Start pushing forward yourself. You've spent 30 years consuming the knowledge of others, now it's time to start giving back. Identify the real source of your disillusionment and dedicate yourself to fixing it.
Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
61–70 of 121 posts
Re: Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
#62There are several big things you didn't mention, AI and neural networks, for example. You could also try robotics and engineering stuff (watching how a piece of silicon and metal becomes alive is priceless).
AI (neural networks/fuzzy logic/genetic algorithms) were actually part of my focus at university, and something I felt pretty exited about back then. That never went anywhere afterwards though. The realities in the job market here are pretty much anti-innovation for the most part ("We can't do that - we'd be one of the first companies in germany to work with XXX" is something I've heard pretty much verbatim more than once).
Maybe I should read up on my differential equations and give Kohonens "Self-Organizing Maps" another whirl, just for kicks.
Re: Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
#63I actually probably have nearly the same history as you. Graduated about the same time as you. Been fascinated with computing as long as you. And just about as fed up with the current state of things as you. I think the difference between us is I've got some notoriety so I'm looking to at least try to tear down the current situation before I get out of here. I figure might as well give it a shot, and if it doesn't wo…
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.
I would start by being less pessimistic about your own experience. What are you good at? What problems are you paid to solve today? How could you solve them better?
Re: Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
#64Make something people want. I'm being presumptive but your post talks only about technology as if you care more about it than just means to an end.
You're probably mostly correct with that assumption. For me the exploration of new concepts was the driving force and the main endorphine trigger. Actually applying what was learned was more of an afterthought.
It's probably no coincidence that I studied theoretical CS and minored in math :)
Re: Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
#65Thought about breaking things instead of making things? The security industry is an interesting place to be at the moment.. researchers continue to push the envelope and come up with new ways to abuse / bypass 'the system' and - if you dive deep enough, some significant technical and meatspace challenges to deal with. Privacy, or lack of, is increasingly an issue with various specific challenges to be addressed. Consulting adds a twist too; I definitely get a kick out of helping people / organizations realize what process & technology vulnerabilities they have and determining the best way to address them.
And I find that snowboarding, mountain biking, hiking, and running help avoid feelings of drudgery.. do you have hobbies that get you away from a computer screen for a chunk of time every day?
Re: Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
#66I think the "loop" is indeed moving on. The last real mini-revolution this side of the line probably were torrents. The whole social web is just wrong. It's centralized. It's not the web - it is a corruption of it. It is like the great minds who could design truly de-centralized, robust, reliable and truly social structures have all just vanished. There are so many difficult and important problems around but no one w…
I have to disagree with you to an extent about the state of the net today. I look at it as something like a movie studio. You're getting upset at all the big blockbuster stuff. The things that have little to no plot but yet rake in billions of dollars. What you don't get is that it allows studios to invest in things that have more risk, because it has potential to sell and there's a market for it.
The same could be applied to the net and to software tech. I mean, look at ycombinator and all their startups. Things like Facebook, Twitter,etc; their popularity is only natural because we all can't design a website. They give the average joe the tools that they need and they go crazy with it. The more money they make, the better, because it gives the little guys the chance to make something better. Maybe not revolutionary, but some original idea that solves a problem and gains revenue from it. And who knows, maybe out of all of that something revolutionary will come out of it. But it's hardly winding down as you say.
Re: Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
#67I've been doing this for 30 years and I'm more jazzed than ever. Wanna know the biggest difference between you and me? I'm pulled. You're pushed. Let me explain... I love building stuff. Nothing gives me a bigger rush than getting something working the first time (well almost nothing). But I couldn't care less about the technology. If an abacus, two tin cans on a string, or some BASIC code on a Kaypro II did the job,…
The main motivator and source of satisfaction for software developers is the human aspect, not the technology itself. Is your product making a difference in someone's life? Who are your customers? The difference between these two approaches explains why college grad developers go into finance thinking they'll work on 'neat' problems and a few years later hate they jobs because at the end, their contribution to society is simply a number that indicates profit and not a single person's life has been significantly affected. In the end, we all just want to be appreciated. Like edw519 pointed out, go solve people's problems. Everything else will fall into place.
Re: Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
#68There are several big things you didn't mention, AI and neural networks, for example. You could also try robotics and engineering stuff (watching how a piece of silicon and metal becomes alive is priceless).
This is good advice, the problem is that you are suffering burn out. !0 years sounds about right. You need to get back to your roots and one way I recommend to do it, is to get into embedded. It gets you back into a small reward loop where little things net positive feedback. The other thing that I recommend to people is get closer to a research discipline. If you are really that burnt out, try applying your trade to…
Strangely enough, if I had the money, I'd probably go back to university and study one of the splinter-subjects genetics must have exploded into during the past 15 years. I've kicked myself over the past years repeatedly for not staying in university and getting some research job there. Maybe I can have a look into the DIY aspect of biotech, that someone already mentioned.
Re: Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
#69"I've recently had the possibility to escape the constant mental treadmill that comes with working in most IT departments"
You wrote some pretty prose but you did not really tell us what you know or what you have been really doing with your life for the last ten years.
When someone says "IT Department" I think large (or small) corporation supporting a group of people who actually bring in the money. The key reason these places are so soul crushing is that many times management does not know how to use them effectively to help the bottom line by making smart technology choices. You are just a cost center.
The other reason they are soul crushing is that 2/3rd's of your colleagues are probably all kinds of incompetent and should have been fired or never hired in the first place.
In any case the trick is to get out of there as quickly as possible. (It took me 10 years too and I'm still not recovered career wise or personally) Get yourself employed by a technology company working on their core products. All the sudden you are not supporting anyone (except maybe your customers.) and you may find it a much more pleasant experience.
I would also suggest making friends with some people more successful than yourself and really try and learn from them how to manage you finances correctly. It's something that many families just don't teach.
Finally I'd recommend reading "The wealthy Barber"[1] to get an idea of what a healthy financial situation and practices might look like.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Wealthy-Barber-Updated-3rd-Commonsense
Re: Ask HN: After almost 30 years the romance is over - What now?
#70Teach?
Already did that. First teaching evening courses at community colleges while at university, then doing freelance jobs for a well-known IT teaching center during the episode that nearly broke my financial neck.
However when I did this I was (obviously) in a different mindset, so the experience would be different this time around. I'll have a look into revisiting this aspect.