Agile and Physical Health - Part 7 - Illness
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." - The Wizard Of Oz
Something was wrong. Very wrong. The creative talent - developers, UI/UX designers, DBAs - were all working hard. There weren't any obvious slowdowns or bottlenecks. And yet work was slipping, sprint backlogs weren't being completed - not by a lot, but by just enough incrementally to force deadlines to slip. The long-term metrics and projections weren't revealing the source of the agony. Which is to say, the long-term metrics were crap. They needed a hard re-think. In fact, what was needed was a better set of near-term metrics.
The issues that needed resolution emerged when a closer look was given not to the stories that weren't being completed at the end of the sprints, but to the stories that were completed. Did the estimates square with the actual effort? (They did not.) Were the estimate issues at the team or individual level? (With specific Individuals.) Were there training or attitude issues? (Both.)
What emerged was a new set of metrics tuned to separate salient signals from the usual development noise. Just as important, new metrics would only be of value after training designed to improve everyone's level of effort estimates had been completed. With this in place, delivery predictability began to improve and the schedule became more reliable.
The devil was in the details.
The Early Medical program is all about taking the long view. It's about getting a ginormous container ship from Tokyo to L.A. without drifting off course. The program presents five "Horseman of Longevity." Understanding each of these requires the long view as the risks they present aren't readily apparent day to day. The risks build up incrementally over many years. No one has zero arteriosclerosis one day and the next day a heart attack due to clogged coronary arteries. No one defends a PhD dissertation one day and is confined to a nursing home the next day due to advanced Alzheimer's disease.
There is very little in the program, however, that directly addresses sudden illnesses, when Fate and Nature decide to sweep the leg to our long-term plans. Or when a rogue wave finds our ginormous container ship halfway through the journey to L.A. This isn't to say there's nothing from the program that can be applied to short-term health challenges. To the contrary, there is a great deal of applicable value, but it's up to the participant to facilitate the transfer of learning from long-term risks and probabilities to events in the here and now. The key is searching for and using high quality data and information.
The more mundane illnesses, however, require a differently tuned set of metrics then those used to plot a course to our marginal decade. I'll use the common head cold as an example, although the same approach applies to any number of viral and bacterial infections we might encounter as a consequence of moving about in public.
When I was much younger, the first clue I had a head cold was full-on sneezing, runny nose, and aches. The illness usually hit like a truck. Not subtle and undeniable. Over the years, post mortem and after-action-like reviews began to reveal a wealth of information available prior to becoming ill that could be used minimize or even avoid getting sick altogether.
Who around me is displaying signs of becoming or actually being ill? This is basic situational awareness. Having been sick myself n-number of times made it clear what signs to look for. If observed, either avoid contact - particularly prolonged contact, like in a closed conference room or airplane - with that individual. When I was managing people, I became a stickler for sending people home if they attempted to come to work sick. I'll never know how many team-wide waves of illness I prevented, but I have too much experience of being part of a team that didn't benefit from this type of management and everybody suffered.
What are the very first signs that suggest I might be coming down with something? This is different for everyone but it's certain there are precursor signals - scratchy throat, unusual fatigue, head aches, poor sleep for a few nights, subtle muscle aches, unexplained cough. The list is lengthy but not unwieldy. Knowing the signs to be aware of is important, but even more important is to act on mitigating the effects they are suggesting. I'm certain I've avoided serious illness if not illness altogether by heeding these signs and taking action - a day off from work to sleep, start pushing fluids early, keep chill air out of my ears and off the back of my neck, extra hot showers or hot tub soaks - whatever my past experiences suggested as helpful.
If I do fall ill, know what interventions make a difference and why. The pushing fluids thing is pretty much standard. These days, I prefer warm water with a little bit of LMNT added to keep the electrolytes in balance. I also eliminate all stimulants - coffee, alcohol, and especially sugar. And of course, I prioritize sleep. I've also learned to avoid over-the-counter medicines, like cough syrups and decongestants1, and unstudied "holistic" remedies. I find they invariably don't suppress my cough or unstuff my sinuses, tend to make my head feel wonky, and disrupt my sleep. I haven't tried prescription medications like Tamiflu or Xofluza, but some people swear by them. The key is to know what does and doesn't work for you so you're not wasting time swallowing red herrings or some other snake oil to no avail.
Tuning your pre-illness awareness takes time and will change as you age, but it's well worth the effort. Having a set of near-term health metrics will prove to be a valuable addition to your long-term healthspan and lifespan strategy.
Footnotes
1 Attia, P. (2025, February 22). A common nasal decongestant appears to be ineffective, so what alternatives exist? https://peterattiamd.com/nasal-decongestants/
Disclaimer
The author has Bachelor degrees in both biochemistry and cell biology but is not a licensed practitioner of medicine or psychotherapy and nothing presented on this website claims or should be construed to provide medical or psychotherapeutic advice. This series of articles is presented as a personal reflection by the author on work he's done to improve his health and as such is relevant to the author and no one else. The author makes no recommendations as to any course of action the reader may chose to follow other than to encourage the reader to work closely with qualified health professionals when making healthcare decisions relevant to their personal lives.
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