Here are some quotes from that book. Please excuse my rough translation:
When the creator is larger than the task, he is OK -- he has no need to exercise his willpower or to spur himself.
When the creator is equal to the task (e.g. the shape of the chair he is designing causes him discomfort but he cannot figure out why exactly), the willpower wakes up and stands behind his back, expecting an assignment. If the creator has enough energy, the willpower just states, “here’s the task, no need to rush -- we’ll solve it, no need to worry”. But if the creator has low energy, the willpower rolls up the sleeves in order to gather up missing energy.
When the creator is smaller than the task, he’d better step aside, or the task will crush him.
If the creator’s energy is depleted, peace of mind is a godsend to him.
The ability to solve problems (the structure of the creator's soul) is not affected by any external conditions, nor by time. That’s why no matter how hard life tries to crush the creator, he cannot be crushed. To uplift him, there’s no need to pump him up with energy externally. All he needs to do is to muster up just a bit of strength to lift his eyelids -- and notice the task. Seeing the task is his salvation. Squash the smallest task -- swat! and it’s gone. No problem that the task was small: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The subsequent task will be easier for him -- because he’s already moving, he has some momentum. And so his energy level begins to rise.
But if he wastes his energy potential, he loses himself. No protection: he is vulnerable all around, and even if nobody is intending to hurt him, he sees malicious intentions in every word, gesture or action, however well-intentioned.
Our energy capacity increases in only two cases: 1. When our energy is expended during creative labor. 2. When our energy is expended during physical exercise, resulting in pleasant tiredness.
Means of increasing our energy potential: 1. Positive emotions. 2. Motion / movement. 3. Solving problems.
Two questions:
1. What are your refresh tactics and any advice for what makes a good refresh?
2. What strategic advice would you give for preparing for that mid-life break?
2. Be realistic about the fact you need a mental break. Avoid burning yourself out anymore than you already are. Discuss your strategy and reasoning with your family so it's not a shock to them and have a plan on how to cover finances and health-care.
1. You have a limited amount of mojo that you can throw at a problem. When you're young, this focus and energy is easy. You can throw it at problems that you may not be that vested in for a reward like money. It's also easy to recover. These times are great.
2. As you get older, mojo will become more cyclical. When you're in the troughs it will be difficult to focus your energy on a problem if you're not that vested with it. When you work on projects that fail, this will be extremely draining. At this stage, you will need to build "refresh" mechanisms into your schedule. It will help to work on non-tech yet creative passions on the side that have easy to reach end-states. I personally had this successfully going for over a decade.
3. Sometimes instead of being cyclical, your mojo will just totally flat-line. Sometimes it was too many death-march projects, sometimes it's personal health related, dealing with aging family members, or the stress of being a parent. If you haven't built in a refresh cycle that works for you yet, it's going to be very difficult to get your mojo flowing again. At this point more drastic measures are necessary. One piece of advice I heard was "take a break until you get really bored again."
After joining a project a few years ago that caused me to sacrifice my "refresh cycle", I found myself quickly in #3 as well. I wish I had better advice, but I'm planning to take some extended time off from the grind. [Advice to younger devs: this lifestyle requires active maintenance on your part to sustain and you won't know about this until it's too late. Save up and plan for a mid-career break.] I'm planning on working on some fun projects to expose me to new technology stacks and try to see what problems I can get excited about again and do some self-investments to open up alternative career paths. [I've always considered "retiring" into education at some point but maybe I'll play with a few different self-employment ideas first.]