. They like to keep a state of anxiety going. I won't dwell on the reasons, but I feel as if it is a bad thing, for engineers, because it encourages us to take tactical shortcuts and "patch" fixes, as opposed to considered, strategic reasoning, and long-term, "holistic" fixes.<p>I was a manager for many years, and I feel that one of my most important jobs was to shield my team from the immense pressure that was piled onto me.