21–30 of 200 posts
Why not try to accept you are who you are, and apparently this is part of who you are currently. It seems to work out fine (if it does), so no need to worry.
paradoxically (or maybe not) it is not as rewarding process-wise as writing software, which has the strongest instant gratification loop after, maybe, video games.
You can’t really be a writer, however, unless you want to die in poverty, etc.
I got my start in web development because I had picked it up as a hobby and (at least at the time) it was a good way to get reasonable money without a degree. But my favorite parts were learning new techniques/technologies (I started out without a team to steer me toward best practices so I did a lot of experimentation, self-teaching, and reinventing the wheel - probably made my projects take longer but meant I learned a lot more) and then using that expertise to help my colleagues (once I did have a team, my deeper understanding meant that I was the one to go to when something didn't work right in IE6 or something).
At one point, I was having dinner with a friend at his startup and happened to meet one of their product support engineers. She explained that the role involved becoming an expert in their highly-technical, fast-growing product and then using that expertise to help customers (internal and external ones). I realized that was an entire job made of my favorite parts of my previous job. I applied to join her team and I've happily worked in product support for tech startups ever since. Before this point I never would have considered product support, because I just had a stereotypical vision of it as sitting in a phone center reading from a script. The ideal field for you might be out there without you realizing it exists.
I still try to identify the things I like doing and spend more time doing those things. Sometimes that means spending time working with folks on other teams - not all companies are flexible enough to allow this, but I think healthy ones will because the added perspective usually will make you more valuable to the company as well. Making sure to have these varied experiences and keep learning new things has been a great way to keep up my engagement over time.
For me, what helped was paying attention to what I liked about my work and leaning in a direction that emphasized those kinds of tasks - though it was kind of just luck that I found a job that let me do that. I got my start in web development because I had picked it up as a hobby and (at least at the time) it was a good way to get reasonable money without a degree. But my favorite parts were learning new techniques/t…
I love building Web products. Being a Product Owner. How: By quitting every company after doing my maximum. I’m deeply sour, because many people around me succeeded younger at being recognized, generally because of ethnic or gender reason, but I had to walk away and I have succeeded in establishing my company and I’m the PO. I’m also the laundry guy, the accountant and the principal engineer with my 2-5 employees, bu…
People who are truly passionate about their work are lucky.
But IMHO it's more realistic to find a job that isn't stressful & that one enjoys a bit (if one still needs to pay the bills).
There's a ton of happiness and fulfillment to be found outside of your career.
But you need to have the time and mental capacity to get there.
Works sucks up all of those resources for a lot of people.
For me, I love being able to sit down and concentrate for 5 hours and make progress on a coding activity. (Advent of Code is almost catnip for me; I’ll save up a week’s worth of them and blow a half a Saturday on them.) Other people thrive on social aspects of team/project work.
Naturally, I picked a job that gives me virtually none of that focused coding time, so there’s that…
Love to do? No. But I’ve found some things I’m good at that are useful and I don’t seem to get sick of, and after that what seems to matter more is the people you work with. Ultimately even if you like a job it’s still a job, and the widely promoted notion of passion rarely holds up.
After 15 years as a freelance developer I’ve started a rural wireless ISP. It hasn’t entirely displaced my freelance work, but allows me to help people in a way that being a developer didn’t (tangibly, at least). Now I install internet access for people, on infrastructure I have built, and I see how happy they are when they go from 2 to 100mbps (this is often in a field in the middle of nowhere). This means they can…
What an awesome and fascinating thing you're doing! Could you possibly explain at a high level what you had to do to start the ISP and make it accessible in these areas?