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I played basketball as a teenager. One year, I was in the starting lineup. The coach believed in me and was vocal about it. He gave me clear feedback, both positive and negative. Overall, I played well and was improving quickly. Next year, the coach got replaced. The new coach benched me and gave me no feedback. Though he didn’t say it, it was obvious he didn’t believe in me, for whatever reason, justified or not. I started playing worse, which only reinforced his view, and then my minutes went down, which gave me less opportunity to improve, which reinforced his view further, etc. I was still on the same team but I wasn’t the same player. I was but a shadow of the player from last year. Whether the new coach was right about me or not, I will never know. Was I falling behind because others were improving faster or because I internalised his lack of trust? Maybe I wasn’t as promising as I had thought and he merely saw it or maybe he was unjust. Whatever the reason, he ended my basketball career that year (though it would take a few more years for me to realise it). As a young basketball player, your window of opportunity to develop is small and, if you miss it, you’re basically done. As a young software engineer, you have more than enough opportunity to find a better team and, more importantly, a better coach. |