Management: “The trough of zero dopamine”

The first thing I noticed about being a manager was that I wasn’t sure whether anything I was doing was useful.

As an engineer, I had a fast feedback loop—I could design something, code it, test it, show it to coworkers, ship it and see users happily using it all within a day or two.

Managing doesn’t have that kind of feedback. If I gave someone helpful advice in a one-on-one, at best they might mention it offhandedly three weeks later; more typically, they might forget to, and I’d never know. Without being able to tell whether I was doing anything useful, it was hard for me to stay motivated.

Source

I’ve talked about this before but I love that name for it: “The trough of zero dopamine”.

The author also lists some ideas for getting past it. TLDR: tell your manager, demand feedback, and get fulfillment somewhere else.