Sarcastic

I have been a sarcastic jackass all my life. The only thing I “accomplished” in college was a satire blog. I never thought it would be a problem in my career till I got feedback from a dev in my team, who in response to one my slack messages, asked if I was serious or it was one of my sarcastic replies.

I can pretend that it was a life changing event and I stopped being sarcastic, understood how much confusion my sarcasm was causing, and changed overnight. But it would be a lie. It did make me reflect though on the multiple self destructive habits I had carried over from my college days: sarcasm, low energy, pessimism instead of asking what can go right, being super blunt when it comes to feedback without caring whether it will hurt the other person. These might not have had any impact on my career till now because I offset them with my hard work and learnings over years, but these sure as hell will stop me from growing further, both in my personal and professional life.

A lot of feedback in multiple 360-degree reviews later, I have tried to change a lot of things in me which I considered part of who I was: sarcastic, a low energy downbeat guy who keeps to himself, and someone who never shies away from what is on his mind.