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Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

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Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#51

Post by Boulth »

wott wrote: post #37
juliend2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Learn embedded programming Yes, this. I'm currently learning electronics, with the Arduino environment, and I think I never had so much fun with programming since the days I learned to do some ActionScript 2.0 with Flash MX, back in the days. Not a very glamorous example, but I genuinely enjoyed the simple fact of programmatically moving stuff on the screen. Now, with Arduino, I get to programmatically move things…

> Pure fun. Well... that gets quite different when you do it in a professional context. I'd say there is more pressure than in pure software development. 1. The deadlines are harder. You cannot really ship a half-baked product and tell yourself you'll ship an update every week after. This is of course even more true if you are on the hardware side. 2. The pressure is higher. Because of point 1, you have more pressure…

> > Pure fun.

> Well... that gets quite different when you do it in a professional context.

Isn't this true with everything? That's why it's important to have something that is not related to work and by extension you can play around with it without the pressure of doing it "professionally".

Actually, that's what I think leads to burn out: no time to play around with stuff without pressure of "doing it one true way" or with "business value".

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#52

Post by Insanity »

onion2k wrote: post #49
Insanity wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you start thinking of bringing something to market, it already adds stress to the 'just coding' part to me. When I write something for fun I don't want to have to think about making it usable for other people and everything that comes with that

Exactly this. I don't write code to make useful things I could sell (that's the day job). Code I write in my "coding every day" thing is more often toys, games or art.

I would love to hear or see more about the 'art' part if you don't mind sharing that. Or just explaining what kind ot the things it are :)

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#53

Post by aragorn2 »

trcollinson wrote: post #5

I have been coding since the 90s. This year I finally felt really burnt out. It got so bad I was upset, miserable, and lost all passion for working. I have 6 kids and a wife with a chronic untreatable disorder so I couldn’t just quit. And I’m glad I didn’t, it turns out that wouldn’t have helped. Here’s what I did and what I would suggest: 1) after talking to my wife and my doctor I got a counselor. Well really a tea…

Your second point has made me realize that not having identity outside of work is the biggest source of my anxiety. Thanks!

I also can’t seem to stop thinking about work. Maybe it’s related to that point. I can’t enjoy anything since there is always “but you should be solving problem X” in the back of my mind. Maybe it’s the type of personality I have - if there is a problem, I can’t stop ruminating about it. It’s mostly work related since that’s why I do 95% of the time, but other problems too, especially when dealing with people.

I know I am not adding any value to the discussion - just wanted to thank you for your insights and to the person that asked the question.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#54

Post by aragorn2 »

trcollinson wrote: post #31
Rjevski wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> through therapy I realized that I didn’t have an identity outside of being a software developer. That’s what was burning me out. I wasn’t Tim the person who has a family and interests and develops software. I was Tim: software developer. The end. This turns out to be really bad. I had to remember who I am other than software developer. All I ever did was work or think about work or work on other things that were ju…

Well, the number one way I solved this was by going to therapy every week for months. My counselor helped me to realize it and gave me assignments and had be follow up on those assignments to figure myself out. I had to ask myself a lot of questions. Why do I want to spend more time watching videos online than actually work? Why do I have a hard time opening up my code editor? Why do I not get enough done during my w…

This exactly describes me. I need to get professional help!

On the other hand, I live in a country with high unemployment rate, people barely have enough to get by day to day. A friend complained to me recently that he did not get paid for 2 months (he works in the public health sector). Compared to him, I’m living a dream. But I feel misserable.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#56

Post by frfl »

Insanity wrote: post #36
frfl wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a problem you face regularly? Write code to solve it, there's probably a market for the solution.

When you start thinking of bringing something to market, it already adds stress to the 'just coding' part to me. When I write something for fun I don't want to have to think about making it usable for other people and everything that comes with that

It comes down to whether this thing you're making for fun is profit or for pleasure (of course it can be both in some cases for some people, see last paragraph).

If you have a day job and need an escape, then don't bother with making it robust, polished and feature complete - just have fun doing it regardless of what the world may think of it, only thing that matters is what you think and what you get out of it.

If you don't have a day job and your next project is going to be your source of income, then I think my original statement applies.

What many do is turn the fun side project into a day job by focusing all their attention on it once they see potential in it and then start polishing, making it robust and feature complete.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#57

Post by imhoguy »

newhotelowner wrote: post #30

I quit my FE engineering job and bought a hotel. I don't think I can go back to what I used to do. I still love writing code. Now I just build stuff for myself.

Ah that should be some alternative trend for Show HN - showing some tech to IRL transformation success stories!

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#58

Post by eb0la »

mooreds wrote: post #46
dabockster wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point about seeking professional help is super underrated. Just in the past few months, I would have entered a similar thread on HN to see the OP being brigaded by posts telling him/her to always be coding and to just chug along. This kind of talk completely ignores other issues that may be present and can cause even further damage.

If I were to enter a complicated transaction without consulting a lawyer (raising funding for example) people would say I was crazy. Yet somehow we think we should be able to work out personal issues (burnout, marriage issues, depression, etc) by ourselves. It's bizarre. If you can afford help, get it. If you can't, often you can get a discount (sliding scale) or work something out.

It is not bizzare: we are used to do stuff other people cannot think to do...

... Like if it was a superpower.

Superheroes doesn't need advice. At least in the comics I read as a kid.

So this superhero syndrome, hurts more than having no superpower at all.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#59

Post by aphextron »

Learn a whole new paradigm of programming. For me, starting out as a CRUD web app developer, getting into game development was a huge eye opener. It blew my mind to realize that programming isn't all about object hierarchies and application structure. It can be fun and expressive. There is no single right way to do things, and there is always something new to learn.

It's so important to remember that "programming" is a skill roughly equivalent to "writing". It's not one specific "thing", but a generalized tool for solving problems in life. There are styles and domains of programming that would feel like almost a completely different occupation from each other.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#60

Post by SE4L »

To me, burnout is a symptom of always feeling hopelessly behind. My identity as an employee was always in knowing what was going on, where trends headed, new projects, side work, etc. I now have 3 kids and just navigating the whole parent scene takes up the time I would have spent keeping up. It makes me feel like, if I sit down and watch a TV show it was time wasted so I feel guilty about it. That has really had a negative impact on my own enjoyment in programming.
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