I recently met with a young man who, after having recently adopted a pet bunny from the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, wanted to share a couple of observations and an idea. I'm always happy to meet with people, especially people who have already helped us save a life, and new ideas are always welcome.
As someone who lives and breathes software, Ian is acutely aware (as I am too now, thanks to the conversation) of a growing phenomenon of psychological depression in his industry. As evidence of this observation, here are several of the articles he shared: Depression, Burn Out and Writing Code; Developer depression: Isolation is the biggest problem; How does having PTSD, depression, or anxiety feel for software engineers and computer scientists? What were your worst times and how did you get on track?
...and here's a link to the YouTube video which apparently first brought the issue to the attention of that community of engineers and designers: MountainWest RubyConf 2013 Devs and Depression by Greg Baugues
Included in the above is what Ian describes as "...the keyword search engine of the pre-eminent news feed of the software development community. This community is about 5 years old, and already has 1,084 articles/links posted regarding depression. That's almost one article per day."
He's right, that is alarming.
So with that as context, Ian's simple but wonderful observation is that adding an animal to his life has been the best possible means of fighting his own social isolation. Ian has experienced now firsthand the immense satisfaction and joy one gets from time spent with a companion animal. Unlike most of us, however, Ian places this observation in the context of the depression facing his peers: that the Hi Touch of animals may be the best prescription for one of the woes experienced by the Hi Tech people.
Ian's idea, and what I'm hoping to begin to accomplish with this post, is to offer this information as a package to his peers. In other words, to invite software designers to come to shelters, PHS/SPCA and others, to visit, to volunteer, and to adopt. They'll learn that shelter staff are not here to push animals out the door but rather, as Ian experienced, that these adoption counselors are here to help you make a permanent match; they approach each potential adopter anxious to understand what it is you're looking for and, knowing the individual animals in our care so very well, to help you make the wisest selection. No rush, just a commitment to help you find a loving companion animal while helping a companion animal find a loving home.
Ian has a great idea. Programmers, please consider yourselves invited!