Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?

Congratulations! Discovering the giant treadmill is a huge achievement.

Now You should accept the facts, step out from it, relax and fall in love with something still unknown and unexplored, and doing it just for fun. Or just fro lulz in a newspeak. ^_^

Today Open source is just another name of business. The next evolutionary step toward literally nothing. So, accept it and relax and try to find something that you could love.

I'm, for example, going trough MIT and Berkeley online courses after 15 years of being UNIX sysadmin and system engineer, without any ambitions to shake the world, just fro lulz.

btw, your question itself contains a big bold cue - just fins a new love. ^_^

You may also try to search in a realms outside CS, but I wouldn't advice you to do so. After so many years spent, it is better to stay in the field.

>the constant mental treadmill that comes with working in most IT department

I think: >my honeymoon with computers and IT seems to be over

should read: >my honeymoon with IT seems to be over

Be careful not to confound a distaste with IT with a distaste for computing in general. Thinking about negatives in a global terms rather than a specific terms is one the key depressive thought patterns.

Thinking about a negative as a global\general state is highly destructive: I did bad on this test, because I suck at studying\am dumb. The end result is learned helplessness.

Thinking about a negative as a specific event allows you to view problems as solvable: I did bad on this test, but it was because I didn't study or prepare enough in this specific incident. The end result is positive, you will study more in the future.

From your post it is clear you are getting stuck in the former thought pattern, I wish you the best of luck getting out of it.

I am around your age and have had similar feelings lately.

I had a Tomy Tutor, and IBM XT, a PS/2 Model 50,a 486DX-33, and others. I started on BBSs in 7th grade.

I've always felt, the majority of those that make it big, get out of the game. We've seen some come back (Paypal mafia), but I feel the majority of the talent exits the industry.

With each cycle of this, we are left with a different group, which I think explains the "chrome" you mentioned.

We saw the dot-com bubble firsthand, and maybe we want to be part of that again? Of course, it was never really sustainable, but the optimism and salaries of the 1990s were nothing to scoff at.

Now, to see again, approx. 15 years later, the same 640x480 screens we grew up with, in cellphones, so we can watch movies while we drive or walk down the street.

We were optimistic about the year 2000 since birth, and looking back, some promised devices are beginning to emerge, like multi-touch input devices and sleek tablets.

The majority of the innovation and technology we evolved with, is now used to license consumers digital goods.

The internet and computers are mainstream now and it is mostly about money. Some BBS operators did it for the money, but the majority did it for the love.

When we were kids, we could stay up until the wee hours of the morning exploring with our PCs, while our parents took care of us. Now we must pay our own bills, and developing software as a job can do this, but when you get home, you don't want to work more.

Some coders I've worked with have a true obsessive compulsion for writing code. They write code from when they wake up to when they go to sleep. Others need to take breaks.

As many others have mentioned, take a break (if you can afford it). Otherwise, you may have to take a lower-paying job in a different industry and trim some expenses, but the mental health aspect could be worth it.

IMHO, the most amazing advancement to come out of any of this is... http://www.khanacademy.org/

Maybe get involved with Khan? That is the one site on the internet that gives me hope this technology can and will be used for progress.

Thank you for posting this. Lot's of valuable insight from everybody.

NO CARRIER

The hard part here, of course, is coming up with something else to do. While basically sound advise, after years of a wakeup-work-eat-bed cycle while worrying about the negative content of the bank account, thinking around a corner is hard, let alone thinking outside the box. But I'll try not to force the issue and see what comes up.

Wow, that sounds amazing. How on earth do you get started with something like that?