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I wish I could articulate precisely what -- a the age of cough cough -something -- has kept me engaged and happy as a software developer. In part, I've been luc

I wish I could articulate precisely what -- a the age of cough cough -something -- has kept me engaged and happy as a software developer. In part, I've been lucky. I've mostly had decent jobs and companies that treated employees humanely. Partly, I feel that I keep improving at what I do, and that alone is somewhat satisfying. Partly, I just like thinking and solving puzzles, which pretty much describes actual coding. Contrast that to my wife, who, despite having a degree from a top ivy league school, seems to have hated every job she's ever had and would drop it all to retire in an instant if she could afford it. I will note that I also have had the luxury of exploring the "do what you love" career theory. Out of high school, I wanted to be an orchestral musician, and spent like 12 years pursuing that path before realizing that it wasn't going to work out. So I sort of had to reset my brain to understand that I didn't have to do this one thing to be happy. So I'm not sitting here in a cubicle thinking "if only...." because I've done the "if only." (Not having other options is actually a surprisingly effective route to happiness. (See: Stumbling on Happiness)). Another great book related to this topic is "How to Want What You Have." https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/933037.How_to_Want_What_You_Have https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/933037.How_to_Want_What_...

Haul4ss 8y ago
A big part of this is just how you see the world, and perhaps how well you understand yourself. Not sure which term to use: attitude, personality, outlook, frame of mind, perspective, etc. I have definitely had times in my career when I dreaded going to work. Like I could feel an actual physical weight on my shoulders as I drove up to the office. In my current season in life, I can see a lot more what is good and what is bad, what I'm willing to put up with and what I'm not, what I'm good at and what I'm not, what is actually a big deal versus what is just a big deal in my mind, and so on. That perspective will keep me more happy in any job, even ones that other people may dislike. But it also draws me to work that I know will keep me happy because I understand what contentment is in a way I didn't understand 15-20 years ago. If I won the lottery tomorrow, would I stay in my current job? Probably not. But that doesn't mean I'm unhappy in the job -- as ways to earn money go, this one is pretty nice. But it was a circuitous path to get here, and I think the biggest lie we can perpetrate on young folks is that there is a single passion they should pursue to find their calling. Almost no one gets it right on their first try.
strikelaserclaw 8y ago
I love technology, and i love building things. But i have to admit that i'm lucky that something i enjoy doing also pays well. If i enjoyed painting more than anything else, i probably would have been miserable. So it's not just a matter of pursing what you enjoy, it's also being lucky.
mttyng 8y ago
I've followed a similar path as you. I was a late-bloomer, academically. Just sorta bounced around until my mid-twenties when I got bored/depressed (or did I simply realize I would be miserable later in life?) with what I was doing in my minimum-wage jobs. I somehow got interested in Physics, put myself back into school, at which point I became incredibly interested in Software Development during an internship my Junior year and the rest is a standard Tech Industry story. I work really long hours, not because I feel some need to satisfy my corporate overlords or because I have too much to do, but simply because I find it fun. I'm sure most everyone here can relate, but that feeling of banging your head against a wall for (x-amount of time) and then suddenly nailing a solution is exhilarating. I don't think that I can hit burnout with that, but maybe I'm wrong. I see two things with this: 1) I (and this cannot be stressed enough) got _really_ lucky having an inherent interest in something that also aligned with a market need. 2) In the course of "bouncing around" in my late-teens and early-twenties I had a lot of time to ruminate (consciously or not) on who I was and what I wanted with life. This isn't some profound thing I'll say and I've certainly seen it echoed here before, but pushing young people (let's be real... they're kids) to make an extremely costly decision that will impact the entirety of their life without knowing who they even are is...crazy. Like you, I'll contrast that with my wife: High School -> SATs -> college application process -> enter a curriculum for (insert here) -> graduate -> get a job (not even in your mid-twenties yet). Maybe some people do know who they are at an early age, but I'd wager most people don't really know themselves until ~25. And now, here you are, coming to terms with yourself after having invested god-knows-how-much money and four years into something you'll likely evolve out of, but still needing to put in the hours to make ends meet and climb the ladder (we all want to be middle management, right?). The key to loving your job in the age of burnout is to not take your job until you know who you are. And even then your interests may not even align with an economic need. So what do you do? Especially when you need to feed yourself and, potentially, your family. It seems to me that finding a career that you like and that feels like fun, rather than work, is a total crap shoot. Sort of like a romantic relationship. Ideally, you want a partner that grows with you, but as we all know that's hard to predict because people change at varying rates or not at all. TL;DR: If you're (really really) lucky and happen to fall into a career path that grows with you, you might not experience burnout
- 8y ago

Haul4ss 8y ago

A big part of this is just how you see the world, and perhaps how well you understand yourself. Not sure which term to use: attitude, personality, outlook, frame of mind, perspective, etc. I have definitely had times in my career when I dreaded going to work. Like I could feel an actual physical weight on my shoulders as I drove up to the office. In my current season in life, I can see a lot more what is good and what is bad, what I'm willing to put up with and what I'm not, what I'm good at and what I'm not, what is actually a big deal versus what is just a big deal in my mind, and so on. That perspective will keep me more happy in any job, even ones that other people may dislike. But it also draws me to work that I know will keep me happy because I understand what contentment is in a way I didn't understand 15-20 years ago. If I won the lottery tomorrow, would I stay in my current job? Probably not. But that doesn't mean I'm unhappy in the job -- as ways to earn money go, this one is pretty nice. But it was a circuitous path to get here, and I think the biggest lie we can perpetrate on young folks is that there is a single passion they should pursue to find their calling. Almost no one gets it right on their first try.

strikelaserclaw 8y ago

I love technology, and i love building things. But i have to admit that i'm lucky that something i enjoy doing also pays well. If i enjoyed painting more than anything else, i probably would have been miserable. So it's not just a matter of pursing what you enjoy, it's also being lucky.

mttyng 8y ago

I've followed a similar path as you. I was a late-bloomer, academically. Just sorta bounced around until my mid-twenties when I got bored/depressed (or did I simply realize I would be miserable later in life?) with what I was doing in my minimum-wage jobs. I somehow got interested in Physics, put myself back into school, at which point I became incredibly interested in Software Development during an internship my Junior year and the rest is a standard Tech Industry story. I work really long hours, not because I feel some need to satisfy my corporate overlords or because I have too much to do, but simply because I find it fun. I'm sure most everyone here can relate, but that feeling of banging your head against a wall for (x-amount of time) and then suddenly nailing a solution is exhilarating. I don't think that I can hit burnout with that, but maybe I'm wrong. I see two things with this: 1) I (and this cannot be stressed enough) got _really_ lucky having an inherent interest in something that also aligned with a market need. 2) In the course of "bouncing around" in my late-teens and early-twenties I had a lot of time to ruminate (consciously or not) on who I was and what I wanted with life. This isn't some profound thing I'll say and I've certainly seen it echoed here before, but pushing young people (let's be real... they're kids) to make an extremely costly decision that will impact the entirety of their life without knowing who they even are is...crazy. Like you, I'll contrast that with my wife: High School -> SATs -> college application process -> enter a curriculum for (insert here) -> graduate -> get a job (not even in your mid-twenties yet). Maybe some people do know who they are at an early age, but I'd wager most people don't really know themselves until ~25. And now, here you are, coming to terms with yourself after having invested god-knows-how-much money and four years into something you'll likely evolve out of, but still needing to put in the hours to make ends meet and climb the ladder (we all want to be middle management, right?). The key to loving your job in the age of burnout is to not take your job until you know who you are. And even then your interests may not even align with an economic need. So what do you do? Especially when you need to feed yourself and, potentially, your family. It seems to me that finding a career that you like and that feels like fun, rather than work, is a total crap shoot. Sort of like a romantic relationship. Ideally, you want a partner that grows with you, but as we all know that's hard to predict because people change at varying rates or not at all. TL;DR: If you're (really really) lucky and happen to fall into a career path that grows with you, you might not experience burnout

8y ago