Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: When should you quit?

news.ycombinator.com

41–48 of 48 posts

Re: Ask HN: When should you quit?

#41
I'm considerably older than you (47, still a software developer because I like it) and I think you're being too harsh on yourself. You also need do do something about that burn out - that's a different point

Let's look at the "too harsh on yourself" part. So you're not the founder of a Unicorn startup that you started in your dorm room at an ivy league college. You know what that makes you? It makes you a perfectly normal person who has decided to follow your entrepreneurial instincts instead of getting the development version of a McJob. That's highly commendable.

It also may have not worked out in the way you wanted it to work out because you're not filthy rich and cruising around on a Megayacht (or whatever else your dream is). That is the case for most entrepreneurs - my first endeavour bombed so badly I ended up paying for it until about six years ago (ie, for over 10 years) after the lawsuits and and the other not fun stuff. But I also gained something extremely valuable called experience. I've since had a couple of other companies that made money, and it actually made me more valuable as an employee because I learned entrepreneurial skills that I wouldn't have otherwise.

Not being an overnight success is actually an advantage in my book - the lessons you learned are important and will massively increase your chances to succeed in the future.

One thing I've learned over time is that you need balance in your life, and you can only achieve that if you do more than one thing. To me it sounds like you've poured everything you have into a single vessel (work) and now that work didn't provide the results you expected, you're staring at emptiness because there isn't anything else.

So, first advice is to find something else you're interested in and give it some time in your life. Don't try to make it another business, but something you expressly do to counter your 100% concentration on building software. That'll help you with the burnout for the simple reason that it allows you to switch of the "tech" part of your brain.

In my case, I work on cars, I build track cars for myself and I do use them as intended. I'll never make a decent race car driver but that's not the point - it helps me balance my life, and it scratches the itch of creation and gets me away from computers. Same goes for the other things I do away from development like gardening and reading non-computing books.

BTW, you're not too old. Nobody ever is.

That said, I am toying with the idea of doing something non-software for the next 20 years or so simply because it's getting to the point for me where very few companies are willing to pay for the sort of experience and craftsmanship I can bring to the table. So I'm developing some other interests that may or may not turn into a second and third career.

Re: Ask HN: When should you quit?

#42
Don't quit yet, because your judgment is clouded. You sure to regret quitting based on emotion.

  Here is what helping me:
1. Take a break off in the different country. At least for 1 month. I recommend backpacking.

Why?

Everyday task will shock your brain out. Making it hard to think negative thoughts.

And never underappreciate the power of like minded people. They are escaping cubicle nation, too.

2. Try new things, extreme things while you are on holiday.

Why?

You are still shooting for shocking your brain. That's will help.

And here is the other takeaway: your burnout based on missing out on things. Do it now, everything that your old self wanted to try out.

3. Go back to work with different condition in mind.

But, this the big BUT. Write down when you will be quitting before starting again. Think SMART goals here. And I emphasize on writing it down. Clue: Seth Godin: The Dip

4. Are you still in bad mood?

The primary culprit will be one of the following:

- Flexible schedule

- sleep

- your own imagination

- diet

- exercise.

Work to achieve the missing one(s). At this point the diet, exercise and sleep is good because you have been on a holiday. So you might need flexible schedule for the last part.

5. Tweak this. Read books. Meet people, listen to them. Have notes.

6. Repeat.

Your own imagination will take care of itself in no time. Try not to think and go on holiday.

Also, one year from now I would like to read your takeaway, here on HN.

Take care.

Re: Ask HN: When should you quit?

#43

I worked too hard on developing software and got stressed out and developed a mental illness and became disabled. I went back to college to take a business management degree and earned one. Thinking that I might do better as a manager. But since I have no experience as a manager, no luck in getting a job. It is very hard to work on your own, and earn money. You need a team of people, you need investors, you need soci…

Being 47 (I'm older!) gives you a perspective that younger folks simply don't have. How many SV startups are targeting people a few decades beyond their teens?

I do have a perspective on how things work better. How to better debug programs. How to make ADO recordsets work faster. How to make Crystal Reports generate reports faster. How to cache an ASP website using a text file and using the system time to update it every day at midnight to update the data and load the HTML from a text file.

I'm sure these things can work in modern languages as well in theory. I might be able to mentor other programmers as well and manage them.

Re: Ask HN: When should you quit?

#44
post #14

I worked too hard on developing software and got stressed out and developed a mental illness and became disabled. I went back to college to take a business management degree and earned one. Thinking that I might do better as a manager. But since I have no experience as a manager, no luck in getting a job. It is very hard to work on your own, and earn money. You need a team of people, you need investors, you need soci…

Why not get a normal 9-5 job?

I tried and could not find any and ended up on disability as a result of my mental illness.

I went back to college to study business management to get a job with any business and combine it with my computer skills. I could do Excel or MS-Access work and VBA programming if I had to, but no company wants to hire me for a 9 to 5 job because I am mentally ill.

Re: Ask HN: When should you quit?

#45
post #31

My husband had the same problem when I met him. He was 27 and just decided to never ever make a living from programming again because he felt sick of it. So, he decided he would organize bicycle rides in Transylvania. And he looked really cool doing that so I fell in love with him, but he wasn't making any money while working his ass off. I didn't care ( -I had a job), but after a while, he did. I'm used to not affor…

Do you still organize bike rides?

Re: Ask HN: When should you quit?

#46
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not get a normal 9-5 job?

I tried and could not find any and ended up on disability as a result of my mental illness. I went back to college to study business management to get a job with any business and combine it with my computer skills. I could do Excel or MS-Access work and VBA programming if I had to, but no company wants to hire me for a 9 to 5 job because I am mentally ill.

I was diagnosed with a serious mental illness 6 years ago, but I have no problem finding jobs. I just never tell anyone that I have it. I was diagnosed with bipolar 1, was in a psychiatric hospital for 2 weeks, and on short term disability for about 2 months.

It's possible it was a misdiagnosis though. I think a lot of it was from anxiety and stress. I stopped taking medication in 2011 (against the advice of my doctor).

Re: Ask HN: When should you quit?

#47
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried and could not find any and ended up on disability as a result of my mental illness. I went back to college to study business management to get a job with any business and combine it with my computer skills. I could do Excel or MS-Access work and VBA programming if I had to, but no company wants to hire me for a 9 to 5 job because I am mentally ill.

I was diagnosed with a serious mental illness 6 years ago, but I have no problem finding jobs. I just never tell anyone that I have it. I was diagnosed with bipolar 1, was in a psychiatric hospital for 2 weeks, and on short term disability for about 2 months. It's possible it was a misdiagnosis though. I think a lot of it was from anxiety and stress. I stopped taking medication in 2011 (against the advice of my docto…

You might have had a temporary mental illness. Mine is so severe that it stops me from working. Just getting up in the morning is hard, and I can't even drive a car anymore.

Stuff that used to be easy for me, got very hard to do. Everything changed when I became so mentally ill that I was disabled. Hard to understand.

Post reply on HN