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I was planning to write under a throwaway, but I guess I don't care anymore. When most people talk of burn out, they usually have spent years in the industry o

I was planning to write under a throwaway, but I guess I don't care anymore. When most people talk of burn out, they usually have spent years in the industry or probably have been probably working 12 hour days for a long period of time. For me on the other hand, I kind of managed to get burnt out (depressed) two years in the industry. I loved CS back in college, but my job felt like a punishment. The worst thing was I couldn't get myself to figure out what was wrong. The lack of a support structure for "emotionally exhausted" developers is surprising. But anyway once it got worse enough I just decided to quit, wasn't worth the toll on my health. Got back to the basics - started learning some ML and webdev. Built and shipped a side project. https://discoverdev.io https://discoverdev.io - A daily list of interesting engineering blog posts. Even now I have anxiety pangs, but at least I'm not depressed :) I realised I liked learning and building stuff in a collaborative atmosphere - it's something that just makes me happy. Currently I'm working on creating a platform for people like me - who just want to get together and make things.

vfulco 9y ago
You are an inspiration. I hope you realize your dreams. Sounds like you deserve them.
errnoh 9y ago
Thanks for the link! DiscoverDev looks like a site that I'll visit a lot in the future. P.S. I'll try not to go offtopic from the original topic too much, but my intuition was to click the hashtags in order to get list of posts that match that hashtag. Didn't work as expected.
vanderZwan 9y ago
Just wanted to chime in with a "thank you" for supporting RSS feeds. Glad to read you're feeling better now!
l5870uoo9y 9y ago
Would love to hear more about how and with what you build that site.
vog 9y ago
> Currently I'm working on creating a platform for people like me - who just want to get together and make things. Isn't this what hackerspaces are all about? Maybe it helps to visit (or found) one nearby you.
- myself248 9y ago
  > (or found) one That can lead to its own kind of burnout! ;)
  - vog 9y ago
    If the final goal is to socialize, founding a hackerspace makes more sense than creating a web platform. (And of course, joining an existing hackerspace makes even more sense.) However, reading that comment again, maybe the phrases "collaborative atmosphere" and "get together" were not to be taken literally?
    - Bartweiss 9y ago
      I think the issue is that founding the space replaces a lot of "collaborative building" time with "worrying about money and organization" and "being accountable to lots of people" time, which aren't exactly anti-burnout experiences.
  - loansindi 9y ago
    Having been on the board of directors of a decently-sized hackerspace, I do not recommend it to folks looking to avoid burnout.
    - TeMPOraL 9y ago
      Still being on the board of a relatively small (sub-50 regulars) hackerspace, I second this comment. The perspective of spending all of your free time on paperwork and management tasks and no time whatsoever on actual hacking is not helping with burnout.
watwut 9y ago
So basically, there were toxic relationships in your former job so you started a startup?
- deepakkarki 9y ago
  I wouldn't say toxic relations - it's just that.... I don't really know. I just want a "good fit" there! I felt very dissatisfied working there, felt like I'm not going anywhere professionally. The general feeling of being under-utilised. When I discussed this with my manager - his solution was more work :/ That didn't help at all. Used to have anxiety pangs and the like. So saved up enough to quit. > you started a startup? I wouldn't say it's a start up as such, more of a side project to recover from the burn out. It's hard to explain - at that point it was like I really wanted nothing to do with life. Now I feel a lot better. Hopefully in the next couple of months I'll have a decent product out the door! (Something else I'm currently working on)
  - rubicon33 9y ago
    Forgive me for asking, but, there's one aspect to your story that begs further explanation as it's not possible for many people: How did you manage to save up enough money in 2 years to quit your job? Are you burning savings? Are you not paying for health insurance? Are you coasting on a trust fund? It's a disservice to your fellow engineers suffering from burnout at a dead end job, to not explain the most crucial part of how you got out - money.
    - watwut 9y ago
      If he lives somewhere where you can get acceptable health insurance cheaper then in USA or from state and where housing is cheaper then San Francisco, then it is possible I would say. Saving the difference between median salary and developer salary should be doable through less comfortable. The difference should give you at least a year of savings.
      - rubicon33 9y ago
su30mki117 9y ago
The first question that came to my mind is if burnout and depression are the same (your comment made me assume that you think they are the same). A quick google search surfaced this - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072470/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072470/ According to the article, they are different and have some overlapping symptoms which makes diagnosis difficult. The article seems to suggest that the path to recovery is different for both which makes it very important to be sure that the diagnosis is correct in the first place.

vfulco 9y ago

You are an inspiration. I hope you realize your dreams. Sounds like you deserve them.

errnoh 9y ago

Thanks for the link! DiscoverDev looks like a site that I'll visit a lot in the future. P.S. I'll try not to go offtopic from the original topic too much, but my intuition was to click the hashtags in order to get list of posts that match that hashtag. Didn't work as expected.

vanderZwan 9y ago

Just wanted to chime in with a "thank you" for supporting RSS feeds. Glad to read you're feeling better now!

l5870uoo9y 9y ago

Would love to hear more about how and with what you build that site.

vog 9y ago

> Currently I'm working on creating a platform for people like me - who just want to get together and make things. Isn't this what hackerspaces are all about? Maybe it helps to visit (or found) one nearby you.

myself248 9y ago
> (or found) one That can lead to its own kind of burnout! ;)
- vog 9y ago
  If the final goal is to socialize, founding a hackerspace makes more sense than creating a web platform. (And of course, joining an existing hackerspace makes even more sense.) However, reading that comment again, maybe the phrases "collaborative atmosphere" and "get together" were not to be taken literally?
  - Bartweiss 9y ago
    I think the issue is that founding the space replaces a lot of "collaborative building" time with "worrying about money and organization" and "being accountable to lots of people" time, which aren't exactly anti-burnout experiences.
- loansindi 9y ago
  Having been on the board of directors of a decently-sized hackerspace, I do not recommend it to folks looking to avoid burnout.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Still being on the board of a relatively small (sub-50 regulars) hackerspace, I second this comment. The perspective of spending all of your free time on paperwork and management tasks and no time whatsoever on actual hacking is not helping with burnout.

watwut 9y ago

So basically, there were toxic relationships in your former job so you started a startup?

deepakkarki 9y ago
I wouldn't say toxic relations - it's just that.... I don't really know. I just want a "good fit" there! I felt very dissatisfied working there, felt like I'm not going anywhere professionally. The general feeling of being under-utilised. When I discussed this with my manager - his solution was more work :/ That didn't help at all. Used to have anxiety pangs and the like. So saved up enough to quit. > you started a startup? I wouldn't say it's a start up as such, more of a side project to recover from the burn out. It's hard to explain - at that point it was like I really wanted nothing to do with life. Now I feel a lot better. Hopefully in the next couple of months I'll have a decent product out the door! (Something else I'm currently working on)
- rubicon33 9y ago
  Forgive me for asking, but, there's one aspect to your story that begs further explanation as it's not possible for many people: How did you manage to save up enough money in 2 years to quit your job? Are you burning savings? Are you not paying for health insurance? Are you coasting on a trust fund? It's a disservice to your fellow engineers suffering from burnout at a dead end job, to not explain the most crucial part of how you got out - money.
  - watwut 9y ago
    If he lives somewhere where you can get acceptable health insurance cheaper then in USA or from state and where housing is cheaper then San Francisco, then it is possible I would say. Saving the difference between median salary and developer salary should be doable through less comfortable. The difference should give you at least a year of savings.
    - rubicon33 9y ago

su30mki117 9y ago

The first question that came to my mind is if burnout and depression are the same (your comment made me assume that you think they are the same). A quick google search surfaced this - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072470/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072470/ According to the article, they are different and have some overlapping symptoms which makes diagnosis difficult. The article seems to suggest that the path to recovery is different for both which makes it very important to be sure that the diagnosis is correct in the first place.