Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#281

Post by mmcnl » Fri, May 06, 2022, 7:30 PM UTC

jaegerpicker wrote: post #280

blakewatters wrote: post #138

Your problem is very simple: you are working on bullshit. Across your entire description of your situation you never once mentioned what it is you are actually working on but called out the income you hit and frameworks you are playing with. I humbly submit that your problem is that you have lost the plot. Hate to break it to you chief but the libraries and frameworks and techniques you use to work are not the point.…

That's great and all, probably true for a ton of developers. Certainly is and has been for me. Now show us how that's actually useful, the majority of jobs aren't building useful important things. It's building some dumbass startup idea that is very likely to fail or writing insurance backend code or some generic web form that NO ONE gives two shits about. I'm not angry at you, don't want this to come off that way. T…

It doesn't necessarily have to be world-changing. Just something that you value and causes a glimpse in customers' eyes because now they have the tools they didn't have before can be enough.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#282

Post by 1270018080 » Fri, May 06, 2022, 7:35 PM UTC

jseban wrote: post #125

rightbyte wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting fed up with all the stupid technology grind is not necessarily burnout though. One could call it wisdom or experience too.

Yeah always switching tools basically resets your experience to zero, so you have to do the same mistakes over and over, no wonder it's hard to stay motivated. And the "senior" jobs have zero power, so you can't stop people from making mistakes, and trying to "influence" just makes the experience even more exhausting and frustrating when people have no reason to listen to you. I wish there was real senior roles you c…

Is that not what architects do? Seniors with decision making authority?

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#283

Post by aaaaaaaaata » Fri, May 06, 2022, 8:02 PM UTC

fullshark wrote: post #220

blakewatters wrote: post #138

Your problem is very simple: you are working on bullshit. Across your entire description of your situation you never once mentioned what it is you are actually working on but called out the income you hit and frameworks you are playing with. I humbly submit that your problem is that you have lost the plot. Hate to break it to you chief but the libraries and frameworks and techniques you use to work are not the point.…

Seems like projection, and everyone upvoting this is sharing in it because it's the case for the vast majority of us.

Sure, but does that make it necessarily false?

These kinds of threads are a dart board for everyone to throw out their fresh takes, and the OP to pick and choose from the advice as it applies.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#284

Post by veidelis » Fri, May 06, 2022, 8:28 PM UTC

"to the point where I question the most basic things in coding"

What are those things?

I maybe have a similar experience. I question every little detail that may add unnecessary complexity and I see those things as potentially limiting to overall outcome. Controversially those can be things like overuse of React's hooks leading to unwanted patterns, or Vue's special string syntax or Redux's issue with thunks, or MobX's OOP god like objects. I work on a large TS codebase. I have a strong opinion about how the code should look like, but it's discouraging to see how others don't pay enough attention to understand the long term effects of some unwanted patterns that lead to technical debt. Sometimes I think that my colleagues confuse simple vs easy.

Also, I wouldn't rush to diagnose burnout or anything like that. It might be as simple as accumulation of experience leading to higher expectations. Nothing wrong about that.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#285

Post by smilebot » Fri, May 06, 2022, 8:39 PM UTC

Like others I also believe this sounds like burnout. From what you wrote, it looks like the work you’re having to do doesn’t align with your “passion” or what you care about. This is the usually the main cause of burnout.

Few things that helped me:

1: Don’t try to cope with this by telling yourself that you’re “successful” in the eyes of the world and you should suck it up and keep going.

2: Keep figuring out what you enjoy and try to align work with it. Ofc it depends and there are trade offs.

That being said, in your case can you ask your boss if you can try the other project to see if you like it?

Some resources: youtube: healthygamergg “you are burned out and don’t even know it”

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#286

Post by helge9210 » Fri, May 06, 2022, 8:57 PM UTC

rightbyte wrote: post #234

helge9210 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half life of knowledge in our profession is more or less a year and a half. This means 5 years of experience is the maximum you can accumulate. Maybe years are not a good metric for experience.

Do you mean as in you forget or that new ways to do stuff are reinvented?

The latter.

As an example I can think of:

- jQuery, Backbone/Knockout, React progression

- C++03, C++11

- Qt Widgets, Qt Quick

- SQL to NoSQL and back again

- Windows NT, 2000, Server

On the other hand, AWS Lambda seems like CGI/FastCGI all over again, but with proper automation, so I have at least one data point on 20 year cycles (to confirm we need someone who is in profession for at least 40 years).

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#287

Post by shrimp_emoji » Fri, May 06, 2022, 9:08 PM UTC

helge9210 wrote: post #286

rightbyte wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean as in you forget or that new ways to do stuff are reinvented?

The latter. As an example I can think of: - jQuery, Backbone/Knockout, React progression - C++03, C++11 - Qt Widgets, Qt Quick - SQL to NoSQL and back again - Windows NT, 2000, Server On the other hand, AWS Lambda seems like CGI/FastCGI all over again, but with proper automation, so I have at least one data point on 20 year cycles (to confirm we need someone who is in profession for at least 40 years).

>- C++03, C++11

Seriously? Amending a trash fire with a mound of glowing embers (that can't all be extinguished because precious backwards compatibility -- e.g., `auto_ptr`) is "just reinvention"?

You can only hold that view if you don't understand C++11. :p You're more accurately complaining about "invention" (well, in the C++ world; in the Rust world, it's "C++ implemented our stuff").

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#288

Post by bennysomething » Fri, May 06, 2022, 9:11 PM UTC

graderjs wrote: post #200

sinenomine wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it sad that instead of designing mood-enhancing small molecules and making these available to anybody so desiring, we have to text each other with long screens of elaborate copes. This concrete cope presented in the parent comment denies existence of depression, which is really a non-sequitur when we have a solid evidence for substantial heritable differences in baseline happiness: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov…

You're saying what I'm writing about is an example of a "cope"? I get if you feel that way but that's not how it is. It's just normal, like resilience. It's funny, because what it seems like you're saying, where you'd rather medicate your thoughts and feelings than experience them, that's the only cope. And I think that dynamic, where people want that cope that you say you desire, is intimately connected with the pat…

To the people who responded to what I wrote, thanks. I think both views are right in a way. I don't even think that the disagreement here is a real disagreement it's just different ways at looking at things. There's truth in both. Well there is to me because seeing what was written after I posted was actually helpfully. There's things I've haven't considered before in those responses.

Just another note, someone else I know lost parent long before I did, they said "yeah sorry it took about ten years before I was ok with it" I didn't believe him at the time. He was right!

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#289

Post by bennysomething » Fri, May 06, 2022, 9:17 PM UTC

sinenomine wrote: post #128

giantg2 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. I hate my job and clock watch. But I enjoy other things in life. When I get screened for depression it never comes up as a problem. So it seems you can be fine and still watch the clock.

Have you considered living frugally and investing most of your income into stock index & crypto to become financially independent?

Just one thing, I became really interested in this too. It made me very unhappy that I didn't have it it. Sort of jealous of everyone who does have it. I see a contradiction now in what I wanted: living frugally to be free of pointless desires but in the end craving that so badly it was ruining my best years.

(Ps I still throw as much as I can afford in a pension because I'm terrified of being poor with no ability to earn when I'm older)

Anyway just my take, I'd still love to be financially free but I've accepted I won't be.

Re: Ask HN: Why can't I learn anymore?

#290

Post by thesz » Fri, May 06, 2022, 9:20 PM UTC

readonthegoapp wrote: post #255

harel wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lifting weights doesn't translate to deadlifting. That's just one exercise of many. Weights and other exercise helped me. I don't deadlift though.

OC said 'the three basic exercises' Maybe he meant something else

I meant back squat, bench press and deadlift.

Testosterone increases dopamine in a lockstep fashion - increase testosterone any way you want and you'll increase dopamine level too. Dopamine, on its own, increases the desire for exploration.

Testosterone is also linked to improved logical thinking, you wouldn't believe.

I also mentioned walking. Walking increases serum level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF. Serum level of BDNF i positively associated with the volume and density of hippocampus, which is responsible for the ability and quality of learning.

Basically, you need to walk (jog, run, bike, swim, row - whatever suits you) as much as you can to be able to learn as good as you can and you also need to lift heavy to increase testosterone. You need to lift heavy to balance catabolic processes induced by endurance exercise and to make yourself seek something new.

As a nice side effect, you will look and feel great. ;)