But I'm hitting a wall with my own cognition. When I'm stuck in a loop (rumination, impostor syndrome, "what if" scenarios), I can see it's happening. Can't step out.
What frameworks do you use? Or is it just white-knuckle until it passes?
(Context: Built a tool that automates Socratic tracing for engineers. Testing if the method works outside simulation. Happy to share if relevant.)
I had a lot of anxiety when I was young and it went away, gabapentin was probably part of it, but I think also life experience was another.
I think preparation is the answer to performance anxiety. For about a month I have been "going out" as a character for doing photography and handing out business cards which has been a stupendously effective "flywheel" to the extent that students regularly flag me down. Unlike other street performers who frankly annoy people being aggressive I frequently get approached by several people a day and my answer is having the right props and a system that "works itself"
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/tagged/foxwork
I am working on improving my repertoire but the consistent theme now is that anything new is tuned up to be "self-working" so I can do it without any effort. Similarly I have had certain situations where I "lose my shit" and I focus on not getting into those situations.
The pattern I trace: anxiety often comes from unconscious loops (rumination, comparison, "what if"). The mind is busy but not productive.
Your "mind-empty-ness" sounds like what happens when the loop is seen clearly — the effort drops away.
Question: When you were building your "foxwork" system, did you ever catch yourself in a mental loop about the system? (Perfectionism, "is this good enough," comparison to other performers?)
I'm curious if the preparation method itself ever became the source of anxiety — and how you stepped out of that.
codingdave•1h ago
If you are building tools to help with such problems, that is great. But if you need to ask what frameworks exist, you probably should catch up on what resources are already available before jumping into your own solutions, otherwise you risk re-inventing the wheel.
schneak•22m ago
The gap I see: CBT is clinical, structured, requires commitment. Most engineers I know won't do the worksheets, won't book the sessions, won't say "I need therapy."
They will, however, debug a performance issue at 2am.
Stillpoint (the app) isn't reinventing CBT. It's translating the method into a format engineers actually use: 10 messages, no login, no "mental health" framing. Just pattern recognition.
Have you seen tools that bridge that specific gap — clinical method + zero-friction interface?