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Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

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Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#21

Post by poulsbohemian »

some_account wrote: post #17
poulsbohemian wrote: post #6

Identify _why_ you have lost passion for developing software. I can think of dozens of reasons _why_ you could reach this point, but the answer will direct you toward the next destination.

I'm not burned out but my reason for moving away from coding is simple. It's not fun in a open office environment with "agile" way of working. I got tired of feeling like a factory worker.

FWIW: there are some great consulting gigs out there in the world for someone with a technical background. You might find you have greater latitude and respect for your skills in that kind of capacity. Some involve a lot of travel though and as a parent I understand that dilemma.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#23

Post by onion2k »

When I felt the same way I actually went the opposite way and started to write code every day - the code I want to write. I got back the passion and enjoyment I had from writing code. Even if it's just a line in a readme, I do something every day. I'm a lot happier now because of it, I've learnt a lot, and I'm a better developer all round.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#24

Post by DoreenMichele »

onion2k wrote: post #23

When I felt the same way I actually went the opposite way and started to write code every day - the code I want to write . I got back the passion and enjoyment I had from writing code. Even if it's just a line in a readme, I do something every day. I'm a lot happier now because of it, I've learnt a lot, and I'm a better developer all round.

This is a great idea.

How do you find code you want to write?

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#25

Post by Rjevski »

trcollinson wrote: post #5

I have been coding since the 90s. This year I finally felt really burnt out. It got so bad I was upset, miserable, and lost all passion for working. I have 6 kids and a wife with a chronic untreatable disorder so I couldn’t just quit. And I’m glad I didn’t, it turns out that wouldn’t have helped. Here’s what I did and what I would suggest: 1) after talking to my wife and my doctor I got a counselor. Well really a tea…

> through therapy I realized that I didn’t have an identity outside of being a software developer. That’s what was burning me out. I wasn’t Tim the person who has a family and interests and develops software. I was Tim: software developer. The end. This turns out to be really bad. I had to remember who I am other than software developer. All I ever did was work or think about work or work on other things that were just like work.

I feel like this is exactly my problem at the moment - how did you solve it?

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#26

Post by juliend2 »

Boulth wrote: post #12
DoreenMichele wrote: post #10

my first child was born last year, and although its been hard its also really awesome. Most new parents seem to be perpetually short of sleep and exhausted for the first two years. Being exhausted can make intellectually challenging things just too hard to cope with. I will suggest that it is possible you are just tired and should consider finding employment that is less mentally taxing for now. Consider the possibil…

This is definitely it. I've got kids and I was also unprepared for the amount of time that they will take. Usually as a developer one has a lot of time to explore wider area of topics (playful exploration). That keeps the mind energized. So: get plenty of sleep (a golden rule is when the child sleeps the parent should also sleep), then invest in some topic that's not in your comfort zone (e.g. working on CRUDs? Learn…

> Learn embedded programming

Yes, this.

I'm currently learning electronics, with the Arduino environment, and I think I never had so much fun with programming since the days I learned to do some ActionScript 2.0 with Flash MX, back in the days. Not a very glamorous example, but I genuinely enjoyed the simple fact of programmatically moving stuff on the screen. Now, with Arduino, I get to programmatically move things in the physical world.

Pure fun.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#27

Post by paulgrimes1 »

What about moving into a field within the meta of what you used to do?

Organisations of differing sizes benefit in a huge way (and pay for the privilege) to hear stories, “war” or not, relating to their current problem set, and the various ways those problems can be solved, from an experiential aspect. Just to hear the various woes you faced and how you tackled them, is valuable to upstarts in the field.

Aside from being cathartic to anonymise and relay your experience, you could possibly help an organisation focus or see what they’re doing right, or wrong, in their current initiative.

Your 15 years of stories are something new companies almost _need_ to hear.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#28

Post by frfl »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #24
onion2k wrote: post #23

When I felt the same way I actually went the opposite way and started to write code every day - the code I want to write . I got back the passion and enjoyment I had from writing code. Even if it's just a line in a readme, I do something every day. I'm a lot happier now because of it, I've learnt a lot, and I'm a better developer all round.

This is a great idea. How do you find code you want to write?

What is a problem you face regularly? Write code to solve it, there's probably a market for the solution.

Re: Ask HN: Developer burnout – how to rediscover the passion, or new career?

#29

Post by bb88 »

Rjevski wrote: post #25
trcollinson wrote: post #5

I have been coding since the 90s. This year I finally felt really burnt out. It got so bad I was upset, miserable, and lost all passion for working. I have 6 kids and a wife with a chronic untreatable disorder so I couldn’t just quit. And I’m glad I didn’t, it turns out that wouldn’t have helped. Here’s what I did and what I would suggest: 1) after talking to my wife and my doctor I got a counselor. Well really a tea…

> through therapy I realized that I didn’t have an identity outside of being a software developer. That’s what was burning me out. I wasn’t Tim the person who has a family and interests and develops software. I was Tim: software developer. The end. This turns out to be really bad. I had to remember who I am other than software developer. All I ever did was work or think about work or work on other things that were ju…

So a good friend of mine who is a psychologist told me that:

1) You find your job fulfilling, inspirational unto itself, or...

2) Your job enables you to enjoy other things.

Ideally you want friends and a hobby (and ideally friends who share the same hobby) -- a hobby that happens to not be primarily software.

If you don't know where to start, maybe look for a list of active meetups in the area.

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