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

Ask HN: I'm Tired of Hacking. What Do I Do? Please Advise.

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 121 posts

Ask HN: I'm Tired of Hacking. What Do I Do? Please Advise.

#1

Post by TiredOfCoding »

I have been developing web apps for almost 8 years now. I worked at agencies, development shops, I freelanced, I was CTO of an startup, had the six figure salary, etc. I just can't do it anymore. I hate sitting on my ass all day writing some code. My neck has been hurting for two years for spending so many hours in front of the computer. I kind of have been hating my career for a couple of years now and I have no clue about what I should do. I'm in my late 20's and I don't have a lot in savings left (six months of living costs at the most). I quit my job last year to work on a webapp of my own. I finished about 50% of it and haven't been working on it since. I got some freelance web maintenance work just to help cover some of my bills I get paid monthly and it's really easy stuff but I find it very boring as well and I wish I didn't have to spend any time working on it. I'm not lazy I just got tired of writing code and this industry in general. I always delivered the best work. In all of my previous jobs and was usually the best developer, engineer, etc.

Has anything like this happened to any of you?

What do you recommend I do?

Re: Ask HN: I'm Tired of Hacking. What Do I Do? Please Advise.

#3

Post by Adrenalist »

Sounds like a case of burnout to me. I think a lot of people would envy your position, especially given today's economic climate. Without knowing anything of your situation, except that you don't want to work on computers any longer, I'd suggest taking a step back and really analyze your situation. Have a serious conversation about your immediate future with someone that you respect (parent, mentor, older friends/siblings, fellow hackers) and see what they'd say about your life, in general. Also, get out and socialize more. You obviously have a knack for putting together successful projects, so use those skills to help other people out. You will feel better about lending your skills and time to someone less fortunate.

Also, read some books? The 4 hour work week comes immediately to mind. You haven't defined success for YOUR life yet, it seems to me.

Re: Ask HN: I'm Tired of Hacking. What Do I Do? Please Advise.

#4

Post by sri »

Try something totally different. It could be a totally different technology: say Ruby on Rails or maybe Flex/Flash & Actionscript. How about becoming a designer? Something you have never considered before or never thought of as worthwhile. Something that brings back the "lightness" feeling you seem to be missing.

Re: Ask HN: I'm Tired of Hacking. What Do I Do? Please Advise.

#5

Post by mahmud »

Take one month's expenses, move out your pad if you're renting and go teach English overseas until you get your senses back.

Everyone needs their 2-years of fucking around backpacking before they hit 30. I am just coming back from mine; 20 countries in 2 years and stories for a life time. Cost me less than 10k a year to live like that.

Cheers!

Re: Ask HN: I'm Tired of Hacking. What Do I Do? Please Advise.

#6

Post by _cbsz »

Adrenalist wrote: post #3

Sounds like a case of burnout to me. I think a lot of people would envy your position, especially given today's economic climate. Without knowing anything of your situation, except that you don't want to work on computers any longer, I'd suggest taking a step back and really analyze your situation. Have a serious conversation about your immediate future with someone that you respect (parent, mentor, older friends/sib…

I find it interesting that "spouse" or "significant other" was not in the "someone that you respect" list.

Re: Ask HN: I'm Tired of Hacking. What Do I Do? Please Advise.

#7

Post by stavrianos »

Adrenalist wrote: post #3

Sounds like a case of burnout to me. I think a lot of people would envy your position, especially given today's economic climate. Without knowing anything of your situation, except that you don't want to work on computers any longer, I'd suggest taking a step back and really analyze your situation. Have a serious conversation about your immediate future with someone that you respect (parent, mentor, older friends/sib…

or at least, whatever definition he DID come up with is no longer valid.

I think that the measure of success is something that has to be discovered, rather than defined. It's not as though people are able to choose what they want- all they can choose is how to best go about it.

Re: Ask HN: I'm Tired of Hacking. What Do I Do? Please Advise.

#9

Post by oliverkofoed »

You're gonna live a long time, you've got time to change direction. Find a junior job doing something completely different, or even start studying something, anything.

Only things that can happen are that you become happy for you new job, or you fall back in love with programming.

Another option: I know an illustrator who was getting tired of the endless line of demanding clients wanting the same old work, so she decided to spice it up by taking internships one week of every month. She tries to make the internships as different as possible, examples being a baker, a clothing shop, some print/dtp shop, etc.

Maybe that could be a less radical way of getting some fresh perspective.

Re: Ask HN: I'm Tired of Hacking. What Do I Do? Please Advise.

#10

Post by wooster »

_cbsz wrote: post #6
Adrenalist wrote: post #3

Sounds like a case of burnout to me. I think a lot of people would envy your position, especially given today's economic climate. Without knowing anything of your situation, except that you don't want to work on computers any longer, I'd suggest taking a step back and really analyze your situation. Have a serious conversation about your immediate future with someone that you respect (parent, mentor, older friends/sib…

I find it interesting that "spouse" or "significant other" was not in the "someone that you respect" list.

I just figured the implicit assumption was the original poster doesn't have a spouse or significant other.
Post reply on HN