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?

#91

Post by Franciscodr » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 7:59 AM UTC

beambot wrote: post #53

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 alm…

Hi beambot!

That's great! Many of us have done the other way: approaching programming via robots. If you are tired on programming, do something that moves AFK: create a robot. You can start from small. There are hundreds of people sharing their insights so you can learn fast and do your own. Try here: letsmakerobots.com

Francisco

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

#92

Post by pheon » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 8:03 AM UTC

Its interesting reading all the comments here, and think most of it misses the OP`s point. That software development as a JOB means working coherently with other people / teams. The result: you need to be complicit to work effectively within that team/companies imaginary tower/religion. Otherwise you`ll loose your job or become "that" PITA engineer.

What`s worked well for myself is starting a small niche tech business. We`re small and focused on resolving customer problems. Not bickering over class hierarchy, design rules or other crap thats irrelevant to building products that customers really enjoy.

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

#93

Post by ak39 » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 8:09 AM UTC

ranty wrote: post #29

You've not burned out, you've matured as a programmer. You can see all the crap for what it is so now try and make a difference... Champion the cause of code that's legible - and that doesn't mean covering it in syntactic sugar. Legible code makes it damn obvious what it does and how it does it. Sometime find the "power take off" for a tractor ... that's what you're trying to do. You can also champion the cause of no…

"Get yourself, your team or whatever to sit next to your damn customer."

Well said. The customer is the final and only arbiter on our disagreements about tech tool choice, style and architecture. In front of the customer, all our internal arguments look and sound like those of immature, spoilt and unfocused professionals.

Add to that that many IT professionals dislike getting advice/input from non-techs and you see why we have so many broken systems out there.

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

#94

Post by pm24601 » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 8:14 AM UTC

Software is just a tool. A crescent wrench is just a tool. A paintbrush is just a tool.

Don't fall in love with a tool, fall in love with using the tool to make the world a better place. If you are not making the world better, then you are missing the whole point.

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

#95

Post by spacemanmatt » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 9:27 AM UTC

Get out before you have obligations (mortgages/kids)

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

#96

Post by kont » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 9:37 AM UTC

study islam

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

#97

Post by bonobo3000 » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 10:02 AM UTC

jmui wrote: post #81

I definitely see your point of view regarding all the efforts in the community to make the next shiny thing. It's very prevalent on the front page of HN all the time. I can't tell if it's representative of the culture as a whole or just those who are frequent posters of HN. In any case, I think that you'd have a lot in common with David Heinemeier Hansson. You can see in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBf…

Wow thanks for that link, that was awesome. I just spent 2 hours watching that and another interview by Jason Fried. The company philosophy is also very down to earth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZGS_IOPZpk at 25:18 - "People always ask, thats always the next question. Will that scale if you have a 100 people? I don't give a fuck. Because we don't have a 100 people". GOLD.

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

#98

Post by nphyte » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 10:57 AM UTC

take a break and travel. Share your knowledge with kids who are eager to learn. do something your right brain approves of

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

#99

Post by big_paps » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 11:19 AM UTC

perhaps you should a) search for something exciting beyond your job, b) use your expertise for something new i.e. building your own company.

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

#100

Post by tmaly » Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 12:21 PM UTC

I would try making a small startup on the side. You can learn design, marketing, devops, sales, etc just from a small endeavor. It is a nice change of pace from always banging on a keyboard.