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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?

#141

Post by nullsense »

dageshi wrote: post #54

I used to be a "grand project dreamer", believe me I know the feeling. The feeling of reluctance I think is from your subconscious questioning whether half the stuff you think you need is actually required and then you're stuck wondering what exactly you do need whether you realise it or not. I've found it much easier to avoid "architecting" and instead within a project pick 4-5 different starting points and try to i…

I do this strategy, and I recommend it.

I vote we call it Yak Farming as it's designed as a way to get around the problem of Yak Shaving.

You simply build a series of inter-related and mutually beneficial but somewhat loosely coupled projects under the umbrella of one over-arching project. Because each project makes the others more valuable, if you get stuck need to do some Yak Shaving on one particular project and it's burning out your enthusiasm, you can just switch to another of the projects and make progress there which increases the value of the previous project to a point where it's now worth it to go back and finish what you were doing.

Yak Farming.

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

#142

Post by [deleted] »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #79
thrower123 wrote: post #3

Everyone reaches the point where they just want to live in a yurt and milk goats eventually. It's been a fucking rough year or five.

Thanks for telling it like it is. The advice in this thread is really lacking. Maybe it's because the real answer is there is no advice and we just have to suck it up? "Take a 3 month break and come back to it". I'm back. I don't want to do programming anymore. "Ok you should play video games and not do anything productive, then come back to it". Cool, just finished Days Gone and i'm replaying BioShock. I don't want…

[deleted]

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

#143

Post by mikewarot »

the_only_law wrote: post #127
mikewarot wrote: post #35

What stack of tools are you trying to use? Personally, I think we hit the peak ease of use with VB6, Delphi, and HyperCard It's all been getting harder ever since.

It really depends on the project. My most recent project has been an attempt to revive some old ISDN videophones I bought and integrating them with a more modern teleconference platform, so it involves all sorts of things, from whats basically a custom PBX to the video call app it will integrate with. For the core, PBX-like part, I was initially looking into Erlang, but after a while decided it might be easier to bui…

Oh... that's a huge project to tackle! And really dang cool if you can pull it off!

Do you know for sure the hardware even works? Can you get them to talk to each other? What kind of interface do they have? Do they do ethernet at all?

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

#144

Post by jodrellblank »

reddit_clone wrote: post #114
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?

Yes, plenty stream.

https://www.reddit.com/r/adventofcode/wiki/streamers - Jonathan Paulson is one who makes the leaderboard.

and look in the big daily answers threads like https://old.reddit.com/r/adventofcode/comments/k9lfwj/2020_d... (make sure to load lots of comments, Reddit doesn't show all of them), and search for video/stream/twitch/youtube.

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

#145

Post by backing »

Like others have said in this thread, this is your story and you're on your way finding what you really want to do.

Quitting everything that is not for you is the path you'll follow until you find your sparkling light, the magic in a project or a game or else you'd really like to pursue.

Pausing unnecessary work is good, and if you need to work for money, fully disconnect from it at the end of the day.

And start to find what makes you happy. Ask yourself a simple question. Move on.

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

#146

Post by ludsan »

Maybe don't set yourself a "project" (quotes intentional). The idea of a "project" implies busy-work.

Do something completely out of left-field. For instance, learn APL. It's like reading a Jorge Luis Borges short story.

Why? Why not.

Rinse. Repeat. Relish in the non-projectness of it. After a while, joy might come back.

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

#147

Post by nullsense »

daralthus wrote: post #97

Likely need to tackle from multiple sides: 1. Physical: Sleep more. No screen days. Diet changes. Sport. 2. Emotional: [1] CBT. Get rid of perfectionism and huge romantic /heroic ideas that make you suffer. "burnout is heartbreak". Choose way way smaller projects: You commit, finish and get a good feeling from feedback within a day. [1] https://www.quirk.fyi/distortions

I made a couple of small PRs to an open source library I use and they were great little mini projects that were very rewarding and useful! I felt better after what has been a long time working on a project that has consistently failed to be delivered. It felt like actually, no, I am a decent developer and I do enjoy it.

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

#148

Post by nullsense »

dkarl wrote: post #60

I think you're dealing with more than one thing here, including maybe some unrealistic expectations. It's hard to have a hobby that is the same as your profession. A hobby often needs to function as a relief from the pressures and annoying bullshit of work, and an outlet for pent-up creative energy. When programming starts to feel like pressure and bullshit at work, programming at home will make you feel like there's…

This deserves some kind of literary prize.

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

#149

Post by llbbdd »

amon22 wrote: post #126
dkarl wrote: post #60

I think you're dealing with more than one thing here, including maybe some unrealistic expectations. It's hard to have a hobby that is the same as your profession. A hobby often needs to function as a relief from the pressures and annoying bullshit of work, and an outlet for pent-up creative energy. When programming starts to feel like pressure and bullshit at work, programming at home will make you feel like there's…

Thank you for writing that, i think something like that is happening to me and it really helps to see others going trough the same thing, makes me feel less alone. > It is easy for your standards to go up and impossible for your increase in capacity to keep up. > It also sounds like one aspect of programming you enjoy is the ego gratification. these are especially things i can relate very well.

I wanted to add my thanks as well but it would just repeat this comment.

> It is easy for your standards to go up and impossible for your increase in capacity to keep up.

I feel gutpunched by this in particular. I know I'm a "better" programmer than I used to be, but I feel like it handicaps me when I try to hack something together for my own enjoyment.

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