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Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

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Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#51

Post by fivedogit »

I think you should sidestep into a related but more appropriate job.

Above all else, engineers should be obsessed with the proper functioning of a system, throughout all aspects - speed, security, robustness, etc. What tools are chosen are chosen only for the purposes of enhancing those goals. An true engineer senses these needs and works towards them uncompromisingly. To choose otherwise - for any reason - is to be a bad engineer, which it sounds like you are (sorry! Just being honest!)

The good news is that having an insatiable appetite for novelty has its place in this world. Could you work as an angel scout? Or a tech crunch (-style) writer?

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#52

Post by meowface »

kevinr wrote: post #33

Have you considered a career in information/computer security? I have some of the same tendencies, and infosec has given me all the entertainment I can handle and then some. (There are other fields adjacent to software engineering which you might prefer as well---consulting, operations.)

I have a career in infosec, and unfortunately I'm suffering the exact same problems as OP.

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#53

Post by illumen »

Craftsmanship. Quality.

There's always a new technique to master which can be brought upon in your work.

It is novel once you get there, but may take a while.

Quality construction, impeccable tailoring, expert craftsmanship – these are the marks of quality.

There's novelty in the next feature around the corner, but there is beauty in something crafted.

Ecstatic pleasure can be obtained from crafting. Perhaps give it a go.

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#54

Post by y0y »

Do you often show up to work late? Are you seen as generally unreliable? (Be honest with yourself.)

Do you procrastinate a lot?

Do you have a hard time transitioning? Are you late for things because you a) can't accurately estimate time and b) can't pull yourself away from the thing you're doing at that moment even though you know you're going to be late if you don't?

Do you have a very unstructured sleep schedule?

Do you have high impulsivity? Spending (sounds like it)? Speeding? Substance abuse - including alcohol?

Did you breeze through HS with decent grades without trying but then suddenly find college and its unstructured environment and lack of supervision much harder and hard for you to succeed in?

If you answer yes to many of those questions, then you may want to talk to a psychiatrist about the potential for you being ADHD.

I was very much the same way and was diagnosed at age 29. Best thing to happen to me. I've managed to turn my career and my personal life around.

Everything you describe sounds like the impulsive behavior of ADHD to me, but I am not a medical professional and I am not trying to diagnose you. You just sound an awful lot like I once did.

Best of luck..

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#55

Post by dathrowaway »

That is a lot of debt. I was once in debt like that and I eventually found Debtors Anonymous to be very, very helpful. I ended up deciding my debating behavior was causing a lot of the other problems in my life and dealing with that really gave me the space to figure out my other problems.

DA website: http://www.debtorsanonymous.org/help/questions.htm There is a meeting every day somewhere in the bay area. If you come to the friday night Laurel Height meeting you'll see me: http://www.ncdaweb.org/SF.html

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#56

Post by peterkelly »

Here's how to turn your "problem" into an advantage:

Write.

You love learning new stuff, but get bored quickly. Seize the enthusiasm you have for a new technology while you've got it, and make the most of it. Create books, online courses (e.g. Udemy), and blog about what you're learning. Build up experience and a reputation as someone who can turn lots of new and confusing technologies into stuff that helps other people learn.

If you already have, or can develop, the skills necessary to write and present well, after 2-3 years you could have a pretty impressive portfolio of material. If you can successfully monetise that, you've got yourself a career that fits your working style.

I recommend checking out the book "Authority" by Nathan Barry: http://nathanbarry.com/authority/

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#57

Post by fein »

pbreit wrote: post #47

I know I'm a monster but my answer would be something along the lines of "suck it up". We're on this planet for 80 years or so. There's going to be some repetition. Not everything is going to be "novel". Best to train yourself to lose this odd hang up.

Kind of bugs me that is going to be so far down the page :(

You're such a monster for invoking the Occam's Razor of solutions. /s

I like building novelty stuff too, but I've found that stability and security in life is far more fun.

I sucked it up and busted my ass for what I have now, and life is fucking great! Sure there may have been some missed opportunities, but I look at what I have now and regret nothing.

Some weeks suck, some other weeks I get this niggling and build some crazy projects in my free time. It all ebbs and flows.

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#58

Post by LargeCompanies »

I am much like you, yet am older and I too havent been able to hold a dev job for longer then a year. My addiction is the high obtained from starting up and the opportunities that always seem to knock and i pursue, yet never work out.

I recently had an awesome remote front end gig, yet this crazy outlandish opportunity knocked and I tried to ignore it, but they kept knocking (reality TV show for startups), so I gave up my job for it. I didnt make it that far in the competition, so now I am jobless .. late 30s .. similar debt .. dont own my own home .... no family and g/f is tired of my lifestyle/gave up on me.

Overall you are not alone .. this stuff for those who struggle with business guys/girls (im an inventor), don't have rich relatives or friends (investors to help you have a long runway to figure your road to success) isn't easy. Yet, we continue to do it ... it is an addiction, yet again Im too old now to drop everything(as I just did).

Also, there are so many of us in the industry who jump from one dev job to another for various reasons. Again, you are not alone ... we all have the desire to leave our mark on this earth and or just do what we love to do.. create awesome stuff on the web! Ironically my stuff helps me get jobs and then as you can see above distracts me from keeping many great steady jobs(but I AM DONE unless those who knock offer me loads of money & or a solid job doing what I love to do; invent).

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#59

Post by tylercubell »

You ought to consider a career change. If what you've been doing for the past 12 years hasn't worked out, it's time to reflect and make some hard decisions. "If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail." The problem with the replies in this thread is most folks are from a tech background and are suggesting you double down on the software development path because that's all they know. From what you said about your job history and debt situation, this isn't working out so well for you. Why not pick up a skilled trade like plumbing, electrical, or HVAC? They all pay reasonably well, there's always something new to learn, and you're always going to new places and working on new jobs. And you'd be surprised how successful people with 'dirty jobs' are. [1]

[1] http://www.npr.org/2013/11/01/240780579/are-people-with-dirt...

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#60

Post by rathereasy »

There's nothing wrong with you. Your passion for novelty and learning can be a huge asset in the right environment. There are companies who hire software engineers to quickly build proof of concept prototypes to then throw the prototypes away. You might be a good fit for that. I know Nuance in Montreal has teams that do it.

Also, you might want to consider switching to front end software development if you haven't already. There's always a new framework or library to learn in front end development and the development cycles are shorter.

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