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Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
61–70 of 192 posts
Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
#62Web development as practiced by the majority of the industry is truly insane and depressing. No one has any idea what they are doing. Here's what I'm aiming to do: learn systems programming on the side, accumulate enough savings to live off of for nearly a year, then go independent and continue learning systems programming "as I go". Build software products on my own and start selling them.
I want to do something similar. Do you want to connect?
Sure, I updated my bio with contact info.
Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
#63I think you have to take a break. Step back for a bit. When you come back, find out what really interested you in tech in the first place and follow that. The fact you think 300+ people are applying to the same jobs means the market might be saturated with those skills. Do you think you might have let your own skill set stagnate?
> Do you think you might have let your own skill set stagnate? yes, definitely. although i worked a lot with node and react, building electron apps, cli tools, browsers extensions - but i just don't enjoy it anymore. and i don't have experience building large scale production apps with the latest trendy stacks. > The fact you think 300+ people are applying to the same jobs means the market might be saturated with tho…
I don't understand how your skillset is lacking if you're an experienced React/Node developer. Here in the UK recruiters are falling over each other trying to hire.
Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Do you think you might have let your own skill set stagnate? yes, definitely. although i worked a lot with node and react, building electron apps, cli tools, browsers extensions - but i just don't enjoy it anymore. and i don't have experience building large scale production apps with the latest trendy stacks. > The fact you think 300+ people are applying to the same jobs means the market might be saturated with tho…
> but its usually some typescript challenge or something like that - which i refused to learn, since i already know javascript. once static type checking became a requirement in front end is like the intersection for when i became a dinosaur Why? Static type checking is a good thing to reduce errors.
I can't speak for the OP, but I've met people who "don't get it" for various reasons (me included at some point). I'm pretty sure the OP has heard this argument before.
Telling someone to use language A because it's much better than language B that the person is comfortable with is not a very good approach. You can get into the objective reasons as to why but for some it might be difficult to really understand.
I struggled with this when I was introduced to types as the entire concept was completely new to me. I had other ways I could think of to reduce errors (tests, more robust code, etc) and I wasn't sure how typescript could help me reduce errors any further or if it was worth learning a new (seemingly difficult) concept to deal with something I already felt I could deal with.
Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
#65Web development as practiced by the majority of the industry is truly insane and depressing. No one has any idea what they are doing. Here's what I'm aiming to do: learn systems programming on the side, accumulate enough savings to live off of for nearly a year, then go independent and continue learning systems programming "as I go". Build software products on my own and start selling them.
I have spent my whole career in webdev and I couldn't agree more. A common pattern is that there's a bullshit-free option to solve some problem, but someone wants you to solve it in a stupid and painful way. I sometimes wish I was experienced in some other field so I could move on. The money is good but that's about it.
Most of the money is in the bullshit stuff.
You will get paid more if you are a webpack ninja than if you know how to setup a simple esbuild script.
You will get paid more if you have wizard level knowledge of k8s and docker than if you can program something that solves your problems as a simple single program running on a single server.
Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
#66Seems like you’re experiencing burn-out and from what I’ve read and experienced, burn out is a function of emotional investment vs the emotional return. So I see that you have two options both of which shouldn’t happen before first taking a small break: 1. Continue to work in the industry and reduce your emotional investment. Hint: great places for that are big corporates. 2. Continue to work while upskilling in anot…
I'm almost in my 40 and I can feel the OP's pain.
But I agree with @jaitaiwan, you look you're burnt-out rather than depressed. It's too easy for us to focus on our skill and less about our emotion & other things. Then over time, we see less light on our career because what we left is only the skill which probably already obsolete.
Skill is tradable but a person is not. You're who you're. If you like what you do, then it's fine. But if tech genuinely doesn't excite you, then looking for what you like now is not too late.
Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
#67I feel the same way a little as a mobile developer. It seems companies are leaning into cross-platforms nowadays to save money and 95% of my career is working with native mobile. I'm approaching my 40s and I am just glad I have full autonomy on my decisions in the mobile dev department.
Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
#68I had some kind of a career crisis last summer, I just couldn't do anything at all for days, and felt very bad about it, since I have always liked my web-development work, tech, and computers in general.
It took me quite an effort (money, time, psychotherapists) to understand that I am not my job, and more importantly other people being not very happy with what I do is not a reason for me to feel bad about myself. It was very easy for me to start scolding myself after getting not-so-positive or not getting the feedback I expected at work.
Anyway, I think it's a process - my attitude towards my work is never final, I used to think that vespene gas here will get depleted over time, but it's probably not how it works. Some day it's worse, some day it's much better.
Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
#69Seems like you’re experiencing burn-out and from what I’ve read and experienced, burn out is a function of emotional investment vs the emotional return. So I see that you have two options both of which shouldn’t happen before first taking a small break: 1. Continue to work in the industry and reduce your emotional investment. Hint: great places for that are big corporates. 2. Continue to work while upskilling in anot…
> function of emotional investment vs the emotional return
This!
Re: Ask HN: Depressed, need to leave web development, what can I do?
#70First, you need to take a big break, a couple of months at least. The less computing-related activities the better. The summer hasn't ended yet, do some outdoorsy stuff with other people. Depending on your situation of course, it may not be possible. Then just radically cut back on work and try to spend more time with your loved ones. Second, you need to get your love for technology back. It is still there, but it ma…
I'll agree with all this, particularly the first paragraph.
I've burned out a couple of times and the fix has been to stop for a while and do other things. After a few months I catch myself coming up with ideas for projects, writing code, etc - that's when it's time to go back to paid work. Obviously that's more disruptive to perm employees than to me as a contractor, but I hear rumours that such things as sabbaticals and sick leave exist.
Becoming an "expert in X" seems to be easier than it might initially appear, it's sometimes the path of least resistance to fall into a specific niche that may or may not exist a few years later - but while it does you are in demand. (I don't unreservedly recommend it!)