Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs

&quot;I learned that the world of men as it exists today is a bureaucracy. This is an obvious truth, of course, though it is also one the ignorance of which causes great suffering.<p>“But moreover, I discovered, in the only way that a man ever really learns anything important, the real skill that is required to succeed in a bureaucracy. I mean really succeed: do good, make a difference, serve. I discovered the key. This key is not efficiency, or probity, or insight, or wisdom. It is not political cunning, interpersonal skills, raw IQ, loyalty, vision, or any of the qualities that the bureaucratic world calls virtues, and tests for. The key is a certain capacity that underlies all these qualities, rather the way that an ability to breathe and pump blood underlies all thought and action.<p>“The underlying bureaucratic key is the ability to deal with boredom. To function effectively in an environment that precludes everything vital and human. To breathe, so to speak, without air.<p>“The key is the ability, whether innate or conditioned, to find the other side of the rote, the picayune, the meaningless, the repetitive, the pointlessly complex. To be, in a word, unborable.<p>“It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish.<p>David Foster Wallace, The Pale King

Having an organisation of highly-frustration-tollerant people is a great way of getting an organisation where nothing ever gets fixed.

One of the things I often find missing in articles and discussion of these topics here on HN is the understanding that different people are really quite different.<p>Articles or comments like this often read like moral judgements. You should be X to succeed. Being X works for me, and it should for you. If X doesn&#x27;t work for you, it&#x27;s your problem. There&#x27;s usually little considering that achieving X may be significantly easier for some than others, or that there may be other ways of achieving a persons goals that work better for them.<p>This article is better than most in that it has a well defined scope, large organizations. I don&#x27;t have any major problems with the content, other than I&#x27;d like some more time spent on wether the model they are applying is really as applicable to the situation as they claim.<p>I must admit to some bias, as I do no do well in large organizations, and the description of frustration in the article doesn&#x27;t resonate with my experience of frustration at these orgs. I left the last place I worked because it was bad for my mental health. In many ways it was a dream job. It payed extremely well, I liked the people I worked with, and it wasn&#x27;t that hard. Eventually though, I just couldn&#x27;t do it anymore, and left for a small startup. I didn&#x27;t realize how bad it was until I noticed I could still feel myself physically unwinding three months later.<p>I&#x27;ve been at this company for three years, and still love working here. It&#x27;s absolutely not frustration free. I am however, much better equipped to handle the kinds of frustrations I face at this new company.<p>The author of the article says:<p>&quot;It’s like learning to navigate a bustling city. At first, the traffic, noise, and crowds seem like overwhelming obstacles. But over time, you see these elements as essential aspects of urban life.&quot;<p>I&#x27;ve experienced this first hand after moving to NYC, and it&#x27;s true, but it&#x27;s also important to remember that some people just don&#x27;t like cities, and that&#x27;s Ok.

This resonated with me, but not in its original context in navigating large organizations - it reminds me of chewing on a tough open-ended math problem, or other situations where you try a 100 solutions to find one that actually works. I hope it’s the same concept here.

Sounds like a buddhist thing.<p>Also sounds like an exploit, a cheap excuse for people with the power to profit from frustratation to get away.<p>On the long run, frustration leads to paranoia, and paranoia leads to unpredictableness, which in high doses seems to be harmful for any organization.<p>So, it seams that dealing with (not exactly tolerating, also not intolerating, it&#x27;s different) paranoia is way more important. But also, if we don&#x27;t have paranoia, we can find ourselves in the receiving end of endless frustration.<p>A delicate situation.

As it turns out my frustration tolerance is very low...I decided to check out of this rotten system and go my own way a few months ago. My stress levels plummeted since.

This is a great piece, and the comments here are part of the learning - the author has hit the nail on the head of the growth opportunity for most engineers. Frustration is an internal issue, managing it is difficult, and being told you need to is uncomfortable.<p>For a mid level engineer, learning to do so effectively is worth a lot more money than any other marginal skill improvement.

Let&#x27;s face it. If you get frustrated, either you get paid enough to put up with the nonsense, or you don&#x27;t. If you do, you can stick around. If you don&#x27;t, you will move on, but just don&#x27;t repeat the loop.

Why does reading this make me think of the book “who moved my cheese”, that was handed out at many large 2000’s ish companies a quarter or two before layoffs started?

In Germany, you have to be extremely frustration tolerant for surviving running a small startup. The bureaucracy is crazy and convoluted, the funding (including research grants) frustrating and obscure, the consultants (e.g. tax advisor) to help with these expensive and infuriating, the software (eg bookkeeping) infantile.

&quot;no biggie, it&#x27;s just like learning to navigate a busy city&quot;<p>Such insidious reframing with absolutely no mention of burnout possibility. Yuck.