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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?

#71

Post by zapperdapper »

Viliam1234 wrote: post #16

3 months are not enough to revert the impact of 15 years. It's like having 3 hours of weekend, after 6 days and 21 hours of workweek -- you wouldn't feel refreshed either. If you can afford it, give it more time: a year or two. In the meanwhile, try other things. Do you have hobbies? If no, did you have any when you were a child? Or just experiment with new stuff. Or perhaps try finding a place where your computer sk…

Absolutely agree - 3 months is really the minimum for a career break. I was thinking a year off in this case might do the trick. There could be other issues at play here though of course...

Also agree with your advice to do other things. Simply walking for an hour in the fresh air is vastly underrated in these days of back-to-back ultra-marathons.

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

#72

Post by zapperdapper »

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.

I can't help but chuckle when I hear management banging on about "agile".

Here's their reality:

1. It's all top priority. 2. It all needs to be done yesterday.

:)

No wonder we get stressed!

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

#73

Post by zapperdapper »

SE4L wrote: post #60

To me, burnout is a symptom of always feeling hopelessly behind. My identity as an employee was always in knowing what was going on, where trends headed, new projects, side work, etc. I now have 3 kids and just navigating the whole parent scene takes up the time I would have spent keeping up. It makes me feel like, if I sit down and watch a TV show it was time wasted so I feel guilty about it. That has really had a n…

Yes, I do think "overwhelm" is a huge problem in the industry. I recently started a new job and not been there 3 months yet and it felt like been caught up in an avalanche.

GTD can help. I get a sense of control from simply opening up my GTD spreadsheet and tackling the 'next action' for a project. If you chunk it correctly it really helps.

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

#75

Post by zapperdapper »

> I'm wondering now if I should think about changing career completely, what can an ex-developer retrain into?

Been asking myself that question for 16 years - I wish I had the answer. My solution was to go contracting and take extended career breaks. It sort of worked. I would like to move out of the industry permanently, but always run into the "but what else would I do" question.

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

#77

Post by mooreds »

eb0la wrote: post #58
mooreds wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were to enter a complicated transaction without consulting a lawyer (raising funding for example) people would say I was crazy. Yet somehow we think we should be able to work out personal issues (burnout, marriage issues, depression, etc) by ourselves. It's bizarre. If you can afford help, get it. If you can't, often you can get a discount (sliding scale) or work something out.

It is not bizzare: we are used to do stuff other people cannot think to do... ... Like if it was a superpower. Superheroes doesn't need advice. At least in the comics I read as a kid. So this superhero syndrome, hurts more than having no superpower at all.

Fair enough. I wrote a blog post once about the arrogance of software developers[0]. So I get your point that sometimes because we can do one kind of hard thing, we think we can do most any type of hard thing. But we're wrong.

0. http://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/134

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

#78

Post by bsvalley »

When a software engineer burns out he or she always identifies the same set of problems: I don’t like my job anymore, I can’t code anymore, but there’s nothing else I can do. I will never be able to make the same amount of money doing something else.

To me, it’s a lifestyle issue. Coding has nothing special to it. It is something that a machine can do a million time better and faster than us, humans. Also, you don’t want to lose your salary as a developer because you’ve probably set up your lifestyle around that kind of money. Most of us go even beyond that, by getting into debts. That’s the real problem in my opinion. Your job is what keeps your current lifestyle up and running. You put all your eggs into one basket like most of us do. Life is too short, you shouldn’t put work in the center of your life. Are you a software developer? Yeah? Well, stop putting yourself into that bucket. “Yeah but it pays the bills”... what bills? who set up the bills? You or your work? You should try to disconnect your lifestyle as much as possible from your day to day job. It has to become “loosely coupled”. Does it sound familiar? ;) At the end of the day, a normal job is a dollar amount (or whatever currency you use) and you are in charge of setting up that amount.

Make it as low as possible and reprioritize things in your life. The ultimate thing you can do in life is to live for free... why? Because you could be free like a bird and do anything you want. It’s technically impossible, but your mission in life is to get as close as possible. Good luck.

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

#80

Post by guicarus »

I personally turn to travel to re-energize the passion. I have terminated a job 2 times to spend time abroad doing something different (learning a language or working as a contractor for a startup). While doing so, you meet up new set of folks, interact with new cultures (I was in Thailand and later in Russia). Works wonders!
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