231–240 of 370 posts
Also LeetCode grind was mind-numbingly-demotivating but unfortunately that is part of the deal now. The good news is that once I decided that I am leaving my previous job, I felt great overall.
There's an oft-used expression: do what you love, and you'll never work another day in your life. (The meaning, for non-native English speakers, is that if you love what (the work) you're doing, then it won't feel like work and you'll be naturally motivated.)
I was in bad mental shape during my last gig. When the company decided not to renew any external contracts due to economic fears, my contract expired and I was without a job. I decided it was time to finally do something that I cared about, and do it my way. Maybe money would come from it, or maybe not. My runway is fairly short, but it's enough time to maybe build something.
It took at least two weeks of doing nothing computer related (other than reading HN, I'm sure) for me to start to see sunlight. And when I was tempted to look at jobs, it would only take reading one job req for me to feel sick. So I decided to make my own reality and stick to my belief that if I build something, something good will happen. We don't know how that story ends yet, but I know I'm infinitely happier and certainly healthier. My alcohol consumption is near zero now, down from a very excessive amount. My weight is down too. Bonus!
My advice is to take some time and try to discover what your interests or passions are. Then start making connections with people who have similar. If you don't know what those things are, then start doing new things which don't necessarily have anything to do with work or projects or money. Take some latin dance classes (much fun!). Take some fitness or sport classes. Travel and enjoy good food, and meet strangers.
Just maybe you will start to see where you can do things which make you feel energized, and just maybe it will become profitable.
Even mediocre managers are valuable. Some of us need a manager sometimes to keep us from falling into too many rabbit holes or to help us map goals and plans and stay on them. The way to find those people seems unclear or random, but it certainly seems that the more you connect with others, the better the chances are.
This advice is going to be hated by a lot of people but.. care less. You’re in an industry that values your skills and seems to always have demand. Whether or not that’s true in the future, it certainly is today , so the best thing you can do is put yourself first and worry less about work as a whole. Especially if it’s not your own company. Spend more time on you, on activities with friends and family, on hobbies. I…
Kind of this. I don't think it's "care less" but I think it's "care appropriately for 40 hours a week." The concept of "quiet quitting" is a shameful, panicky fraud perpetuated by the power holders in the industry that see their power slipping. "Quiet quitting" has been known as "work to rule" or "fulfilling a contract." My paystub says 40 hours. My original contract says nothing about overtime. I'm not quiet quittin…
Can you afford a sabbatical? The term has roots in "seven", just like Sabbath, so with 14 years in the industry, you've skipped one. I think a solid half-year off every seven to ten years is an excellent practice for intellectually demanding labor. What makes it a sabbatical is that it's a change of pace which furthers your career. I'd love to take a sabbatical and just work on building stuff, personally: from solder…
I simply fucked off and traveled the world. Half the time I didn't even know what day of the week it was.
It was glorious and it cured my burn out.
This advice is going to be hated by a lot of people but.. care less. You’re in an industry that values your skills and seems to always have demand. Whether or not that’s true in the future, it certainly is today , so the best thing you can do is put yourself first and worry less about work as a whole. Especially if it’s not your own company. Spend more time on you, on activities with friends and family, on hobbies. I…
>This advice is going to be hated by a lot of people but.. care less. I think there's a nuance in this that's easy to be missed. It's possible to care about the quality of your work but not care about the various forms of insanity in your management chain. I think a lot of people fear that not caring means you turn into a totally useless person - that extremely unproductive person in the company that everybody hates…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing is, it's Management's objective to keep productivity high and prevent burnout in the first place. They've failed to do so, now that you're taking care of yourself, consider that you're doing their job.
It seems to flow both ways. Management gets burned out dealing with people who just don't care, and they end up not caring about the people they manage. 6 years ago, a COO once told me, "Employees are donkeys. You use a carrot and stick. If they weren't donkeys they'd be running their own business." It seemed like such stuck up, pretentious 'advice' at the time that I ran far away from that social group. But parent c…
A COO is an Employee too. Therefore he is a Donkey as well :)
This advice is going to be hated by a lot of people but.. care less. You’re in an industry that values your skills and seems to always have demand. Whether or not that’s true in the future, it certainly is today , so the best thing you can do is put yourself first and worry less about work as a whole. Especially if it’s not your own company. Spend more time on you, on activities with friends and family, on hobbies. I…
Kind of this. I don't think it's "care less" but I think it's "care appropriately for 40 hours a week." The concept of "quiet quitting" is a shameful, panicky fraud perpetuated by the power holders in the industry that see their power slipping. "Quiet quitting" has been known as "work to rule" or "fulfilling a contract." My paystub says 40 hours. My original contract says nothing about overtime. I'm not quiet quittin…
Can you afford a sabbatical? The term has roots in "seven", just like Sabbath, so with 14 years in the industry, you've skipped one. I think a solid half-year off every seven to ten years is an excellent practice for intellectually demanding labor. What makes it a sabbatical is that it's a change of pace which furthers your career. I'd love to take a sabbatical and just work on building stuff, personally: from solder…
And importantly, I have space to think about work--what I like and don't--so that when I go back, I can be intentional about my next move. Rather than just climbing the ladder that's in front of me.
I joined a start-up that was okay with taking as much as they could, and I hadn't yet developed the skill or mind-set to say no and draw clear boundaries between work and my personal life. I consistently worked evenings and weekends.
I then left that job for a 'promotion', which ended up being a worse company and an even worse team. I also gave them everything that I had to 'prove' myself in my new job, and carry the load, and then they ended up laying me off, just before covid.
I was off work for a few months 'recovering' (free-time without the enjoyment of it). I told myself that I would never give work everything that I had again, ever.
After landing a new job, I followed the promise that I made to myself, even when I was certain it looked 'bad' that I was leaving on time every day. However, after delivering on projects, my team and company grew respect for me and it never once became a discussion point. I spent the next couple of years enjoying the new free time, spending it with friends, family, and on hobbies, etc. I believe that my ability to deliver in the normal work window was a product of a good team, and good leadership (the lead engineers did a great job in how they built the architecture, so the developers can work and deploy mostly independently and autonomously - we're remote).
However, side projects still felt like work, so I converted my desktop from Windows to EndeavourOS (arch), and now, when I am enjoying leisure time on my computer and feel a spark of interest, it's quick and simple to open up vscode and start hacking away. Often, when I feel like 'playing a game', I actually just want to be creative, and it's allowed me to start programming projects that inspire me without thinking too much about it. I think this was a key move to re-inspire me to code on my own time. Another cool thing, is that at work you're typically locked into a certain set of tools (often older), so it's fun to pick up shiny new toys and tinker with them, with no deadline or formal requirements.