Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 288 posts

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#121

Post by tesdinger »

fidotron wrote: post #47
tenpoundhammer wrote: post #31

I found in my mid thirties that my perspective on what was important and desirable shifted significantly. Which led me to become disengaged from my desire to build side projects and learn new programming languages. It was a time were ecclesiastes from the Bible resonated a lot. After a while I just found out that I wasn’t interested in nothing but I had to rediscover what was important to me and what I valued spendin…

One of the massive things which caused a shift was knowing a decent sized group of people that became incredibly financially successful as the result of acquisitions and what this actually did to their personal lives. It really wasn't the all happy fun situation that it is so often portrayed as being. Then there is the whole have kids not have kids axis, and where people fall on that will dramatically influence their…

I just want to spend time on my hobbies. I'm in IT because it is the closest a job can be to my hobbies.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#123

Post by mattgreenrocks »

For most of human history seasons have dictated what we can and can’t do. I believe there’s an emotional and physical component to seasons that we can either respect, or push back against.

Which means there’s going to be seasons that are quite productive. And seasons of grief and pain. And seasons to focus on self growth. Once I accepted this it got a bit easier to stop beating myself up about these things.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#124

Post by qorrect »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #37

Wow, I just wanted to say thanks a lot for posting this. I'm in a very similar boat. I was always very focused and goal-oriented in my younger days - a bit of a workaholic but generally enjoyed working hard. A number of changes since the pandemic have left me feeling very similar to you: 1. Like tons of other people, I re-evaluated my relationship with work during the pandemic. To be honest, it wasn't easy. I think a…

Thank you both - I'm feeling the same, and I had tied up so much of my personality and life with software development, I feel pretty lost now. I've had a side project to work on for as long as I can remember, now I'm just not interested in building at all. And honestly, I don't know where to go from here.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#125

Post by tesdinger »

thierrydamiba wrote: post #24
zemvpferreira wrote: post #3

I'm working on things. Just, things I subconsciously devalue because they're not new/hard/valuable enough. So when people ask me what I work on I often answer 'nothing much' back even though those same people would find what I'm actually doing to be as hard as most jobs - which is not that much but enough. Enough is what I should answer, and maybe you too. Everything will work itself out, these years will turn out to…

This is also the curse of expertise. To most people in tech, uploading a weather dataset for one zip code and making a site that spits out predictions for the weather the next day is trivial. It would not be an impressive project to people in industry and it would not impress most hiring managers. To quote you, it would be “nothing much”. For most people who aren’t in tech, this project sounds pretty cool and is very…

I would think it is impressive, but I wouldn't find it impressive enough if it doesn't beat the established methods of forecasting. I don't start anything because I doubt it would meet my standards of being not pointless and superfluous.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#126

Post by fasterik »

demondemidi wrote: post #107
reactordev wrote: post #6

If you find yourself thinking “this is all for nothing”, you’d be correct. You can’t take any of this crap with you when you pass. You do what makes you happy. What makes you happy? Searching for external validation of a pat on the back for a job well done is not what makes one happy. Take a moment, pause, just be, focus on your happiness and what that means to you . Stop comparing yourself to others. Stop trying to…

Pass? I think you mean “die”.

I am frequently reminded of George Carlin's bit about "soft language" and how it obscures facts of life that we're uncomfortable about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67k9eEw9AY

His criticism of soft language about aging and death starts around the 5 minute mark

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#127

Post by sys_64738 »

cedws wrote: post #115

Yes. I quit my job in September, haven't really produced anything since despite having a lot of free time on my hands. I find the software space to be very uninspiring at the moment; everything that's going on is LLMs and crappy LLM wrapper startups. In all my years of HN surfing addiction, the last 6 months have been the most boring, but maybe that's just me.

This AI contortion is just mega-boring with lots of money being thrown as everybody thinks they need to do something - anything.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#128

Post by happyjack »

jedberg wrote: post #83
namuol wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Edit: just one semi counterexample) I work remotely with a live in partner of 7 years and we’re both feeling a lack of fulfillment. I work remotely, they work in an office. Sure the pandemic might have had some play here but I don’t think it’s because we’re not in an office so much as these last few years have put things like “work” into perspective.

Interesting, thank you for offering your POV, and changing mine.

I liked your office / partner comment; I think there's a lot of truth in that.

I think a lot of people are really worn out. We have endless scrolling, tons of wars in the world, people are indebted, and realistically it doesn't matter how much you work; it's all unaffordable and many are losing hope.

I think the first world needs a large structural change. Government, capitalism, the whole nine yards. I think a lot of people are seeing the bullshit from the left and right and saying to themselves "surely I'm not the only one who thinks something is wrong."

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#129

Post by charlie0 »

A big part of this could just be mild burn out. I find that if I take a long vacation, sooner or later I get bored and get right back to being curious and working on building or learning something. Having said that, I have a harder time finding meaning in side projects now that I'm older.

There's a bit of nihilism in me now, kinda like the koa “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" If I work on a side project and no one uses it, does it even matter? Learning for the sake of learning has become near meaningless to me.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#130

Post by makz »

jmkr wrote: post #91

There's a lot of negative vibes in programming these days. When I think of a programming community I think of fun, learning, engagement, projects, /programming/. These days it feels like it's just for money or power. These negative feelings make it all less fun. So I've been doing music instead. I'm not good at it at all, but learning it ticks pretty much all the boxes that programming does. It's scientific in some w…

Exactly my thoughts. I've shifted to music as well. I'm not interested in programming anymore, music has taken the place programming had and for a living I do tech support.
Post reply on HN