As a software developer, you will always find yourself in times when someone is putting an abysmal amount of pressure on you to complete something.

This is normal and not something under your control. Accept this is how every job works and take it for granted as the oxygen in the air you breathe.

Can this be avoided? If you have an enlightened project manager/team leader/whatever, she won’t put any pressure on you. If you don’t, maybe try looking for new employment opportunities.

A good software engineer knows software can’t be rushed. We are not in a hacker movie where someone types some bullshit code into a keyboard and “We’re in!”.

Software requires focus. The simplest “Hello world” requires an amount of complexity coordination that simply cannot be avoided.

The way I see it, software either works or it doesn’t. If you want me to produce software that does work, then development takes the time that it takes.

Of course things can be much more complex than this. But, as a general rule, if someone tries to rush me into something, I try to understand their requirements, try to explain what is needed in order to achieve the objective, then try my best to ignore the anxiety they are imposing on me and negotiate more realistic deadlines.

I’m only human and it doesn’t work so well every time. But I try to use the anxiety to positively drive my attention and focus.

There will always be someone speaking of how the sun is not gonna rise tomorrow if you miss a deadline. Of course that’s bullshit.

Just do your best and you’ll be fine, I promise.