It is possible to live in multiple frames at once. Difficult, and very stressful, but possible.
When I was first asked to co-found my startup, I immediately became very unhappy at work. It was just too much cognitive dissonance. Once I had a startup (which had been my life's goal all along), why waste 8 hours a day working for somebody else, where I'm so much less productive?
Over time, I adjusted. I just saw work as having one set of rules and expectations, and startup as having another set of rules and expectations. So I gave up trying to introduce more productive technologies at work, because it wasn't going to happen anyway. And I adjusted my expectations for productivity downwards, because hey, my boss doesn't know that you can do better than JavaEE levels anyway.
End result: I'm much happier at work, which is perceived as being more productive because most people judge based on attitude instead of results. And then I go home and do everything my boss tells me not to on my startup. Only downside is that my startup may launch before my project at work does, which renders moot one of my main reasons for keeping the day job.
It's similar to switching keyboard layouts. When you first learn Dvorak, you will forget how to touch-type on Qwerty. But if you keep typing on Qwerty, eventually they'll start separating in your mind. For a long time, I would automatically type Qwerty whenever I saw a Gnome desktop and Dvorak when I saw Windows. Then it further refined itself into typing Qwerty whenever I saw Netbeans and Dvorak whenever I saw AIM. Now I'm basically fluent in both layouts, and can consciously switch between the two of them.
Also, I suspect every startup founder will have to undergo another frame shift eventually: shifting from the general startup culture to YOUR startup culture. Right now, most of us are internalizing the values of Startupping, News.YC, Ruby on Rails or Python, and various entrepreneurial blogs. Eventually that'll have to shift to the cultural values of the particular startup that you found. Any past or present YCombinator founders around to comment on this?
Frames are, of course, just an abstraction, not actual discrete entities. Another way of understanding it is to think of your frame as a linear combination of other frames. If two or more heavily weighted frames are in conflict, as they were in your case, then there's going to be some stress.
From your description, it sounds as though you actually switched frames at work from that of an idealist trying to do the best possible job, to that of a cynic who just plays along with a system you don't respect. This new frame is more compatible with your startup frame, since it understands that stupidity of large organizations creates opportunities for startups to succeed.
When I was first asked to co-found my startup, I immediately became very unhappy at work. It was just too much cognitive dissonance. Once I had a startup (which had been my life's goal all along), why waste 8 hours a day working for somebody else, where I'm so much less productive?
Over time, I adjusted. I just saw work as having one set of rules and expectations, and startup as having another set of rules and expectations. So I gave up trying to introduce more productive technologies at work, because it wasn't going to happen anyway. And I adjusted my expectations for productivity downwards, because hey, my boss doesn't know that you can do better than JavaEE levels anyway.
End result: I'm much happier at work, which is perceived as being more productive because most people judge based on attitude instead of results. And then I go home and do everything my boss tells me not to on my startup. Only downside is that my startup may launch before my project at work does, which renders moot one of my main reasons for keeping the day job.
It's similar to switching keyboard layouts. When you first learn Dvorak, you will forget how to touch-type on Qwerty. But if you keep typing on Qwerty, eventually they'll start separating in your mind. For a long time, I would automatically type Qwerty whenever I saw a Gnome desktop and Dvorak when I saw Windows. Then it further refined itself into typing Qwerty whenever I saw Netbeans and Dvorak whenever I saw AIM. Now I'm basically fluent in both layouts, and can consciously switch between the two of them.
Also, I suspect every startup founder will have to undergo another frame shift eventually: shifting from the general startup culture to YOUR startup culture. Right now, most of us are internalizing the values of Startupping, News.YC, Ruby on Rails or Python, and various entrepreneurial blogs. Eventually that'll have to shift to the cultural values of the particular startup that you found. Any past or present YCombinator founders around to comment on this?