Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?

I am a software engineer. At least, that is what my job title says. However, I would also find coding CRUD apps boring as hell. What I really am is a problem solver. Currently, I solve problems using code. I think the trick is to get into a company that has problems that interest you. Personally, I work with hardware and embedded systems.

As for understanding new tools and techniques, I'm never able to do it unless I have a real problem that I'm working on that requires it. Toy problems and coding exercises won't work because the problem is contrived and isn't a real problem that needs fixing. Math, especially, is a wonderful tool, but I'm not interested in it for its own sake. This doesn't mean you are stupid.

So, figure out what you want to be doing and figure out who's doing it. If you are young enough to return to schooling, you are probably young enough to get an entry level position if your skills are a bit weak in the required area.

I pursued data science, It's a good blend of tech and domain knowledge.

The domain is what interests me, and the technical part is what makes it enjoyable. The amount of programming is probably one tenth (if even that) of what a regular software engineer would write, but there's always room for new ideas. Lately I've found myself writing more and more code for automation and other auxiliary stuff.

In the end you want to apply technical and scientific methods to the data, guided by your domain expertise, and deliver results to someone.

For some, it's nothing more than cleaning excel spreadsheets and generating reports, for others it's building and using state of the art machine learning methods on extremely large data sets - so not all data science jobs are alike from a technical standpoint.

I started with programming as hobbyist. I never actually studied it (beside some basics which I already known when they teach me that).

I ended up writing CRUDs, various data converters and fixing bizzare bugs in legacy software. Slowly I lost interest in programming and I discovered that I am no longer interested in new tech. I completely missed javascript hype train for example.

But it's OK. It's just a job. I have other hobbies/friends to feel fullfilled.

Also - I keep programming as hobby. I just more interested WHAT I am doing instead HOW I am doing that (which is just usually easiest path).

For example - I really started digging into audio programming - basically coding my own VSTs in Csound/Cabbage. That's really interesting stuff and also sometimes very challenging, because it involves math which I am generally struggling with (I had diagnosed discalculia back at the school).

For example: I just spend two days (!) inventing this little piece of code: f(k,n) = (k * n) - (k-1)

I grew up doing everything the hard way, self taught holding my own with highly educated peers and spending years on very hard problems to build a future worth having.

I am still doing it the hard way but vastly preferring doing it for myself, instead of for ungrateful bosses that pay penny on the dollar for the privilege to ignore their employees and only ever do something to fix unfulfilled promises when people have already been burnt and it’s too late. I’ve heard again and again from peers that bosses only come round to shitty situations when good working employees threaten to leave and by then it’s too late.

This time it’s the bosses drawing the short stick and they are complaining like they are entitled to employees. You want people to stay? Make it happen, don’t whine.

I have been in management, I know what it takes. Man up.

> avoid relationship until your life is in order. Huge time sink and ruins concentration.

I understood that some relationships can bring a unbelievable chaos in your live. Been there, done that.

But I think it's very very important part of your life and you can't really have your life "in order" if this question is left unsolved.