The Reality of Developer Burnout • Hacker News Board

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#61

Post by danso » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:42 PM UTC

rdavl wrote: post #45

dwaltrip wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are calling bullshit based some vague feelings of "job difficulty"? Do you have a robust mental model of the day to day experiences of these people who you are calling bullshit on? If not, I would be careful with your words. It can come off as fairly snide, ignorant, and callous.

I am saying depression is caused by large variety of factors and not just coding, if you have personal problems you will burnt out cos of them, and that will affect your coding, you can't blame software development for that. Also unless you are doing really stressful work what is it that makes you burn out? Maybe you have other interests? Not wanting to code all day every day does not mean you have burnt out. Also th…

> Also the words "burnt out" sounds like one those buzz words people come up to feel like more special snow flakes...

I dunno, based on his accomplishments and how much I rely on his work on a daily basis, I consider the OP to be a special snowflake if snowflakes exist.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#62

Post by foota » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:42 PM UTC

Last spring we had a few developers leave from my student development team at my university and I had to do 30 hour weeks on top of school in order to finish our projects.

My summer internship was a much needed break but even now it's hard to go back to work.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#63

Post by WalterSear » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:45 PM UTC

bioapparatus wrote: post #22

Humdeee wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

General aviation I imagine.

Makes a lot more sense to read it that way. Auto-pilot (...I guess I just did that) caused me to read it as Google Analytics.

That's expensive, but it's also pretty dangerous :)

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#64

Post by derefr » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:46 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #36

zzzcpan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You can whip a tired ditch-digger until they dig more.

You can't whip a tired programmer until they write working code. You'll only get broken code.

A good analogy might be to the division between rank-and-file soldiers in the military, and military officers. You don't need to think to shoot a gun. You do need to think to decide where to send people to shoot their guns.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#65

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:47 PM UTC

Humdeee wrote: post #16

dexwiz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is GA?

General aviation I imagine.

[deleted]

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#66

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:49 PM UTC

user837387 wrote: post #55

wmccullough wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

HN is full of contrarians. Say anything blunt, not rude but blunt, and you will get down-voted to oblivion. And not even that, say something in a polite way that people cannot discredit but still not like and you will get down-voted. I feel like you have to mold yourself to the hive mind if you want your stuff to be up-voted. Not sure if this is really how it is or if it is just me. On the other hand, a lot of times…

[deleted]

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#67

Post by lobotryas » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:53 PM UTC

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…

This is one of the reasons I will never get a personal Twitter unless it was for a project or other business. I've read too many times of a person harassed and suffered real-life consequences for a fairly innocuous comment.

The rest of the posted article is excellent. Going to re-read it from time to time to see if I'm falling into the ruts described there.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#68

Post by myblake » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:58 PM UTC

kovek wrote: post #40

rubicon33 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm pretty sure there's research to back this up.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#69

Post by tybit » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:58 PM UTC

klausa wrote: post #24

pc86 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best thing I ever did for my professional life was acquiring new interests that had nothing to do with software but were still intellectually and/or physically stimulating. Weightlifting is cheap, has proven physical and psychological benefits, and is eventually fun (sucks for the first few weeks/months though). I just recently starting taking lessons to get a private pilot's license. GA is expensive (relatively…

Not everyone on HN earns SV money. Best of luck in becoming a pilot!

And not every hobby is as expensive as training to be a pilot.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#70

Post by lobotryas » Thu, Jan 05, 2017, 9:58 PM UTC

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."

Unless work is the difference between home and homelessness. I've been close to burnout (read:complete and total apathy at work) a few times before I wizened up, but I kept skating to a minimum because I needed the money.