41–50 of 93 posts
At least you have a lot of the skills that are in high-demand, whether on the job market or as a founder.
Why don't you create something just for yourself once? Just something that you think you would like to use or have. Worst case, you only have something nice that you like. Best case, some other people like it, too.
1) Taking a break, as lots of people have said, my help a lot. You get a much better view of yourself, your loved ones, your environment and what you have done than while engaged in 'making a living'. Even just a week off may help a lot.
2) Do not try to be 'the best' at anything. Really. Try just to enjoy what you do, and to do what you enjoy and are good at. Right now nothing feels like it because you are tired. Hence 1)
3) You need to start valueing what you do. Each time you make something which is good for you or for anyone, you need to 'celebrate' it inside and outside. You have done a lot of things but you have probably never enjoyed them and generated what you call 'feedback'. Really: the mere fact of getting up and taking a shower is enought to celebrate. Imagine finishing a project or starting a new one.
4) Let you loved ones make the valuations: this may be even better.
5) It is irrelevant that your ideas are not new. Your job and your contributions are.
But people have already said all this.
Sounds like you were in industry from 2000-20007, right (just backtracking your timeline)? Those were some grueling years, and then the mobile/freemium avalanche hit. You likely have a lot of native code experience, and probably dealt with annoying hardware issues, right (PowerPC, whatever)? Try getting a gig with somebody targeting embedded systems, or take some time off. Live life for a bit, stop programming, and m…
I think your reply is interesting because you're advising taking specific useful experience and kind of like, just working on selling the experience (which is absolutely worth something) rather than continuing pushing the 'next best thing'. Reading tech news sites all the time kind of makes me feel like unless you're pouring your heart and soul into your job or startup or whatever you're just a useless asshole. Maybe…
Read "Masters of Doom", read "Soul of a New Machine", read "The New New Thing", read iWoz: we see that products fail all the time, that pioneers take a bath, that the second mouse gets the cheese--but that engineers are always in demand.
A business can fail, but raw material is always being looked for.
I have a proposal that might sound strange and maybe you cannot do it for family reasons or whatnot... but it worked wonders for me and I think it's worth sharing.
Have you ever heard of Camino de Santiago? It's a pilgrimage route across Spain and I walked that when I was in some sort of personal crisis and I needed to clear my head and figure out my life.
The point is that you get out of your environment and your 'normal life' routine and you just walk. No plan, no pressure, no distractions (I did not check my email for weeks) and you just walk, enjoy the sun and rain, meet new people, think about what they have to say, enjoy occasional dinner and wine with your co-pilgrims.
It's difficult to explain the experience but the thing is that things start to happen in your brain and you start to see everything differently. I came there with anxiety attacks and one month and 750 km later I felt like a different person, relaxed and full of energy, ready for new adventures.
Is English your second language? Maybe the informal nature of forums brings this out but your grammar is pretty poor and for better or worse, English grammar has quite a bit to do with how people perceive us as individuals.
Indeed, I'm French and I'm really bad in English. Sorry for destroying your language so much.
Also, listen to what edw519 has to say.
Seems like you've been going at 110% for a long time. My recommendation: take a break. A month at least, and just explore passions that you never had the time for during your adventures. Build something fun (I like go-karts and mini bikes), read about something totally new and unrelated to programming (history, evolutionary psychology, fiction), and challenge yourself physically (strength training and endurance). It'…
Our brains get stimulated on new patterns. By doing something totally non-computer related higher level concepts will stimulate the higher regions of your brain and give you new perspectives and insights. These perspectives and insights will both work as a source of energy and motivation while you're coding, and the higher level patterns you learn doing a totally different task will help you "think outside the box" when writing software.
Go out there and stimulate that higher neocortex with some fresh patterns!
I'm desperate. You may think you're desperate, but you're not. Keep reading... I'm almost 38. Start programming at 10. Spent 7 years in video game industry as programmer, project manager, CTO. None of that matters. Today is Day 0. I tried during 5 years to create a "startup". You don't "create a startup". You supply solutions to other people's problems. When you do that properly, a "startup" is often the byproduct. F…
I'm desperate. You may think you're desperate, but you're not. Keep reading... I'm almost 38. Start programming at 10. Spent 7 years in video game industry as programmer, project manager, CTO. None of that matters. Today is Day 0. I tried during 5 years to create a "startup". You don't "create a startup". You supply solutions to other people's problems. When you do that properly, a "startup" is often the byproduct. F…
Once this person gets focussed on solving problems for customers I think they will be very successful.