The entire 'Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman' book is just an incredible read.
Yep, I recommend that and his other book.
Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
21–30 of 189 posts
Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
#22I was severely burned out two years ago after I left the last startup I cofounded. I had a good bit of cash saved up, so I traveled around the world to get better at rock climbing. I could barely write more than a few lines of code before closing my laptop. I would rather sit on the beach and stare at the waves than do anything productive back then.
When I got home from my trip around the world, I struggled to build anything meaningful - I'd get intensely bored after starting a new project, and move on to something else. The first project that I took to completion was reprogramming my Lifx smart bulbs. There was a noticeable delay between turning a light on/off in the iOS app, and the light actually changing its state. Sometimes the app and lightbulb would get their states out of sync, and I didn't like the idea of some light bulb company knowing my schedule. Even for first-world problems though, it was hardly worth solving.
I discovered there is a binary protocol to control the lights directly over the local network, so I developed an extensive TypeScript library to control the lights and build custom web interfaces to serve as light switches. I found a guy on the Lifx forums who built his own crude solution with Python scripts, and he became my first consulting client. That client's referral led me to a variety of interesting work opportunities over the past year. Noticing similarities across a variety of these projects led me to start a new company a few months ago to build a product to address them.
My point being, sometimes you just have to sit down and play.
Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
#23While this passage is inspiring, it boils down to: 1. Get good at something 2. Get paid for doing it 3. Get burned out by doing it 4. Return to the fun way of doing it 5. ??? 6. Win a Nobel prize or similar How repeatable is that pattern? Is that one of the patterns we want to teach the next generation? Serious question. I don't know the answer. Feynman is obviously rather exceptional. Should we encourage people to f…
Pattern like that isn't repeatable, but idea of letting go of expectations to recover the joy of doing whatever you are doing is.
I heavily agree. I got in to security and programming by doing fund video game hacking stuff. Then I got paid to do it, lost the joy and got fired, then started to do it recreationally again and the dopamine rush/addiction is back.
Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
#24What an inspiring passage. I’ve been feeling the exact same way about software lately. It’s just no fun anymore. I should do something pointless like making a wayland compositor for myself or something.
When I struggled hard with burnout, I found that hobbies were an important part of fixing that -- but it was important that the hobbies had little-to-nothing to do with computers (I had computer-related hobbies too, of course, but they didn't seem particularly effective in terms of mitigating burnout).
Personally, I’ve found that if I get super interested in a programming project at home that I’ll get too distracted and unfocused at work, which feels pretty miserable. For that reason, I’ve mostly given up on programming at home in favor of reading and other hobbies.
I do think this is a good approach at work though. There’s always something I can investigate that I’m interested in at work that I can find enjoyment from. Even if it isn’t exactly what I’m ideally supposed to be working on, I’m able to help people and provide valuable insights that are beneficial for my team and company.
This is a much more satisfying situation than either spinning my wheels because I’m not interested in what I’m working on am too distracted by projects at home.
Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
#25As a researcher, I’ve felt largely the same way lately. It’s been hard for me to even wrap up a project I was so excited about when I started it that I missed sleep because I was that engaged. Unfortunately, I don’t have a cozy tenure position at a major research institution to ride out the burnout until I feel inspired again. I’m just a lowly postdoc. I’ve thought about leaving the research life for a regular job, b…
Not sure it would help, but it may: adopt a rescue animal, if you're a pet oriented person, and don't already have one, and it may jar your perspectives in multiple dimensions as to what is fun, what is entertaining, what is meaningful.
That worked for me when i felt like you describe.
Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
#26Very inspiring passage. I had this feeling of playing around with stuff (Programming in my case) in the beginning of my studies, but it faded away over time because of work. Even though I work in a wonderful project, I feel burned out a lot nowadays. Might lookout for that initial feeling again now, I probably won't achieve as much as Feynman, but I hope that removing the pressure and enjoying what I'm doing might be good for mental health
Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
#27I can just imagine this in his voice (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYg6jzotiAc ) Feynman is my favourite physicist. Of course you could pick someone else, you could argue about the relative importance of each person's contribution to scientific knowledge, but it was his aimiability, playfulness and curiousity, combined with the fact that he _did_ break new frontiers in quantum physics that make him so inspiri…
There was the person who viewed the blast from behind glass with no protection, which I'm pretty sure is a reference to his story about the exact same thing.
Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
#28While this passage is inspiring, it boils down to: 1. Get good at something 2. Get paid for doing it 3. Get burned out by doing it 4. Return to the fun way of doing it 5. ??? 6. Win a Nobel prize or similar How repeatable is that pattern? Is that one of the patterns we want to teach the next generation? Serious question. I don't know the answer. Feynman is obviously rather exceptional. Should we encourage people to f…
I think the takeaway from the anecdote is that you should have fun with the simple things if you have "writers block" or are tired. Try to get a new perspective on something.
Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
#29I can just imagine this in his voice (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYg6jzotiAc ) Feynman is my favourite physicist. Of course you could pick someone else, you could argue about the relative importance of each person's contribution to scientific knowledge, but it was his aimiability, playfulness and curiousity, combined with the fact that he _did_ break new frontiers in quantum physics that make him so inspiri…
A favorite of mine as well. I too was hoping for more of an appearance. I wondered if Feynman’s moment was during the first test scene where there is a spectator/scientist sitting in a car with Teller sitting in a lawn chair in the foreground. Feynman says in one of his books he noticed the car windows should block the UV radiation.
Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)
#30As a researcher, I’ve felt largely the same way lately. It’s been hard for me to even wrap up a project I was so excited about when I started it that I missed sleep because I was that engaged. Unfortunately, I don’t have a cozy tenure position at a major research institution to ride out the burnout until I feel inspired again. I’m just a lowly postdoc. I’ve thought about leaving the research life for a regular job, b…
Man, I feel you. I'm not an academic, but I'm just feeling out of breath and defeated lately. I grew up loving to build software. Reading programming books, keeping up with tech. It's the closest thing to work + passion that I think I've ever felt. Joined the military to get out of my hometown. Worked in whatever field I could remotely relate to while I finished my BS:CS. Moved from non-IT fields into whatever IT-related field I could hoping it'd get my resume closer to what I wanted to do.
Now I'm just pigeon-holed into some boring bureaucratic IT admin gig with just enough perks to keep me around, and big enough dollar signs to prevent me from starting over in a junior capacity. Then I see all of the discussions from people that don't enjoy development after just a short time, get laid off, etc - and it makes the reality that I'm just destined to rot bored to death for 40hrs a week for the next 25+ years all the more real.
I also realize I am extremely fortunate compared to plenty of others, but that "tug" telling me I was destined for much more gets stronger the older I get.