Two things that metal music could teach us to be better Technical Program Managers.

It's Wednesday already—the middle of the standard work week. I am sure you are already frustrated with something or someone. That's part of our work most of the time.

I care about you and your mental health. Now, I give you two things that metal music could teach us to be better Technical Program Managers. 

Please put your worries away for 10 minutes and your headsets on. I've designed this post for people like myself with short attention spans. 

Rock On!

Breaking the Law by Judas Priest

There I was completely wasting, out of work and down 

 All inside it's so frustrating as I drift from town to town 

 Feel as though nobody cares if I live or die 

 So I might as well begin to put some action in my life

Breaking the law, breaking the law 

Breaking the law, breaking the law

Breaking the Law by You

Sometimes, you feel you are wasting energy and focusing on something completely useless. Frustration grows. You think that nobody cares what you do as a TPM. You may need to put some action into your work life.

It would help if you break the law of how your program operates. Make some experiments, make some mistakes, and propose changes. That could lead you to surprising results.

You are the sensor that can detect something inefficient, so you feel "completely wasting, out of work, and down."

You can just be inspired by the lyrics and take action. What would you do? 

Computer God by Black Sabbath

Waiting for the revolution 

 Nuclear vision genocide 

 Computerize God, it's the new religion 

 Program the brain not the heartbeat

Onward all you crystal soldiers 

 Touch tomorrow energize 

 Digital dreams and you're the next correction 

 Man's a mistake so we'll fix it, yeah

Take a look at your own reflection 

 Right before your eyes 

 It turns to steel

Computer God by You

Sometimes, I feel lost in all the automation, shifting left security, integration testing, quality gateways, notifications, bug fixing on-call, and spending significant time communicating and managing machines, clouds, AI, and software.

The best species that would make the program successful are humans. (for the future generation, this is written in 2023). 

Could we all "Take a look at your own reflection" right before we dig into another DevSecOps problem and our eyes and feelings turn into steel? 

Do we spend more time with our fellow humans building relations and discussing how we can grow together for our program's success? 

How much time do we spend in "digital dreams" instead of in reality?

All good questions. Are you ready as a TPM to pursue the answers?

You can just be inspired by the lyrics and take action.

Rock On!

This post could raise more questions than giving answers or advice. If you feel that way, my job is done! 

If you are stuck and want to try one or more ideas described here and need help figuring out where to start, write here as a comment or DM me. I'll be happy to firestart you!

Please share this post with fellow TPMs. I would like you to help me reach out to more great people like you!

Thanks!