Manual work is underrated. Especially the kind of work where you can see an immediate end result from your efforts. I worked in a kitchen for two years and I can tell you slicing food is way more satisfying than coding frontend.
Burnout Is Real
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Re: Burnout Is Real
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those things you mention aren’t really the chains you make them out to be. You can sell your house and move somewhere affordable. Poor people have kids all the time, a lot of times they are even smart! What you feel chained to is your ritzy lifestyle. Your wife and kids won’t resent you for not providing all that fancy shit, but they will resent you for working yourself until there’s nothing left for them.
Though in theory I agree, I think this is simplistic. I know a lot of people who don't live a "ritzy" lifecyle but are still stuck where they are. And yes, in theory, they could move somewhere affordable, but they may not have enough of a cushion, or they may have roots where they live now (for instance, their kids might have friends, or they may have family that are either helping them with their kids or require bei…
It’s also unfortunately the case that there are wives (and husbands) and kids that WILL resent someone for giving up the ritzy (or materially comfortably) life for somewhere calmer and better for someone’s mental health. It happens.
And when it happens, the side effects can be downright crushing - Google ‘child support imputed income’ for an example of the legal framework that can be brought to bear against someone.
Re: Burnout Is Real
#93I never doubted it was real. But I never really understood what it meant until I was deeply depressed and couldn't get up from bed to go to work anymore. Ended up leaving my job at a FANG and taking a year long sabbatical before rejoining the workforce in a lower/less stressful position for a company not on tech. Sometimes it's still depressing to think o took such a hit in my career. Bit when I remember what I felt…
Having been in a similar situation, my sympathies; I've found it to be a very strange sensation. The burnt-out knows exactly what work tasks they need to do, they know that it's easily within their own capabilities, and they (at a conscious level at least) even desperately want to do the tasks to fulfill their professional obligations (or to simply continue getting paid). But the body just will not do it or forcing i…
OMG you've nailed exactly what I've been feeling for the past six months or so. :/
Re: Burnout Is Real
#94I gotta take some time off. I'm completely burnt out. It's just not super interesting working for a large company with a stack a mile deep. I'm 6 months into a project that separates one status field into two different status fields. My god, it's boring, but if we fuck any little piece up we break customer data. I just want to work on something new that I'm passionate about. But the things I'm passionate about probab…
What’s the point of the money if it isn’t doing anything for you?
For one - it makes it possible to take 6 months off if you don’t like doing the work?
Without it? Good luck.
Re: Burnout Is Real
#95I never doubted it was real. But I never really understood what it meant until I was deeply depressed and couldn't get up from bed to go to work anymore. Ended up leaving my job at a FANG and taking a year long sabbatical before rejoining the workforce in a lower/less stressful position for a company not on tech. Sometimes it's still depressing to think o took such a hit in my career. Bit when I remember what I felt…
Did you handle this alone or did you find some kind of burnout support group ? Restarting does feel super odd, a kind of lossless loss. I guess biology didn't like falls.
Re: Burnout Is Real
#96Manual work is underrated. Especially the kind of work where you can see an immediate end result from your efforts. I worked in a kitchen for two years and I can tell you slicing food is way more satisfying than coding frontend.
For 2 years, yes.
Re: Burnout Is Real
#97Personally, I find the biggest reason for burnout is lack of autonomy. The author seems to have found the same.
I feel like autonomy is getting really hard to find in tech. There's just only so many ways you can write a GET route. Then it will get shaped into what it "should" be via PR comments. It makes for good software development, but it just isn't very fun or fullfiling. I miss learning something new and having choice with how to do it, but that doesn't always make for a good product. Sure I can do side projects but I just don't have anything left in me at the end of the day.
Re: Burnout Is Real
#98I wish I had any other interest apart from programming...
I didn't have any other interest at all. Programming is the greatest thing; you only need a computer (old/new/don't care) to Create New Things. I never did programming for the money; it accidentally made (a lot) of money. After covid + a horrible project last year, it seems I did kind of burnt out and after thinking almost 40 years that programming is the thing that keeps me happy, I don't like it anymore. Luckily, m…
Experience wise I am far behind with just 12 years of programming but started feeling burnout since Covid. I was always work in office location guy even if it meant to stretch by more than 12 hours a day. But working from home is far different. Communication is worst. When in office your colleagues are next to you and meetings were like 4 hours a day. But with work from home it's very different. To get in touch with colleagues, you have to schedule a call which usually taking 3x more time than discussion at office. Also we have repeat things so many times in call since there is no proper blackboard etc. Probably it's only me but now a days calls itself takes more than 8 hours.
Really started getting respect for people who were doing remote before Covid as well. Now I also understand why OSS projects are slow in implementing features.
Re: Burnout Is Real
#99I wish I had any other interest apart from programming...
Cooking, baking, wood carving, writing a novel, lockpicking, maybe DIY (learn some plumbing, electician, tiling skills), glass blowing, drawing/painting, instrument...
Get basic idea of entry level requirements, spend 20-50 hours practising move on if you don't like it by then.
Pick something out of any profession and go at it. I am kind a thinking about shoe making or sawing/clothes making.
Re: Burnout Is Real
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having been in a similar situation, my sympathies; I've found it to be a very strange sensation. The burnt-out knows exactly what work tasks they need to do, they know that it's easily within their own capabilities, and they (at a conscious level at least) even desperately want to do the tasks to fulfill their professional obligations (or to simply continue getting paid). But the body just will not do it or forcing i…
OMG you've nailed exactly what I've been feeling for the past six months or so. :/
Can you alternate gigs ? I found this to be a great fix (maybe transient though). Manual labour 4h, coding 4h. Aiming at drag free day.