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Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

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Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#101
Sounds like several bad work experiences in a row, but all with companies on a specific spectrum: hot startup -> unicorn -> megacorp. That's a particular flavor of company, and kind of a rough treadmill to walk on.

There are a lot of small to mid-size tech companies that actually make money, though maybe not unholy mountains of it, where work-life balance is great and people just want to make something customers love. There are also many agencies that fit that bill.

This risks sounding too simplistic, but in life I've found that work tends to fall into three categories:

1. People who want to get as rich as they possibly can. 2. People who want to make a living and enjoy life. 3. People who want work to be their passion.

I've learned to avoid #1 and #3.

Re: #1, Many of the best ways to get as rich as possible involve screwing other people over. The people who play that game and enjoy it end up being pretty cutthroat, because that's kind of the point. If that's not you (and it's not me), then it's not fun to be part of.

Re: #3, vocational "passion" is just hard. Sometimes this is because the dream is so big -- end world hunger, or something. Sometimes the dream is so popular -- become a world-famous artist, etc. This is where you'll find the dreamers and the starving artists. The people who thrive here sort of live in their own world where the more mundane concerns of life don't matter to them, otherwise they'd burn out and give up.

A lot of people think they need their work to be either about Riches or Passion (or worst of all, both), and so they go down those paths and find stress, exhaustion, and misery instead of happiness.

Meanwhile, in boring old Path #2, you have a whole lot of people who work from 9-5 and then go home. They think their job is kind of interesting, but they don't think they're "changing the world," and that's okay. The happiest folks here tend to be craftspersons who know how to make some kind of thing, and whatever it is, they make nice ones.

As for me, I spent years that I look back on now as a sad waste of time hunting for #1 and #3, before one day having basically no choice but to take a "kinda okay" job so I could buy groceries. I was badly burned out, and I decided I needed a break, that I'd take six months and just "work a stupid job" to recover and pay off my credit cards after my experiment in running my own business fizzled out. And after six months I realized I was the happiest I'd ever been.

Life is kind of weird. It's not glamorous or sexy to just work a regular job and go home at 5pm. But it can be the foundation of a really happy, satisfying life.

I don't know if that will help you or not, but, I hope some part of that is useful to you. Many people have been where you are now. It'll get better.

Good luck!

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#102
post #96

> But eventually I started exercising, went on anti-depressants, and started therapy. Then I got a job that has nothing to do with technology. Slowly my happiness returned, and with it my ability to focus. I do a lot of sports now and hang out with my non-techy friends and my wife. I cook a lot. Sounds like the issue had less to so with technology and more to do with lack of work-life balance and unaddressed clinical…

Depression caused by a burn-out, caused by a very sh*tty professional situation. I don't think it's unique to the tech sector but the tech industry _is_ harsh on people.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#103

Interesting venue to post this on. But as it's the afternoon in the US workday, it's a fair chance that many responses will come from US tech workers who are slacking off or taking a break from their job and were enticed in by the headline. Given the culture of HN comments I reckon you'll get grooming tips and pointless anecdotes, condescending advice, or unhelpful peptalks. What I'll say is that you probably are dis…

Your third and even fourth paragraphs are pretty interesting. It's a shame that they come after the speculation and jabs in the first two paragraphs.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#105
I worked in tech for 23 years, as an employee, freelancer, consultant, and business owner. I did development, devops, testing, management, sales... and after working my way through burnout several times and seeing the industry change in ways I don't like, I walked away to a new career. While not perfect and nowhere near as intellectually stimulating, it sure beats what I experienced in tech from an emotional and mental standpoint. So while "find your passion" is a little trite, there is something to be said for "find something that doesn't drain you every day, that pays your bills, that you might even enjoy, that enables you to live how you wish."

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#106
Well, why getting yourself burned in a startup? Take a reasonable sized company with a traditional business you like but do not love and work there as an employee, best in a country where employee rights mean something.

Being a corporate black matter developer is actually quite good.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#107
"I lost many friends". No,you did not.Those weren't your friends. Not sure if various feelings mentioned in the post are targeted correctly. Yes, there's lots of politics,bs,and coolaid drinking in a lot of companies,but that's the nature of what we humans are. There are a lot of very rewarding and interesting jobs out there that don't have all that bs attached to them,just don't be shy to look a bit further.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#108
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really, really bad advice. Mutiny is hardly an answer to the problem here. It will certainly temporarily avoid the problems you face but if you are a member of a team and this is truly how you act you will get chucked out very quickly. But since you bring up a few of the issues you are facing it's important to address them. I want to focus on unit tests to start. When I started my first programming job a coup…

I don't think the GP's advice is meant for team projects. > "Don't make enterprise software. [...] Don't accept pull requests. Simply write software for yourself and have fun doing it."

That's how I read it too.

I've recently started doing that and it's been a breath of fresh air.

I don't really like the stuff I work with, which is services. I think I've become good at it given the feedback I get from my peers every review cycle, but I really don't like it.

I felt burned out for a long time because of that.

Recently I've simply been doing what I'm interested in, in my spare time. That's learning about embedded systems, something I had an interest in in college but never pursued a career. And for fun, tinkering with old stuff that makes me nostalgic. I spent this last weekend coding in Pascal and messing around with FreeDOS :)

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#109

I have also experience close to burnout and recovered multiple times, in the process I have lost very precious relationships, and entire years were spent in darkness. I also have friends who have been in tech for close to ten years, and are close to burning out though they would never admit to such. This is the nature of the beast, all things that appear glamorous on the outside ( Hollywood, Finance, Tech, many nonpr…

> I also have friends who have been in tech for close to ten years, and are close to burning out

I realize the audience here is probably mostly younger folks but 10 years doing anything is not that much time IMO.

I think a 3rd or 4th burnout at 30 years of service is a lot harder to recover from, but I’m biased from my own experience.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#110

I have experienced all of the negative emotions the OP experienced, although his seem to be more acute. Some things which have helped me are to stop thinking about succeeding or advancing in life. Those goals are so high up most people don't even get close. OP got very close by being funded, and it sounds like the whole experience was a let-down over and above the business failure. It sounds like the OP has let go of…

> Now that you know how the system works, would you feel better about yourself had you succeeded? Would you feel guilty?

I think about that sometimes. Had I been one of the young optimistic CEOs running around talking about how to improve the world completely unaware of the tech underbelly, what would my life be like? If I had a button in front of me that would teleport me into that life, would I press it? I'm honestly not sure, but I'm leaning towards no. I want to learn how to integrate all this and learn to operate knowing what I know. I don't think I'd choose staying hopelessly naive for another thirty years. (Then again, I don't think they'd press the button to teleport into my life either.)

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