Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#51

Post by youngButEager » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 5:46 AM UTC

Invest in Real Estate. Period. I've made million$ in Silicon Valley property. I bought a bank-owned, decrepit 9-unit apartment building just 2 years out of college. Making huge monthly deposits into savings/brokerage account is exciting stuff.

Reason I mention this -- RE save my arse when I reached your level. Easily replaced the coding income, even though I was consulting in my last few years for $120 to $400 per hour.

I have friends who could not get hired in their 40s. At that time, I had not had a regular job in software for 10 years. I'm now 20 years past my final full time job and just making tons of money in Real Estate. Unlike coding tools, the tools you develop to purchase and manage properties does not get rotten like vegetables at Safeway.

Let's face it. We're some of the smartest folks on the planet. Do you Really think any of us can find intellectual stimulation after many years of doing the same thing? Very few of us can.

Do something different. RE is different and will replace your income.

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#52

Post by rebootthesystem » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 5:46 AM UTC

Hmmmm. That simply tells me you (a) don't know enough or havent learned enough or (b) have been stuck in or focusing on what I call the "will write software for clicks" world.

I don't mean this as a put-down at all. Any time I hear so ething like that it usually means the person saying it has been wearing blinders for a long time and has no clue what else is out there.

How about this: Go figure out how to make a machine really think. You could devote a lifetime to that alone. Then, if you succeed, figure out how to use it to help doctors and researchers diagnose patients and/or find cures for diseases.

One thing that really re-ignited my love for technology (not that I lost it) was to become a mentor for our local FIRST FRC team. Experiencing the discovery, passion and excitement of technology through the eyes of a bunch of smart kids eager to learn is really neat.

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#53

Post by beambot » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 5:47 AM UTC

yankoff wrote: post #22

Try diving deeper into real CS, there is the entire world of things that can revive your passion. If you mainly were focused on building CRUD apps and websites it's not surprising to get bored and burned out. Get out of your typical routines and try finding challenging stuff to do. Some ideas: * Figure out how to write AI for games. A simple example would be, how to write a bot that finds shortest path out of labyrin…

Any of these are fine... but don't shy away from activities that aren't "pure software": Play with hardware (robots!), learn to weld, go play tennis, go scuba diving.

Along the way, you might find {activities, collaborators, products, ideas} that get you really excited. And since it's not "pure software" there will almost certainly be lots of opportunities to have a major impact! Software is eating the world, and almost every "non-pure software" activity is hurting for good programmer help.

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#54

Post by GotToStartup » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 5:55 AM UTC

"Trying to use all the features of a language and thinking a one liner is cool even when a five liner and a one liner is same when compiled into machine code"

Thing is, it's pretty easy to code for a machine. It's REALLY hard to program in a way that other developers can understand you. And, like in literature, using less words to describe something is more often better for the reader.

"Too much jargon, falsely claimed software engineering practices and overly zealous object oriented mentality"

I used to hate all the jargon too but then I realizes it gives programmers a vocabulary to discuss things. When everyone understands the jargon, it makes discussing complex solutions a lot easier. OO can definitely be overused, but honestly 99% of the problems I face are people just writing unmaintainable, procedural code. You're right though, OO can often be less simple (harder to read all at once) but that's the trade off we devs need to balance when writing code.

I don't want to sound condescending but is it possible you are making excuses for learning hard things. Maybe it's the people you work with who are pushing it down your throat the wrong way. Maybe you already know these hard things but just haven't had to use it so you're giving up on the ideas. Or maybe I'm still in the cynical phase of my life.

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#55

Post by brobinson » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 5:57 AM UTC

I feel exactly the same way, so I'm trying to start my own businesses now. Even though they're software-based, my main struggles are on the non-software parts of the business (validating products, determining market fit, advertising, logistics, etc.). The software part just kind of happens without effort in comparison. I just use whatever tool makes the most sense for the job. I don't see the point of proselytizing for any particular technology anymore. I also moved to Asia to get a change of scenery.

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#56

Post by neonbat » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 6:05 AM UTC

Learn plasma physics. Build a fusion reactor.

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#57

Post by chipsy » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 6:05 AM UTC

I realized this the moment I started interviewing for engineering positions, after doing game design for some time. I decided I would go back to design from whence I came - albeit now I've expanded from game design to include UX. That recontextualized my programming skills as execution on a design idea - instead of as engineering towards optimal code quality. I get to stay near the top of the stack and not worry _too_ much about how broken it all is, because I'm not going to try building my career around that.

There will always be folks eager to be employed as cogs or who try to attain "thought leader" status. That's not really a judgment on those people, since maybe their personality or situation makes it a good fit. But if it's bothering you that you can't go farther from within this lens, find a slightly different one.

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#58

Post by barbs » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 6:16 AM UTC

yankoff wrote: post #22

Try diving deeper into real CS, there is the entire world of things that can revive your passion. If you mainly were focused on building CRUD apps and websites it's not surprising to get bored and burned out. Get out of your typical routines and try finding challenging stuff to do. Some ideas: * Figure out how to write AI for games. A simple example would be, how to write a bot that finds shortest path out of labyrin…

Well said. Computer Science encompasses so many things, and the things you're fed up about (elitism in the community) make up just a small part of the territory. Ignore this, and take some time to explore other projects/technologies, like the ones suggested above. You'll no doubt find something that interests and excites you.

The wonderful thing about our line of work, especially these days, is that it's so easy to find projects, learn about them and participate. It just takes time and perseverance :).

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#59

Post by zippy786 » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 6:20 AM UTC

yankoff wrote: post #22

Try diving deeper into real CS, there is the entire world of things that can revive your passion. If you mainly were focused on building CRUD apps and websites it's not surprising to get bored and burned out. Get out of your typical routines and try finding challenging stuff to do. Some ideas: * Figure out how to write AI for games. A simple example would be, how to write a bot that finds shortest path out of labyrin…

I used to love low-level graphics programming (drawing polygons, fractals), closely worked with people doing kernel stuff, have a CS degree in Machine learning, doing infosec for fun and have dealt with quite a bit of distributed/system/database stuff to scale.

After some time, these challenging stuff have the same problem, being mundane. Specially constraint of work environment and people you have to deal with. Plus some of the "coolest stuff" just blows up with overfitting and seems to be a mere hype to me.

Re: Ask HN: I am 30+ and bored with life and the software industry, what do I do?

#60

Post by Axsuul » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 6:24 AM UTC

Is sounds like you need some more diversity in your life. Doing nothing but programming can often lead you down the path of thinking that's all there is to life, which is extremely far from the truth. It's essential to take up hobbies that have absolutely nothing to do with programming so that you can start seeing things from a different perspective. Trust the process as this is a problem that I see time and time again. Getting into deeper subjects about programming is not the solution, especially if you're not seeking this out naturally. The solution is to step outside of your comfort zone right now.