In recent years, and at multiple companies, I find there are simply far too many things that require at least some of my attention going on at the same time. Collaboration tools like Slack seem to encourage an interrupt-driven environment. Even when things happen serially, they happen at a mad rush (in the name of velocity). I have little time to reflect or gain perspective.

Combine that with the fact the software has way more moving parts and integration points than it used to. Not only has velocity ramped up, but so has the number of possible interactions you need to consider. Improved testing techniques (unit tests, automated pre-commit tests, and integration tests) mitigate this quite a bit, but it doesn't fully compensate, especially since some of the "velocity" infrastructure itself is quite complex and can sometimes make a simple thing very difficult: I often find myself trying to work around flaky infrastructure.

Most of my coworkers seem unfazed, so I think I just have the wrong constitution. I think also most companies really have no choice anymore but to operate in this manner.