I've been working at this company as a developer for a few months right after graduating. Company is great, it has many perks, and people there are great. But I am just bored doing stuff that I do. At the end of the day I just come home and realize that I did absolutely nothing useful. I just want to feel alive or something when I am trying to solve something interesting and important, like applying some algorithm to solve some problem (like in uni assignments), or just believing in something that could make an impact on the world (like developing my hobby projects, but I haven't had any new ideas in months). I can't really quit, because I have no social skills to find a new job, especially something really good and interesting. I have no ideas on my own (if I had something I believed in, I would quit the next day). I am in UK now. And I believe I am a quite good developer, been developing since 13 years old. What should I do? Days just seem to pass so fast because of this boredom and monotony and it seems I am wasting my time doing nothing... I am 23. I don't care about money, I don't even care that much about working overtime, I have so much energy, I want to help change the world or make an impact on it, or at least have a slight chance doing that.
Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
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Re: Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
#2get involved in some interesting open source community, and more specifically in a popular project.
this will do two things - one, it will let you write code that keeps you engaged, without needing to come up with ideas for something to write from scratch, and two, working on a large and active project with multiple contributors, mailing list, irc channel, etc. will be helpful with social skills (at least as far as interacting with other developers goes) and might even act as a form of networking (i've seen several job posts made directly to community mailing lists, especially if the job is for a non-mainstream language or framework).
if you can list some of the things you've found fun or exciting to work with in the past, we can help make more specific suggestions of areas to explore.
Re: Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
#3Your salary is now seed funding for your next startup ;)
Re: Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
#4Your salary is now seed funding for your next startup ;)
This... 1000 times this. Use the opportunity to work on your social skills too but most importantly save money and figure out what's next. In the future it will let you take risks you otherwise could not like, for instance, trying changing the world for the better. If I had a time machine this is the number one piece of advice I would try to convince 23 year old me to follow. And sure, get involved in some open source thing perhaps too - it could help get you into a more interesting job down the road and expand your network.
Re: Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
#5Do something different.
What would you do if you knew you only had a year left to live, a month, week, day?
Get a remote job, travel the world. Join an exciting startup or start your own. Take a step back and think about the bigger picture, break the mundane system, you're in a unique space and time to do so. Do what makes you feel alive, if you don't know, experiment. Whatever you choose to do don't settle, you only get one chance...
Re: Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
#6Do something different. What would you do if you knew you only had a year left to live, a month, week, day? Get a remote job, travel the world. Join an exciting startup or start your own. Take a step back and think about the bigger picture, break the mundane system, you're in a unique space and time to do so. Do what makes you feel alive, if you don't know, experiment. Whatever you choose to do don't settle, you only…
I don't feel like the "what would you do if you had a year/week/day left to live" is a very useful question. If I had a day left to live, I'd try LSD, heroin and probably pick a fight with someone I didn't like, not try to learn a new technology.
Re: Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
#7Do something different. What would you do if you knew you only had a year left to live, a month, week, day? Get a remote job, travel the world. Join an exciting startup or start your own. Take a step back and think about the bigger picture, break the mundane system, you're in a unique space and time to do so. Do what makes you feel alive, if you don't know, experiment. Whatever you choose to do don't settle, you only…
I don't feel like the "what would you do if you had a year/week/day left to live" is a very useful question. If I had a day left to live, I'd try LSD, heroin and probably pick a fight with someone I didn't like, not try to learn a new technology.
You're sure you'd spend your last days being completely unlike you? Then maybe you aren't living that honest a life.
Re: Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't feel like the "what would you do if you had a year/week/day left to live" is a very useful question. If I had a day left to live, I'd try LSD, heroin and probably pick a fight with someone I didn't like, not try to learn a new technology.
You're sure you'd spend your last days being completely unlike you? Then maybe you aren't living that honest a life.
I'd spend my life as a person who re-evaluates priorities given new data.
I don't do heroin now because I would (likely) be trading decades of health and happiness for a temporary bliss, followed by crippling addiction and the loss of my family, friends, and job.
(Also, I beg HN not to let this thread turn into an argument about drug policy, responsible drug use, etc., etc. There are probably people out there who can use heroin responsibly; I almost certainly would not be one of them.)
Re: Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
#9[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Bored at my dev job. Don't know what to do
#10Companies devote so much time, money, and energy to recruiting good engineers; but then dump them on projects which slowly suck their will to live. Ideally, a company should have as a mantra, "We will not bore you." If you have a lot of excess energy and time, why not enter a competition? For example, OpenCV is sponsoring a contest to improve the library in one of ten or so major areas. If you succeed, you could win a little cash, plus gain some cred for finding a more interesting job.