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Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

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Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#301

Post by giantg2 »

bennysomething wrote: post #289
sinenomine wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered living frugally and investing most of your income into stock index & crypto to become financially independent?

Just one thing, I became really interested in this too. It made me very unhappy that I didn't have it it. Sort of jealous of everyone who does have it. I see a contradiction now in what I wanted: living frugally to be free of pointless desires but in the end craving that so badly it was ruining my best years. (Ps I still throw as much as I can afford in a pension because I'm terrified of being poor with no ability to…

I-bonds are looking like a good option for the next year or so.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#302

Post by bigDinosaur »

kossTKR wrote: post #152
albinowax_ wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might not be relevant to you, but a lot of runners/cyclists exercise at 'tempo' - an intensity higher than necessary which mostly generates more fatigue without much benefit. So, if you need to drop the pace/intensity of your running to recover better, it's probably still worthwhile. More info here: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/zone-2-training-for-endur...

Thanks for the input, intersting article! This might actually be a worthwhile first step in recovery as i run at quite a fast pace naturally and after covid i often hit a hr of 180bpm as a 30 something year old - maybe i should only walk jog for now.

As far as I am aware, the only way you can exercise with several issues (CFS, POTS) is to exercise at a level below what triggers relapses, and to very gradually increase the amount one does over a period of years.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#303

Post by cookiengineer »

blakewatters wrote: post #138

Your problem is very simple: you are working on bullshit. Across your entire description of your situation you never once mentioned what it is you are actually working on but called out the income you hit and frameworks you are playing with. I humbly submit that your problem is that you have lost the plot. Hate to break it to you chief but the libraries and frameworks and techniques you use to work are not the point.…

> Build something people want

I can recommend building something for fun, just for yourself without anything of the business-y metrics.

When I had a demotivated phase I started to build my website for fun, and didn't give a damn about anything people would say of it. [1]

That ignited the motivation to build my own tools again and led to the motivation of finding something other people might need, too.

A lot of "older" people in the industry that I know also take part in game jams like ludum dare and come together on the weekends to build something fun that they like. Game jams are all about having fun with zero expectations, so you can basically build whatever you want that comes to mind on a specific topic.

[1] https://cookie.engineer

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#304

Post by Falkon1313 »

bennysomething wrote: post #70

Yes went through this. Early 30s my dad died, completely changed my view on what I was doing. He was self employed and successful. I started to hate working for someone else. I really started to dislike being a developer. Kept trying to find a way out. Was depressed that being a Dev eats my life, all free time I felt I should be learning technologies Anyway fast forward nearly a decade and I'm really happy in my job.…

>seeing how crap so many people in the world have it while I sit here and earn good money

Whenever I start to feel bad I kinda fantasize about going back to an 'easy' job. One where I was just working physically instead of mentally. Just clock in, work out, clock out, and go relax, my mind fresh to learn new things and do hobbies unrelated to work.

But then I look at the pay rates of those jobs compared to the current cost of bills and my family, and I remember the paycheck-to-paycheck struggles. When we were juggling which utility to pay each month, desperately trying to find a burner car because the last one had broken down, etc.

Work is hard sometimes, but life with an 'easy' job was hard too.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#305

Post by Falkon1313 »

sinenomine wrote: post #193
blakewatters wrote: post #138

Your problem is very simple: you are working on bullshit. Across your entire description of your situation you never once mentioned what it is you are actually working on but called out the income you hit and frameworks you are playing with. I humbly submit that your problem is that you have lost the plot. Hate to break it to you chief but the libraries and frameworks and techniques you use to work are not the point.…

> Build something people want Ok, what if instead of yet another one "UberEats for dog treats" I want to build a novel rejuvenation therapy. Or a platform for building such therapies. What do I click, where do I sign? t. big tech worker

If you want work alongside people experimenting with rejuvenation therapy, Calico labs works on that. They hire in-house software people and also of course use software provided by external companies.

I haven't worked for them or with them directly, so I don't know anything else about it, but it might be one place to look. I'm sure there are others; they must have competition.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#306

Post by aiisjustanif »

hsn915 wrote: post #300
blakewatters wrote: post #138

Your problem is very simple: you are working on bullshit. Across your entire description of your situation you never once mentioned what it is you are actually working on but called out the income you hit and frameworks you are playing with. I humbly submit that your problem is that you have lost the plot. Hate to break it to you chief but the libraries and frameworks and techniques you use to work are not the point.…

Yup. Nailed it. IMO the people calling this "burnout" have no idea what they are talking about. Calling it burnout assumes you're working too hard and if you just rest a bit then come back to do the same bullshit work it will be ok.

Working for 15 years, you know how much time off he has taken?

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#307

Post by HigherPlain »

TomSwirly wrote: post #197
lazarus101 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is aging really a problem? On the individual level it is but as a whole the world population has exploded in the past century. Would we have enough resources for everybody if the life expectancy will increase to say 100 years?

Everyone could live _modestly_, like middle class Cambodians but with better healthcare, yes. The issue is a tiny number of wildly consumptive rich people.

Whilst it's easy, simple and populist to blame a tiny [x] group of people for all that is wrong with society, it does not have a good historical precedence: try asking any Germans you know!

More difficult is to acknowledge the huge middle-class that has been created as a result of globalisation over the last decades.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#309

Post by emmes »

dehrmann wrote: post #267
foobazzy wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most effective way to recover enthusiasm was to pick up a new skill, work-related or not. I was in my mid-30s in the late aughts and not entirely sure I wanted to keep coding - so I signed myself up for an 18 month "executive MBA" program to find out if I might want to do something else This might sound tangential, but I am at this exact stage in my life. I am in my early 30s and have signed up for the executive MB…

What do you want to do after your MBA?

That's why I decided against the MBA. I was in this stage of life in my early-mid 30s, and asked for some advice from other engineer-with-MBAs. All of the ones who had done things of value with their MBA were no longer engineers.

What's your endgame?

Do you want to be a CEO some day? A product manager? Business development? Work in something other than software? An MBA will teach you useful things and help you get your foot in the door.

Do you want to be a CTO? Do you see yourself creating software down the road? None of the MBA things explicitly help you, and executive MBAs are very expensive to do "just for fun". If you want to go back to school, go get a masters in CS if you don't have one yet.

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