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OP, I don't know a solution to this, but I'm curious if you've tried intensive exercise routines, low calorie diets, time in nature, cold showers, socializing and, working on your non-work life as a whole? I've seen this help me out in similar battles and I have also seen them recommended to others. I also have a more general question to everyone on this thread, what is the difference between burnout and demotivation…
I burned out around 3 years ago and couldn't fix it with a year of traveling the world and working on side projects - thankfully I discovered Vipassana meditation which helped me bounce back stronger than ever. Hopefully someone else in a similar situation might find this potential solution useful.
What in Vipassana helped the most? Refocusing on the body? Focusing on equinimity? Recalibrating the mind once or twice a day? Something else?
Early on in my career (I was a late bloomer and already in early 30's) as a developer, I got burnt out pretty bad twice. After the second time and teetering on a third, I knew I had to do something to change what I was doing and how I managed my work load. I just focused on getting MY stuff done and that was it. I stopped taking on other's people work. I stopped taking on more work once I got my stuff done. I would d…
It’s a frustrating position to be in, and you can feel quite helpless.
In my experience, it’s less about “do only what’s asked”, and rather “say no”.
I.e. explain “I can do X, but if I do that then Y will suffer, and Y is a priority”. (Y being another company priority, or even your own mental health). Stated in these terms, it’s easier to negotiate your time with your coworkers.
Early on in my career (I was a late bloomer and already in early 30's) as a developer, I got burnt out pretty bad twice. After the second time and teetering on a third, I knew I had to do something to change what I was doing and how I managed my work load. I just focused on getting MY stuff done and that was it. I stopped taking on other's people work. I stopped taking on more work once I got my stuff done. I would d…
I'm really curious, how do you factor in time to learn ("up skill")? I'm a self taught dev with 2 young kids. I've always had a healthy approach to work, but now I'm feeling quite a lot of pressure to learn new things on my own time, whether to make sure I'm prepared for the interview circuit if I get laid off, or to patch my skills that are needed at work. I'm starting to feel burnout creep in, getting an hour of st…
Your brain only has so many truly 'on' hours in a day, and it's already less than 8. Trying to burn even more in the pursuit of complex knowledge isn't just robbing Peter to pay Paul, it's eating the seed corn and wondering why your harvest failed.
It's a scary thing to realize, and can be hard to stick with. But limits are real, and respecting them gets more work done in the long run than not.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately when it comes to preparing for interview leetcode is pretty much required at all stages. For that the way that works for me is to never let go of it. I will solve 2 3 problems over a week even when I have a job. That downtime at work when you are at home or waiting for the next meeting...just leetcode. I absolutely hate LC and hate the fact that it is omnipresent but now no longer fear it. Except Dynami…
> Unfortunately when it comes to preparing for interview leetcode is pretty much required at all stages. I have never had a leetcode-style interview in 40 years. (I may have had one such question , maybe - hard to remember for sure.) So, no, it is not required at all stages. Disclaimer: I'm in embedded systems, which is very different from FAANG.
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I just left Amazon, and the situation is identical at several other companies based on anecdotal evidence from friends, so it's very much a big company issue as well. The biggest problem with many startups I think is workaholic, narcissist founders who don't know how to treat humans like humans. It's generally less procedural and internal competition bullshit than big tech, but more immature management trying to bite…
I don't think it's fair to use the term workaholic with founders. If you're not well capitalized you have to be a workaholic just to survive. There are a fair amount of narcissistic founders because extreme self confidence is table stakes for a startup, and people who have that level of confidence are statistically more likely to be narcissists than hyper competent just based on the frequency of the two.
They should not expect this same level of dedication from employees. No one is ever going to care as much as the founder. Just like a teacher or baby sitter is never going to care as much about a kid as the parents (assuming good parents here).
I think in my experience, lack by appreciation is one of the reason
After thinking about it several month I wrote an article to help others cope with the situation of lacking appreciation
https://open.substack.com/pub/connectingdotsessay/p/apprecia...
Hope it can help others whom is entering the same situation
You're not alone, I'm burned out too and tired of every AI-related company expecting engineers to work more than 40 hours a week and nights and weekends, steal scope from teammates, fight for clout, fight for internal resources, on top of dealing with rush hour traffic for some stupid RTO metrics, with stupid-short amounts of vacation time, and expectations to take meetings during vacations. AI was supposed to allow…
We are never going to be allowed to work less in this current state of capitalism. No new invention will be allowed to help you more than it helps people richer than you. They have more power than you do.
Imagine the DVR being invented today. A device that lets you skip ads. It wouldn't happen.