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Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice

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Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice

#41

Post by mr_sturd »

23B1 wrote: post #9

When I was burned out I dedicated myself to learning something completely outside of my current context. I plan on doing this regularly now, maybe every 2-3 years. On my docket is: - Woodworking - Cooking - especially baking, since it can be extremely challenging to create the 'perfect' baguette or croissant - Gardening - Writing a novel etc. Best solution for burnout IMO is to completely refresh your mind with somet…

I've been learning the ropes with music production here.

It has come about due to two driving forces; one that I've been on-and-off with learning guitar for years and wanted to record myself and play over backing tracks; the other being that my daughter took a shine to playing piano and I want to improve myself there so I can better help her learn. I've accidentally fallen in love with all of it.

I've ended up looking in to development of audio plugins for DAWs now. The whole thing is quite a rabbit hole...

Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice

#43

Post by cateye »

The conventional wisdom around burnout often emphasizes taking a break or pursuing hobbies, and while I'm not against that approach, I'd like to propose a potentially more contentious angle. Consider that burnout might not stem from the sheer volume of work but rather the cognitive load it imposes.

Many of us in the tech industry feel overwhelmed, not necessarily by the actual tasks, but by a lack of clear understanding of what needs to be done or what you have accomplished.

To tackle this, ask yourself precise questions: What are the specific tasks at hand? What have you truly accomplished? What's causing the stress? Identifying and rigorously addressing these underlying stressors might lead to a more fundamental solution to burnout.

Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice

#44

Post by jsunderland323 »

JohnFen wrote: post #17

The best dev I ever knew developed a serious case of burnout. He went to truck-driving school and drove long-haul trucks for a couple of years. He then came back to software development cured of his burnout. Not saying that you should drive trucks, but I think doing something else -- something completely unrelated to dev work -- might be of help.

I feel like taking a job where people take meth to drive for 3 days without sleep is probably the weirdest way to overcome JavaScript fatigue.

Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice

#45

Post by lostlogin »

qazxcvbnmlp wrote: post #39

Burnout comes from reward != work/effort put in over a long period of time. Building your own thing can be very conducive to burnout b/c most of the time you’re not really getting a lot of positive ideas. Everyone likes to say that vacation is the solution to burnout, and it can be, but it’s not the end all be all. Your brain needs to feel contentment at the end of a typical day. Contentment indicates you’re filling…

> Burnout comes from reward != work/effort put in over a long period of time.

I don’t agree. You can be well paid and well rewarded and burnt out. People need holiday, breaks and time to relax. If you are busy and stressed for a long period, hobbies don’t get time, life admin doesn’t get done and exhaustion comes to dominates weekends and evenings.

Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice

#46

Post by clintmcmahon »

Had a case of this burnout about ten years ago. I quit software and started a t-shirt company. Like others are mentioning, it was totally different and contained a lot of manual labor. It felt good and when the time was right to come back to software I came back as a freelancer with a fresh and entirely new outlook on coding for a living.

Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice

#47

Post by Clubber »

jsunderland323 wrote: post #44
JohnFen wrote: post #17

The best dev I ever knew developed a serious case of burnout. He went to truck-driving school and drove long-haul trucks for a couple of years. He then came back to software development cured of his burnout. Not saying that you should drive trucks, but I think doing something else -- something completely unrelated to dev work -- might be of help.

I feel like taking a job where people take meth to drive for 3 days without sleep is probably the weirdest way to overcome JavaScript fatigue.

You should probably brush up on modern trucking regulations that have been in place for at least 20 years.

Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice

#49

Post by shaftway »

JohnFen wrote: post #27
shaftway wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure woodworking is "low-stress", though I guess it depends on what exactly you plan on making. I have had a number of failures at all phases of projects. One was 20 hours of work and a grand in materials that I were totally junk (I had to pay more to drop it off at the dump). One was fairly low material cost, but ~40 hours in it was ruined. Now I make duplicates in case of failures. My last project I got materia…

> I have had a number of failures at all phases of projects. I have a life philosophy about this: failure is the path to success (I've never learned anything by being right). It can be hard to maintain the mindset, but it's actually true -- we learn from our mistakes, so nothing is a failure as long as a lesson was derived from it. If you can maintain that mindset, it takes a lot of the stress out of things!

In general I agree and I've preached the same. But the moment when you're holding the result of a month of weekends in your hands and you have to drop it in the trash can is tough.

Re: Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice

#50

Post by butlike »

mr_sturd wrote: post #41
23B1 wrote: post #9

When I was burned out I dedicated myself to learning something completely outside of my current context. I plan on doing this regularly now, maybe every 2-3 years. On my docket is: - Woodworking - Cooking - especially baking, since it can be extremely challenging to create the 'perfect' baguette or croissant - Gardening - Writing a novel etc. Best solution for burnout IMO is to completely refresh your mind with somet…

I've been learning the ropes with music production here. It has come about due to two driving forces; one that I've been on-and-off with learning guitar for years and wanted to record myself and play over backing tracks; the other being that my daughter took a shine to playing piano and I want to improve myself there so I can better help her learn. I've accidentally fallen in love with all of it. I've ended up lookin…

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