Have any of you experienced depression while working as a one man show?
What caused it?
And what helped you bounce back?
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at times i have. listening to something that occupies my mind, podcast, music etc. many years ago i used to play led zepplin 4 and neil young live rust over and over on way between sales calls, really loud. really helped.
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Sure and I think it is more common than not.
Living with my parents didn’t help. I became a lot less negative and more productive after moving out. I lost about 12kg in a year. My personality is not different but my circumstances are.
I think it is a bad idea to categorize yourself as depressed or lonely - everybody will occasionally notice they are caught into a behaviour loop - but I think the most common way to break out of a loop you don’t really like is to literally move - like taking a walk. It is simple to take a brisk walk People in the past put up with a lot of bullshit on all levels but our ancestors weren’t as tortured as moderns because they physically moved around more - walking is known to boost your creativity at addressing your circumstances.
This is more obscure. You might say this is esoteric knowledge. Because I’m a nerd an abstraction that helped me was the realization Moravec’s Paradox (read the wiki article) was going to produce a bright future for a motivated blue collar worker. Briefly the central law in AI says blue collar workers are unlikely to be automated before white collar workers in this century. The probability is zero. It took a long time to appreciate the significance. People know about Moore’s Law but MP is more fundamental - it has nothing to do with business cycles, it is more like a law of nature that keeps getting rediscovered and forgotten. Nobody who works in the fields of Robotics or AI disputes this - it is just not very well advertised outside of those circles and most people outside wouldn’t know the right questions to ask.
I expect at some future date most people will consider this conventional wisdom - I started talking about this about five years ago and now I see from essays and articles this year a lot of people have updated their position but the idea hasn’t hit the mainstream yet. When it does a lot of people’s worlds are going to implode.
There is a significant probability you’ll think this is bananas but Rodney Brooks is the world’s most successful Roboticist and he has a blog on which he does not mind talking to people. You can go and ask him whether Moravec’s Paradox is real and he will tell you it is true.
Buy some airpods and listen to music or podcasts while working. I personally like podcasts because it feels like people are talking to me haha. Depression is a real thing brother I hope you get through it!
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How we respond to being a one-man show is tied up with a fascinating study of human personality.
It is often harder for an extrovert to work on his own since an extrovert is energized by people interaction. He gets a buzz from chatting with people, catching up etc. A guy I know from years ago did very well as a window cleaner, but he was known to all as 'Have-a-chat Dave". He thrived on the interaction with people.
An introvert is exhausted by people interaction, and thrives on working by himself. He loves the quiet and can focus on the job at hand.
Do some research on what type of personality you are. Google MyersBriggs Personality type and do the test. It will give you permission to be the best version of yourself and help you see how as a one man show, you can still be a champion.
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I use to work for a truck mounted carpet cleaning company years ago. He had fifteen trucks and sent everybody out by themselves. Some of the guys hated it and quit, but the rest of us were fine working alone. Some guys prefer it.
PS
You never have to work with a clown. 
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That is a good insight and also window cleaners are high in neuroticism which is like human uranium. For us it is dangerous to take our thoughts too legitimately - I think americans call it keeping it real - there is a life skill to turning criticism on itself and using it for work. I saw the window cleanse using this in a video once - he was worrying about a customer’s opinion on a tip and then realized it really did not matter. A lot of this advice to self is from a furry animal brain that suspects the dinosaurs could make a comeback.
I enjoy working by myself. However, it is nice when I go help out a buddy and we have a 3 man crew, it’s not even work we are all catching up and nobody burns out because another person picks up the slack. But as mentioned, you don’t have to ever deal with clowns. Not everyone will have the same work ethic-- hard to deal with sometimes.
Man this is a super valid question. I’ve worked solo for the first ten years. But I recently hired my friend to help me part time. It’s super cool to have someone who is not only good conversation but who has other skills such as photography. Our website and Instagram have a cool angel that I never could capture working by myself.
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