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Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?

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Re: Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?

#31

Post by hollowcelery »

As other commenters have said, this could be burnout. In my personal experience, improving from burnout requires two things: an extended break from anything mentally demanding (preferably more than a month, but at least a few weeks), and a change in circumstances when you return (whether it’s a different team, different job, different project, etc). Both are necessary. If you just take a holiday without changing up your work, then you’ll spend the whole time dreading returning to the usual grind. It’s important to have something different to look forward to when you return. While you’re away, you can think about your work and whether you genuinely find it rewarding.

A lot of people go through this. I’ve been through it twice, and both times it felt like it hijacked my brain. It probably feels like you’re doing something wrong or you’re a bad employee, but most likely you’re just in a temporary rut.

Re: Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?

#32

Post by umutisik »

I was in a similar situation 10 years ago, but in a less well-paid job :) I happened on a musician's talk about how to be a productive musician. He was saying that his most important suggestion was to "write everyday". It seemed obvious that musicians should write music everyday. But he meant writing your thoughts everyday on paper. (I am not a musician btw) I took that to heart and started writing in the mornings. The practice helped me to construct, then re-construct, my work and career from first principles.

That being said, "my current mental state is affecting my ability to learn effectively" sounds like you're in some distress. It will not hurt at all to seek help.

Re: Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?

#33

Post by wing-_-nuts »

The suggestions for taking a break or seeking therapy are great ones.

Fundamentally, there isn't much overlap between the work that we get paid to do and the work we find meaningful. Unless you work for a non-profit that's saving the world, there just isn't.

What to do? Well, one thing I've considered is that once I am fully ready to retire, I do part time software development and give half my earnings to a deserving charity. I get back a few days out of my week, and the knowledge that my donations are doing far more for a charity than my volunteering could ever do, and as a bonus I get to keep half to pursue my hobbies. I think that would be a win win for everyone if you could swing it.

Re: Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?

#34

Post by beembeem »

I've been in your shoes and will suggest something different than the consensus here.

Instead of sitting around learning (taking online classes) actually DO something.

  - Create something with your own hands that gives you satisfaction.

  - Write a journal everyday to give yourself a sense of accomplishment.

  - Use those new EE skills to make a circuit that performs some small task to automate your daily life.
Sitting around and learning without applying the knowledge is a drain of your precious time.

Create, don't consume.

Re: Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?

#37

Post by jhp123 »

Having been in similar places emotionally more than once, the one thing that helped significantly was hard exercise (running, weight lifting). Another trick that helped a little was facing the work I dreaded at a set time first thing in the morning, e.g. going in early to a coffee shop and grinding through work for like an hour.

Re: Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?

#38

Post by PragmaticPulp »

vellum wrote: post #3

You don't have to care about your job. Most people have about four good hours of work in them. Just do your four hours, and take the rest of the day off. No job is worth burnout.

> You don't have to care about your job. Most people have about four good hours of work in them. Just do your four hours, and take the rest of the day off.

OP says they're young and recently got a high-paying job at a recognizable California company. This isn't good advice.

Working half days every day may work for certain senior people in slow moving parts of a company. However, getting a high-paying job in California at a big-tech company and then putting in half days will get you PIPed and removed really quick.

Re: Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?

#39

Post by elliottkember »

s1k3 wrote: post #22
twblalock wrote: post #11

If you got a job at a high-status tech company in California, you can get another job at a different tech company. It's like complaining you got into Harvard and other Ivy League schools wouldn't want you. If you want to work on something different, you can only do that by getting a different job, either in the same company or at another one. If you stay where you are, you know you won't get what you want, so you nee…

You’re missing the point. He’s unmotivated despite where he is. He’s trying to figure out why, not simply to walk over to the greener grass.

> I work on a product which just clones other similar products with a slightly better price point, so it’s hard to really care about the goal

I think this sums it up perfectly. Try another job first. There’s a saying - “a change is as good as a rest”. Worth trying!

Re: Ask HN: Tips to relearn how to care about my job?

#40

Post by pedrosorio »

gw99 wrote: post #10
fasterik wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or find something to work on that you actually care about. I don't have any trouble working on something for 12 hours a day when I find it intrinsically interesting and meaningful.

Watch that. Doesn't always work. Not everyone you will work with loves what you love or gives as much of a shit about it as you do. And it's painful watching them fuck it up day after day after day. Eventually you end up disliking it by proxy. I'm also a weirdo. I intensely dislike what I do for a living but I'm good at it and the money is pretty excellent. And I hate it enough to want to do a quality job of it and a…

> And I hate it enough to want to do a quality job of it and automate as much of it as possible so I can do something more interesting with my time instead.

How does this work in a full time job where you hate what you are doing? When you automate something, you're not freeing up time to do whatever you want. You're just freeing up time to do more of what you don't like, isn't it?

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