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Ask HN: Losing all interest in programming, what now?

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Re: Ask HN: Losing all interest in programming, what now?

#111

Post by gopalv »

prezjordan wrote: post #22
balabaster wrote: post #5

This sounds like the beginnings of burnout or depression... do you find joy in anything else? Does anything motivate you? I went through this for about 3 years after my divorce. I couldn't find motivation or joy in anything. I turned to helping other people solve their problems because at least I was helping others to get through what I couldn't figure out how to get through myself. There was a lot of time spent in r…

> I turned to helping other people solve their problems because at least I was helping others to get through what I couldn't figure out how to get through myself. Do you consider this to be a good thing? Doing the same now, and wondering if it’s okay.

> Do you consider this to be a good thing? Doing the same now, and wondering if it’s okay.

It probably does, but not in the way you might expect - takes you out of despair, but not out of the burnout.

I keep this cartoon in my bookmarks, because it says it better.

http://www.lunarbaboon.com/comics/miserable.html

Re: Ask HN: Losing all interest in programming, what now?

#112

Post by chrismeller »

Stop looking for grand plans and do something simple and fun. Yes, there are dozens of complex ideas I would love to work on, but they involve infrastructure and bootstrapping and a dozen other things that are useful, but not fun.

AdventOfCode, on the other hand, is completely worthless in the grand scheme of things, but has been fun as hell and provides me with a sense of accomplishment every day.

I’ve also got a Pimoroni environment sensor that was a lot of fun to set up and gives me fun graphs every day. Sure it provides (as far as I’m concerned) the same temperature and humidity reading as the $5 device I got at a random store, but it provided something for me to do that was relatively easy, involved an emerging interest for me (hardware), and in the end who doesn’t love graphs?

Re: Ask HN: Losing all interest in programming, what now?

#113

Post by _huayra_ »

KineticLensman wrote: post #59
AlwaysRock wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God bless you. When a senior engineer is willing to help us early career folks it really helps.

Something I learned during my career is that if you support and mentor the competent driven youngsters, the good ones will look out for you when they pass you on the career ladder. Rather then treading on your fingers.

Do you find this to be one of the more rewarding parts of your career / day-to-day?

One of the things I regret most about my time in grad school is not mentoring younger students / interns. I was only frantically trying to prove how great I was (to salvage my downtrodden ego). I definitely don't want to avoid such mentoring opportunities in the future (once I finally work my way into such a position).

Re: Ask HN: Losing all interest in programming, what now?

#114

Post by reddit_clone »

chrismeller wrote: post #112

Stop looking for grand plans and do something simple and fun. Yes, there are dozens of complex ideas I would love to work on, but they involve infrastructure and bootstrapping and a dozen other things that are useful, but not fun. AdventOfCode, on the other hand, is completely worthless in the grand scheme of things, but has been fun as hell and provides me with a sense of accomplishment every day. I’ve also got a Pi…

On the topic of AdventOfCode, I also find it fun (I am using Raku/Perl6). Unfortunately I have fallen behind a few days.

I checked the LeaderBoard out of curiosity. These guys are submitting answers Amazing!

I wonder if any of them streaming this stuff?

Re: Ask HN: Losing all interest in programming, what now?

#117

Post by goldenManatee »

This sounds like ennui brought on by burnout, perhaps not necessarily arising from physically manifested work but just overthinking. Totally empathize. Perhaps speak with a therapist to get started. It may not be about rediscovering your love for this again, but just a passion for something new. It does sound like some degree of turmoil there.

Re: Ask HN: Losing all interest in programming, what now?

#118

Post by LargeWu »

I was in the same boat. I used to love the technical aspects of programming, but eventually it just turned into a grind.

My solution was to move into management. This is not the right path for everybody, since it's basically a completely different set of skills even if you're still on a software engineering team. And it's a hard job. But so far for me, it's been a good change.

It doesn't have to be management. Maybe it's product, or support, something else. The point is, you've likely got some skills that are related to getting software products out the door, there's probably a way to translate that into a non-technical role, if that sounds interesting to you.

I would also second what others said about burnout or depression. For me it was anxiety. Not a bad idea to talk to your doctor or a mental health professional.

Re: Ask HN: Losing all interest in programming, what now?

#119

Post by samorozco »

All I can say is I went through the exact same thing. I used to love sitting down at the keyboard and churning out code on a project I was excited about. Slowly but surely I started programming less and was not as excited about jumping into projects as I used to be.

For me, the problem was Alcohol. I was drinking more alcohol than I ever had in the past and it, for some reason I do not know, was causing me to not find the some enjoyment in things especially programming.

So, I realized this and stopped drinking alcohol and I have now been working on projects non stop in my free time and am enjoying programming as much as I ever had.

In all, I would say don't be too hard on yourself. You are still the same person that loved programming. I think you need to take a step back and see what else in your life has changed.

Re: Ask HN: Losing all interest in programming, what now?

#120

Post by disambiguation »

why is this project so important to you?

why is it important that this project is built?

why have you decided working on this project is the most important use of your time?

why are you being hard on yourself for not working on this project?

why are you being hard on yourself for not being excited about programming in general?

I can relate and ITT a lot of our peers have gone through what you're going through. In my experience, hobby programming has become like a video game i've already played a million times, there's nothing new or fun, it's just rote and tedious.

Like other comments state, i have also opted to see this as a part of my own growth path, and making peace with this "loss of spark" has opened up many other doors and opportunities.

In short, there's more to life than programming.

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