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The Reality of Developer Burnout

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Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#31

Post by twothamendment »

walrus1066 wrote: post #19

I think the key is to not put pressure on yourself, and don't allow other people to do so. One person can only do so much, you can't make a baby in 5 months. Work a stable amount each day, on tasks in descending order of priority. I never work past 6 pm, and never work on weekends. If a deadline isn't met, it's the fault of the people that set the deadline.

You are right on. I learned a long time ago there is always more work and it always needs to be done last week. I work hard, but there is only so much a person can do. I'll put in extra time, but only when it really counts. Some deadlines were meant to be blown by and when you quit stressing yourself over things that are out of your control and focus on what you can do - life is better.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#32

Post by sotojuan »

zoeysaurusrex wrote: post #6

> Not only that, but I found myself censoring my own private thought processes, in the silent comfort of my own home, because of the public opinion of people I follow on Twitter. I deleted my Twitter account because of this. I realized it was an empty echo chamber of inaction. If anything you say can be interpreted in a way that the hivemind can destroy you over, they will do it, even with incomplete information and…

I've been much happier since quitting the Twitter/Medium bubble. I've limited my HN time as well.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#33

Post by treehau5 »

zoeysaurusrex wrote: post #6

> Not only that, but I found myself censoring my own private thought processes, in the silent comfort of my own home, because of the public opinion of people I follow on Twitter. I deleted my Twitter account because of this. I realized it was an empty echo chamber of inaction. If anything you say can be interpreted in a way that the hivemind can destroy you over, they will do it, even with incomplete information and…

It takes 10x the amount of energy to refute bs than to create it

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#34

Post by lukaszkups »

Animats wrote: post #11

This is not developer burnout. This is Twitter burnout. "So, I unfollowed everyone on Twitter" he writes, which apparently fixed his problem. That has nothing to do with development.

IMHO not exactly. I feel the same and decreased list of following people couple times. Couple days ago I've thought about switch to HackerNews & Publish only mode because I feel like everybody around has great life, skills, projects and work for awesome companies.

There's too many successful stories around that sometimes can cause depression more than stories about failures. It's a bit hard to explain properly in single HN comment. I'll try to blog about it during the weekend. If You're interested - follow me on twitter (@lukaszkups), cheers!

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#35

Post by wmccullough »

sotojuan wrote: post #32
zoeysaurusrex wrote: post #6

> Not only that, but I found myself censoring my own private thought processes, in the silent comfort of my own home, because of the public opinion of people I follow on Twitter. I deleted my Twitter account because of this. I realized it was an empty echo chamber of inaction. If anything you say can be interpreted in a way that the hivemind can destroy you over, they will do it, even with incomplete information and…

I've been much happier since quitting the Twitter/Medium bubble. I've limited my HN time as well.

I find myself doing the same thing with HN. Most of the time I love it, but it seems once in awhile the contrarians come out to play, and meaningful discussions drop to zero.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#36

Post by paulcole »

zzzcpan wrote: post #13
paulcole wrote: post #9

> It happens to everyone that writes code all day long More like "It happens to everyone." I know this is a developer-focused site, but this isn't a problem unique to people in software. An old joke, "Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar."

It's different in software, people can't do their jobs when this happens. Otherwise it shouldn't be called a burnout.

You can say this about any field. A ditch digger loses "intrinsic motivation" and chooses to not dig a ditch. The ditch digger can't do their job because of burnout.

But somehow it is different in software development?

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#37

Post by diegorbaquero »

alexmingoia wrote: post #20

I speculate that burnout is more psychological than physical. Ultimately, I think it stems from the shame arising out of the realization that giving 110% instead of 70% at your job accomplishes little but making things harder for yourself. A software engineer doesn't get more money giving 110%, and if they work to finish something quicker they're just rewarded with more work. Often engineers (being human) will want t…

It is starts psychologically, but psychological problems can then turn into physical illnesses. A burnout can be stressful and slowly consume you life away with stress and anxiety until you hit rock bottom.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#38

Post by alexmingoia »

paulddraper wrote: post #28
alexmingoia wrote: post #20

I speculate that burnout is more psychological than physical. Ultimately, I think it stems from the shame arising out of the realization that giving 110% instead of 70% at your job accomplishes little but making things harder for yourself. A software engineer doesn't get more money giving 110%, and if they work to finish something quicker they're just rewarded with more work. Often engineers (being human) will want t…

> I speculate that burnout is more psychological than physical Since programming is mental and not physical....yes?

No, I mean that burnout is not caused by physical things like lack of sleep, improper diet, lack of exercise, etc.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#39

Post by rdavl »

> Burnout is, unfortunately, a very real phenomena in software development

These people sound like they are bomb technicians not software developers...

> "I'd rather do anything else than this right now" — even though writing software is one of your favorite activities in the world.

So? Does this mean you have burnt out? How does this compare to jobs like algorithmic trading or mission critical software?

Burning out over stress of writing a web site? I call BS on all these burn out blog posts.

You have other problems in your life that make you depress, coding might be little part of it but I don't see what levels of stress can you be under while doing mostly non interesting jobs.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#40

Post by kovek »

rubicon33 wrote: post #27
gogopuppygogo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously you've never heard of Tim Harris. This guy inspires me to always find a way to love what I do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6He0FWoFj0 Wish everyone was as happy as Tim.

Aw man, that made my day, thanks for sharing it. I think we could all be a little happier, if we just tried. I'm not saying curing depression or burnout is as trivial as just trying to... But, you can certainly choose to be a notch happier than you are at this moment. Just one notch today, and try for another notch tomorrow. We can start by appreciating what we have.

I learned recently that if I list a few things I am grateful for, I will instantly feel happier. It seems like it works for others as well.
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