Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 232 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#51

Post by brianwawok »

mozman wrote: post #7
monk_e_boy wrote: post #4

A different job? Go travelling for a while? Travelling is a lot of fun and makes you realize that life is short and that you should make the most of it. I changed careers and found the change fun. I may go back to coding at some point, I kinda miss the that deep thinking it requires .... but I can do that in my spare time if I really need to. Or, if you need the money, just phone it in for a while.

I’m opening a local metal working business. Running both until I can get a decent income stream. Tech prospects look bleak, I think the party will be over in 10 or less years as engineers are viewed more as a cost vs value add.

Tech can generate enormous wealth. Talking on the order of 1 guys code for Google might bring in 100s of millions of dollars of revenue (granted most guys codes contribute far far less).

I find it rather hard to generate 100s of millions of dollars of wealth through metal working.

On the flip side, which is harder to outsource? For metal trinkets it would be similar, for stuff that needs to be on prem.. metal working would be outsource proof.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#52

Post by MarcoSanto »

I feel you. As many here I failed to recognize burnout early enough to prevent total exhaustion. My experience (not a doc) is medication won’t help and ADHD seems to be a stereotypical American fixation almost like tomato sauce for us Italians. Call it for what it is and don’t blame yourself. The cure for burnout is change. Distance yourself from the source of discomfort, lay bricks or bag groceries for at least three months and it will go away. I am saying this because you said you cannot afford a vacation (not slouching on the couch, rather travel). Not sure my experience will help, but that’s my 2 cents.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#53

Post by elil17 »

ThrowAway1922A wrote: post #17
omginternets wrote: post #11

>During my time off I've been poked and prodded by psychologists and they seem to think I have ADHD and that it was a large contributing factor to this, though I'm not completely sure I buy this explanation. I think you should give this idea more thought. The situation you find yourself in is not uncommon among high-functioning ADHD persons, and your life can truly get a whole lot better with a bit of therapy and med…

I mean if they want to try and medicate me I'm not going to say no at this point, regardless of my personal views on the diagnosis. I've reached a point where I don't think any additional harm would be caused by doing so. I'm going to find out in ~2 weeks at my next meeting whether they want to try medicine or not and I will just do whatever they tell me to do. I mean I'm not a psychologist, I'm paying them for their…

If you're up for learning a bit more about ADHD and associated meds, I would recommend these two podcast episodes: https://www.alieward.com/ologies/adhd

They cover what it is that ADHD meds actually do and why certain meds work for some people but not for others.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#54

Post by bayesian_horse »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #28

Your reaction sounds reasonable to the BS corporate world. It's the agile coaches out there planning more meetings that need a psychologist. Changing job may have a temporary positive effect, it lasts roughly 6 months for me. Do the absolute minimum at any job you need to so you don't starve. Don't try to makes sense of it. It is indeed BS and you shouldn't care. Don't care. Meanwhile, try to figure out an exit strat…

If meetings stress you out I'd say that's on you or maybe the people at those meetings. Not that meetings are necessarily productive, but just sitting in a chair shouldn't really be that stressful. If it is, some therapy may be in order?

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#55

Post by simonswords82 »

ThrowAway1922A wrote: post #17
omginternets wrote: post #11

>During my time off I've been poked and prodded by psychologists and they seem to think I have ADHD and that it was a large contributing factor to this, though I'm not completely sure I buy this explanation. I think you should give this idea more thought. The situation you find yourself in is not uncommon among high-functioning ADHD persons, and your life can truly get a whole lot better with a bit of therapy and med…

I mean if they want to try and medicate me I'm not going to say no at this point, regardless of my personal views on the diagnosis. I've reached a point where I don't think any additional harm would be caused by doing so. I'm going to find out in ~2 weeks at my next meeting whether they want to try medicine or not and I will just do whatever they tell me to do. I mean I'm not a psychologist, I'm paying them for their…

I agree that it would be foolish not to take their advice, however...

One data point from me - ADHD medication (Elvanse specifically) has some gnarly side effects which meant my wife had a very rough time with it. I won't go in to detail other than to say we nearly ended up in the A&E a couple of times. By all means try medication but be prepared to switch to another or abandon it altogether if the side effects are overwhelming. Listen to your body.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#56

Post by TrueGeek »

> I'm not well off like most people on here, I can survive 4-6 months with no salary

Be careful of comparing yourself to what people post online. It's easy to read social media and think everyone else is waking up at 5am, drinking their keto coffee, and making millions with their startup while working as a digital nomad.

Even on a tech heavy site like HN I would classify someone with 6 months of savings as very well off.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#58

Post by photochemsyn »

Psychologists who say you have ADHD and should take amphetamines to treat it are unlikely to recommend something like psilocybin instead. For an alternate approach to burnout and depression:

https://ava.substack.com/p/psychedelics-a-personal-take

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33435140

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with burnout and its consequences?

#60

Post by bayesian_horse »

mozman wrote: post #7
monk_e_boy wrote: post #4

A different job? Go travelling for a while? Travelling is a lot of fun and makes you realize that life is short and that you should make the most of it. I changed careers and found the change fun. I may go back to coding at some point, I kinda miss the that deep thinking it requires .... but I can do that in my spare time if I really need to. Or, if you need the money, just phone it in for a while.

I’m opening a local metal working business. Running both until I can get a decent income stream. Tech prospects look bleak, I think the party will be over in 10 or less years as engineers are viewed more as a cost vs value add.

There are way more "tech jobs" than people who are qualified for them. Those numbers have to come way down. Digitalisation is far from complete, there is still way more productivity to reap. Machine Learning and automation is still far from finished, growing steadily. Cynics can disagree, of course. There may even be the odd bubble bursting, temporarily.

The worst that will happen is that some companies are chasing opportunities that aren't profitable enough to hire tech workers.

Most experts who have any data or solid reasoning agree that tech jobs won't get slashed permanently.

Post reply on HN