[hinkley]

5-10 years ago there was a study that said that contrary to common wisdom, 20 minutes is not the minimum necessary to get cardio benefits from exercise. 3x7 minutes also works. This changed my life. I'd gotten so out of shape that 12 minutes hurt, and also if you disappear at work for 25 minutes at a stretch people will talk. 8 minutes twice a day and once after work is easy.

Getting away from the desk for 5 minutes can give you a lot of perspective, and unstick you from a host of problems. I think if I go back (when I go back?) I'll find a pomodoro app that lets you customize the intervals.

I think I agree with everything except this:

> As a code reviewer they should be giving you a compliment sandwich where the criticism or constructive feedback is placed in between two compliments.

Manageable when the code review is 50 lines. Not so easy to do when it's over 500 lines. Damned awkward when the person outranks you, too. I don't know where the cutoff is, but I feel like there's a point where this advice feels like victim blaming, or at least codependency. Don't put your coworkers in this situation, please.

As for knocking over the sandcastle, I agree this is something all humans wrestle with, maybe developers especially. Almost nobody wants to accept that their code is ephemeral. We always push back. Zen or a little horticulture can give you perspective. Kids might too, but that takes decades to play out. Plants are always changing, and they'll never be exactly the way you picture them in your head for longer than a moment. They're alive, and making them 'do' anything is a negotiation that often goes in directions you didn't anticipate. For good or ill.