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How to Burn Out Programming

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Re: How to Burn Out Programming

#31

Post by rcfox »

jcagalawan wrote: post #12

Now how about an article on how to recover from burn out, doing nothing all day for a couple months doesn't seem to be working out.

I don't know if I've been burned out that bad, but for me, making something where I can get lots of quick, visible feedback helps a lot.

The quick part is important you have to convince yourself to keep going, and if you have long stretches between seeing something new, it's really difficult.

The visible part is important, because once you've reached a certain point, you'll want to show it off to people. It doesn't really matter what they think of it because once you're at the point of showing it off, you've already given yourself a big ego boost.

Data visualizations and games work well for this. Game engines and CRUD apps do not.

Re: How to Burn Out Programming

#32

Post by eru »

chasing wrote: post #19

Where's "Don't exercise?" That'd be pretty close to the top of my list. A quick 2-3 mile jog around the neighborhood can help get me out of work-related funks. (I work at a home office, though, so it's easier for me to say "fuck it" and go do something sweaty in the middle of the day...) My theory is that, since the only real item on your jogging to-do list is to put one foot in front of the other, your brain is free…

Also, you can't ignore your body. It wants to move.

Re: How to Burn Out Programming

#33

Post by mfjordvald »

elnate wrote: post #4
[deleted] wrote: post #3

[deleted]

I've never been burnt out(yet). What does it feel like?

For me it was a weird mix of guilt and indifference. On the one hand I knew I was wasting my playing video games instead of working. On the other hand I didn't really give a shit. Being burned out was total indifference towards working - with everything that entails, including being self-sustaining money wise - while at the same time having the knowledge that what I was doing was not beneficial to my life and would very quickly end up hurting me.

Looking back I was in that spiral for too long, I spent months not doing much of anything. I'm not sure at what point it started getting better for me, it seemed to just gradually get better very slowly. Eventually I shook up my life by taking a job in an entirely different country and the difference in daily life was enough to invigorate me again.

Re: How to Burn Out Programming

#34

Post by sakri »

chasing wrote: post #19

Where's "Don't exercise?" That'd be pretty close to the top of my list. A quick 2-3 mile jog around the neighborhood can help get me out of work-related funks. (I work at a home office, though, so it's easier for me to say "fuck it" and go do something sweaty in the middle of the day...) My theory is that, since the only real item on your jogging to-do list is to put one foot in front of the other, your brain is free…

Moderate exercise not only treats, but prevents depression http://media.utoronto.ca/media-releases/moderate-exercise-no... I don't like jogging, so I go for a walk everyday, which includes a lot of hills and stairs. Not only do I meet my 10,000 steps on my step counter, but it's when I come up with my best ideas. Also being grossly overweight does no favors to keeping depression away.

Re: How to Burn Out Programming

#36

Post by pcl »

Growing in the company (developer -> manager -> director)

One of the great things about Cisco (my current employer) is that there's a really strong technical career path that doesn't force engineers into the management hierarchy. I hope that this becomes more common at tech companies as time goes on.

Re: How to Burn Out Programming

#37

Post by sakri »

Challenge yourself a little bit in doing something you didn't think you could. Show it to everyone you know, and don't just ask for feedback, but brag about what you've done.

This did something for me. I'm recovering from a dark place. I recently joined codepen and as superficial and lame as it sounds, every "like" and "view" is like a dose of anti-depressant :) http://codepen.io/sakri/popular

Re: How to Burn Out Programming

#38

Post by dnautics »

I posted a while back about this, but my belief is that burnout stems from a repeated failure to be timely rewarded for effort that then results in conditioning to avoid labor to prevent the negative prediction error.

Tips that don't address the root cause are fine but think about the mechanism.

Re: How to Burn Out Programming

#40

Post by pramodkdas »

"4. Switch jobs often" As someone has mentioned. the other extreme can also be dangerous. A familiar style of working can also lead to burnout. What about team burnouts.. have seen teams experiencing the same because of pressure from the managers.
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