When I graduated Uni few years back i was very interested and excited about programming and would constantly work on side projects. Now after having worked for a few companies, it almost completely killed my motivation and interest in programming. Working on boring, crappy projects for a living is just killing me, and you never know until you get on the job. How do you deal with this?
Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
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Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
#2> Working on boring, crappy projects for a living is just killing me
You couldn't live in a better time for being able to pick your work as a Software Engineer. Even location is irrelevant more and more with remote work. If you want to work on something that excites you, find that and do it!
Outside of that, build things that you want to exist using interesting technologies or even just a refined, latest and greatest version of the stack you currently know and use.
Whether you turn these things into actual products or just things you'll use yourself, it's irrelevant, as long as you enjoy building them.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
#3I don't. Turning my hobby into my career killed my hobby and, really, that's fine. It affords me a good life and the ability to discover and enjoy new hobbies.
If you're worried about "keeping up," then I would suggest you 1) ignore the rat-race that is framework-of-the-day and 2) focus on learning fundamentals of your domain. Sure, you'll miss out on some hip startup jobs but typical employers don't care about your lack of 5 years experience in a 3 years old framework.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
#4I don't. Turning my hobby into my career killed my hobby and, really, that's fine. It affords me a good life and the ability to discover and enjoy new hobbies. If you're worried about "keeping up," then I would suggest you 1) ignore the rat-race that is framework-of-the-day and 2) focus on learning fundamentals of your domain. Sure, you'll miss out on some hip startup jobs but typical employers don't care about your…
Ignoring the framework of the day and “learning the fundamentals” won’t get you past the either HR filters or make you competitive with developers who are constantly doing Resume Driven Development and have a resume that is buzzword compliant.
Especially if you are an older developer (I’m 45) and you will just be seen as just another old out of touch developer.
That being said, the further down the stack you go, the more stability there is in technology.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
#5You have to find better work.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
#6I don't. Turning my hobby into my career killed my hobby and, really, that's fine. It affords me a good life and the ability to discover and enjoy new hobbies. If you're worried about "keeping up," then I would suggest you 1) ignore the rat-race that is framework-of-the-day and 2) focus on learning fundamentals of your domain. Sure, you'll miss out on some hip startup jobs but typical employers don't care about your…
I don't. Turning my hobby into my career killed my hobby and, really, that's fine. It affords me a good life and the ability to discover and enjoy new hobbies.
i second that. It became a 9-5 work, and i am fine with that. If and when i get myself very curious about something, i just open a new bitbucket private repository and play with it until the novelty fades away.
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
#7I have side projects and I try to learn new programming related technologies. An app in the app store could set you free!
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
#8[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
#9I don't and I'm bored AF!
Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?
#10The motivation comes with inspiration for me. If I see a problem and know that I can build a solution, I can't stop myself from building it. The more time I spend honing these skills, the higher the bar becomes for new projects, so next time you feel the spark of inspiration, don't pass it up because it becomes more and more rare!