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The Reality of Developer Burnout

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Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#121

Post by manish_gill »

pc86 wrote: post #8
coldcode wrote: post #3

If you are developing software as a life, you don't have one; if on the other hand you are developing software for fun, you are having it; if you are just developing software for money; leave it at work. It's hard to be buried 100% in software and realize the rest of life is more important.

The best thing I ever did for my professional life was acquiring new interests that had nothing to do with software but were still intellectually and/or physically stimulating. Weightlifting is cheap, has proven physical and psychological benefits, and is eventually fun (sucks for the first few weeks/months though). I just recently starting taking lessons to get a private pilot's license. GA is expensive (relatively…

> (relatively - anyone on here who isn't a student can afford it)

I know you mean well but this is the epitome of living in a bubble. :)

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#122

Post by grigjd3 »

user837387 wrote: post #55
wmccullough wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find myself doing the same thing with HN. Most of the time I love it, but it seems once in awhile the contrarians come out to play, and meaningful discussions drop to zero.

HN is full of contrarians. Say anything blunt, not rude but blunt, and you will get down-voted to oblivion. And not even that, say something in a polite way that people cannot discredit but still not like and you will get down-voted. I feel like you have to mold yourself to the hive mind if you want your stuff to be up-voted. Not sure if this is really how it is or if it is just me. On the other hand, a lot of times…

All social media is like that.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#124

Post by lacampbell »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #46
wmccullough wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find myself doing the same thing with HN. Most of the time I love it, but it seems once in awhile the contrarians come out to play, and meaningful discussions drop to zero.

As someone who is feeling more and more contrarian lately in my comments here and regretting it, I think it's because after a decade of HN, everything starts to the look the same. Everybody is trying to sell a framework, a startup, a language, or their own personal brand and it turns into a big circlejerk of everyone patting themselves on the back because they've got some secret knowledge. Sometimes it doesn't seem l…

I've enjoyed arguing (debating?) who with people about OO and FP here. I don't get the downvoting backlash despite going a bit against current fashions (I still like objects and think they make a great foundation for computing in general).

The only time I get heavily downvoted for being critical is when I mention a certain programming language - which I happen to like.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#125

Post by sanderjd »

poikniok wrote: post #29
Humdeee wrote: post #5

I've been burned out twice. The first and deeper of the two was right after I graduated years ago. It made the whole process of going straight into the workforce bittersweet, as I was mentally not ready to muster the energy to endure the rigors of professional development on-boarding for a new grad. I managed, but no where near at a potential I could of been. A brutal semester of final projects and endless nights had…

You know the one about entering the workforce hits home for me, I feel like this is about to happen to me, but I feel sort of powerless to stop it.

In addition to what another commenter said about communicating: We (your manager and more senior colleagues) understand that you're just starting out. We don't expect you to know everything. We don't expect you to learn everything all at once. This one probably stings (if you're like me), but can be helpful to your psyche if you can overcome your pride and internalize it: We don't expect much from you at all yet, certainly far less than you expect from yourself.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#126

Post by LyalinDotCom »

am I the only one who read this and didn't really take anything new away? yeah social media, like anything else is not always a good thing. okay, sure... but i'm sorry developer burnout happens for a lot more reasons then stated in the write-up.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#127

Post by scrollaway »

debt wrote: post #78
1_2__3 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're actually making the issue worse by conflating burnout with simple... I guess laziness? In fact the whole reason why burnout is such a fascinating phenomenon is because it takes otherwise highly productivity people who do not hate their job and turns them into minimal-productivity people who do hate their jobs. That's nothing at all like you're describing.

So people who love their jobs can also burn out? I don't buy it. Personally, I've never heard of or met anyone who loves their job and has burned out. Have you?

Hi. I'm Jerome. Good to meet you.

Now you have!

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#128

Post by omginternets »

user837387 wrote: post #55
wmccullough wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find myself doing the same thing with HN. Most of the time I love it, but it seems once in awhile the contrarians come out to play, and meaningful discussions drop to zero.

HN is full of contrarians. Say anything blunt, not rude but blunt, and you will get down-voted to oblivion. And not even that, say something in a polite way that people cannot discredit but still not like and you will get down-voted. I feel like you have to mold yourself to the hive mind if you want your stuff to be up-voted. Not sure if this is really how it is or if it is just me. On the other hand, a lot of times…

With respect, you say this as though bluntness were a virtue.

I've found that putting a little bit of effort into form goes a long way in generating useful feedback.

Stated otherwise, it's about recognizing that we're not talking face-to-face, and that the characteristics of this particular mode of communication make it easy to misinterpret (often for worse) what is being said.

tl;dr: my favorite way to start a comment is "With respect, ...". It helps a lot.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#129

Post by willstrafach »

metaphorm wrote: post #77
user837387 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is full of contrarians. Say anything blunt, not rude but blunt, and you will get down-voted to oblivion. And not even that, say something in a polite way that people cannot discredit but still not like and you will get down-voted. I feel like you have to mold yourself to the hive mind if you want your stuff to be up-voted. Not sure if this is really how it is or if it is just me. On the other hand, a lot of times…

the easiest way to collect upvotes is effluvient praise for whichever silicon valley company is currently the "great golden hope". the easiest way to collect downvotes is to contradict any of PG's implicit or explicit biases. the weight of mass down-voting seems to have improved since sama has taken over and PG is blogging less.

interestingly, posts such as yours (calling out hivemind / mass up/down-voting) seem to easily get a large amount of upvotes as well.

Re: The Reality of Developer Burnout

#130

Post by relics443 »

TL;DR I experienced massive burnout after ridiculous working hours and a broken contract

I experienced terrible burnout around a year ago that I'm still working to get over.

I had taken a pay cut to join a startup with the promise (contractually) that I receive a raise to market value + bonus after 12 months. The latter 6 of those months were spent working 16 hour days ramping up to a massive launch. There were multiple times were I was in the office for 40 hours straight. Throughout this entire period I was locked in and producing top quality code.

A few months after launch I approached my boss about the contractual raise + bonus. After blowing me off for a few weeks I had a meeting with the president and CEO where I was told that I would not be receiving either because I was not coming into the office by 10 AM. Not only that, but they told me they didn't appreciate the amount of work I put in, nor the fact that I had barely seen my family and friends in that the period because "no one asked you to do that." Mind you, our CTO had quit with 4 months to go until launch so I had taken some of his responsibilities, and I was the sole developer on Android, and one of two for the backend. All the while the feature requests kept pouring in.

Within a week I was bedridden, and I stayed that way for the next 3 months. I've been slowly recovering since then, but I'm not sure I'll ever be the same again.

I know I could've sued for the money, but it was the lack of even a basic appreciation that did me in.

Some people have told me that I have no one to blame but myself. I sort of agree with them, however, I know that if I would've gotten my raise and bonus I would've been fine.

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