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Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

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Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#71
post #57

> Part of me is tired of spending so much of my life in front of a computer. Sports/activities are great. I don't know how old you are, or if you have kids or not, but if you have little responsibility, I would pick an activity and then move somewhere that the activity is easily accessible. If it's surfing, then move to somewhere and live on the beach. If it's skiing/snowboarding, live on a mountain during the season…

It's quite likely that moving may not be necessary, in fact.

For what I understand, burnout happens a lot to people who are/were really passionate about their job or at least some part of it. Their passion became their job, and at some point they run out of meaning or satisfaction arising from it.

At this point, as you say, sports and hobbies help, but it's a bit hard, because the temptation is to get hobbies related, say, to coding or computing; or other intellectual hobbies that may be difficult when you come home tired at the end of the day.

Hikes, surfing, skiing, are very nice options, but so could be, say, playing soccer with friends once a week, building model trains, learning to paint, trying a new sport, going to the cinema more often, getting into baking, and many other things.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#72

When it comes to burnout, the general advice I received is take minimum 1 year off work. I left my job a few months ago as the burnout got so bad I wasn’t able to conjure up the motivation to tackle the simplest of tasks. First couple months I didn’t feel any better and I was getting worried. But I’m _just_ starting to feel better now. I’m finding myself more positive and less stressed. So what am I doing? I’m living…

Yeah I'm sure everyone can be unemployed for a year straight and live out of their car. That sounds completely reasonable and not absolutely, in any way, privileged or insane.

What's the problem if it's "privileged"? and it's not that insane. Lots of people take one year sabbatical, including students. In my country (France), it's even negotiable with your employer (it's a right if you worked in the company for more than 3 years I believe).

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#73
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would drop everything and focus on longevity/medical research if you are not someone who is already trained at this field, it's inefficient to start on your own. You'd be giving up your expertise and productivity in tech, in return for mediocre output in the research. Much better option is to keep working in tech, earn as much money as is feasible, and then funnel the excess funds into companies that _do_ longeti…

> Much better option is to keep working in tech, earn as much money as is feasible, and then funnel the excess funds into companies that _do_ longetivity research. THat's a good idea. But I think an even better strategy would be to start a cryptocurrency hedge fund and later start an associated exchange. This will allow us to maximize the amount of money we earn, so we can have the greatest impact on companies that d…

But you have to spend all the money on research before the SEC sends you to jail, right?

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#75
Lower your expenses. Move cheaper. Be more basic Say you can live on 40% of your current salary. Join a startup or smaller company for a smaller salary. Perhaps you can even work 3 days a week? Spend the other 2 in passion projects.

I recently started to make mods for various Unity games. It is a lot of fun, I do it in my pace and the way I want it.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#77
I’d agree with you that a sabbatical would be ideal. However, I’d say it’d be interesting if you make it a somewhat “active” sabbatical.

In your place, I’d read, exercise, or just dig deeper into something I’m interested in.

Personally, whenever I feel I’m close to burning out, I realize it’s not because of how much I work, but because of thinking I have no purpose. Choosing my own path gives me purpose, and that’s very helpful.

Maybe that’ll give you some food for thought. Hope it helps.

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