Loosing interest to code. • Hacker News Board

Re: Loosing interest to code.

#11

Post by iworkforthem » Sun, Oct 16, 2011, 2:42 PM UTC

5hoom wrote: post #6

A fun project with a clear goal is a helpful start, but you probably also need to get a few wins under your belt. With a job where you're just propping up a rotting old codebase, programming probably just feels like crap after crap. Start a project where you can have something cool happen after just a couple of hours of coding. The feeling of things actually progressing gives a lot of drive to continue. I guess thats…

it helps to make it as transparent as possible too.. tell as many friends about it.. do a tell hn: thread.. chances are you wont back out from it there after.

Re: Loosing interest to code.

#12

Post by S4M » Sun, Oct 16, 2011, 8:04 PM UTC

Here is my suggestion, but I am not sure it is doable as I never used COBOL in my life: can you write a program that would compile Ruby (or whatever new language you want to learn) into COBOL? If you can pull it off that would save you lots of time. And you can start by programming something to generate small pieces of COBOL for you, and then expand that program...

Re: Loosing interest to code.

#13

Post by nithinbekal » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 8:51 AM UTC

Replace COBOL with PL/SQL and that's exactly my story. Here are a few things I could suggest:

- Start with a smaller project, something that you could finish over a weekend. Finishing that kind of a project will leave you with the confidence to continue with more demanding projects.

- If you're working on a larger project, split it into smaller chunks. Make a list of things that could take, say, half an hour, and complete them as and when you get the time.

- Don't depend on others for motivation - motivate yourself. If you don't know why you want ot work on your own hobby projects, nobody else would.

There are lots of people I know that struggle to find the time to work on side projects. Funnily enough, I see that people working in startups find it as hard as us corporate IT folks to find the time.

Re: Loosing interest to code.

#14

Post by anando9 » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 10:06 AM UTC

Hey i think its time for you to look out for a job change, there are lot of other companys who work on Ruby, who pay well and also were you get all your freedom... i think of you opt for such a thing, your work could be fun :)

Re: Loosing interest to code.

#15

Post by techslam » Mon, Oct 17, 2011, 3:23 PM UTC

Thank you all for dropping by here and taking your time to give some valuable suggestions.

Re: Loosing interest to code.

#16

Post by shantharam » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 11:19 AM UTC

Simple. To do something you need to have the passion to do it. If you love it you will find a way to do it. My roommate's job sucks too and yet he finds time to do what he loves.