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I don't think most people are capable of being creative all the time, but the key is to find some creative pursuit you enjoy and make sure you make time to purs

I don't think most people are capable of being creative all the time, but the key is to find some creative pursuit you enjoy and make sure you make time to pursue it. If that means doing it on a schedule, so be it. (that's what it means for me) I write fiction "for fun", and sometimes it feels like work, but if I gave it up I'd drink every night and binge every weekend because my job is totally devoid of meaning. Hanging out with my partner is the only other thing I really care about, and frankly we like drinking together a little bit too much. By the way, any late career change suggestions for a software engineer who's got some money saved up and is sick of tech? Because, fuck.

ggm 7y ago
By the way, any late career change suggestions for a software engineer who's got some money saved up and is sick of tech? Because, fuck. The person I seek advice from said radical departures without plans are high risk. Your fan interest in korean baking techniques of the 1750s era are unlikely to scale to a dayjob. But, If you have a passion which gives evidence of up-scaling potential, its still worth exploring. He also said if you treat a long working life as an oil tanker of momentum, the easiest course changes are the small slow ones: reversing course on a a full speed tanker takes kilometers. Reversing course on a career takes years. Moving it marginally, by some small but achievable amount, is both simpler and safer. So, how about exploring a move from the engineering side to some other side, but still exploiting software? or, ceasing software, but staying inside the discipline of engineering? Or applying your software engineering praxis, to some other field which you have less skill in, but strong interest? Those Korean 1760 bakers need some AWESOME code, to make the yeast work in a modern hot oven...
- caconym_ 7y ago
  Yeah, the risks inherent in a radical departure without a plan are more or less why I'm hanging around. Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I really do love programming, and I have to imagine there are ways to exploit that skill that are a bit less soul crushing even if the money isn't quite as good. E.g. Korean baking. I should get off my ass and go looking.
jamesjyu 7y ago
I wrote a bit about my journey from tech to fiction that may be helpful perspective: https://www.jamesyu.org/blog/my-journey-from-frame-maker-to-painter/ https://www.jamesyu.org/blog/my-journey-from-frame-maker-to-...
gniv 7y ago
> By the way, any late career change suggestions for a software engineer who's got some money saved up and is sick of tech? Because, fuck. My current ideas (for myself) so far: 1. Move to another office. Same job, but different environment, different people, different weather too. 2. Go part time. Three days out of five. I think I can do this in my current job. 3. Go to a college to teach CS classes. Scary, but possibly more exciting.
jodrellblank 7y ago
because my job is totally devoid of meaning There's a self deception. Meaning isn't out there in the world, meaning is in people's heads. There's no meaning but that which we make for ourselves. It isn't your job which is devoid of meaning, but your interpretation of your job compared to your interpretation of other jobs. That is to say, your suffering doesn't come from the outside, it comes from the inside.
- caconym_ 7y ago
  What do you think I meant, when I said that? Do you think I believe in a font of cosmic meaning that flows out through some human pursuits but not others, and my job is in the latter set? I'll tell you: that's not it.
  - jodrellblank 7y ago
    I think you said exactly that. That some jobs inherently have meaning, that yours doesn't. Stating that you would become a drunk to cope with the lack of meaning in your job says that you don't believe the meaning is in your head and changeable, but that it's in the job and unchangeable. You say "any late career change suggestions for a software engineer who's got some money saved up and is sick of tech?" as if the sickness is in the job, because of the job, and not in you and your reaction to it.
    - caconym_ 7y ago
      I'm sorry, but I don't believe every possible human activity is equally amenable to "finding meaning" in. You're welcome to believe that, but I don't, and your dogged attachment to a particular interpretation of my words that justifies the dispensation of this nugget of sophomoric wisdom isn't interesting. You aren't saying anything that a reasonably intelligent person in my position hasn't already considered a thousand times from a thousand different angles. Sorry.

ggm 7y ago

By the way, any late career change suggestions for a software engineer who's got some money saved up and is sick of tech? Because, fuck. The person I seek advice from said radical departures without plans are high risk. Your fan interest in korean baking techniques of the 1750s era are unlikely to scale to a dayjob. But, If you have a passion which gives evidence of up-scaling potential, its still worth exploring. He also said if you treat a long working life as an oil tanker of momentum, the easiest course changes are the small slow ones: reversing course on a a full speed tanker takes kilometers. Reversing course on a career takes years. Moving it marginally, by some small but achievable amount, is both simpler and safer. So, how about exploring a move from the engineering side to some other side, but still exploiting software? or, ceasing software, but staying inside the discipline of engineering? Or applying your software engineering praxis, to some other field which you have less skill in, but strong interest? Those Korean 1760 bakers need some AWESOME code, to make the yeast work in a modern hot oven...

caconym_ 7y ago
Yeah, the risks inherent in a radical departure without a plan are more or less why I'm hanging around. Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I really do love programming, and I have to imagine there are ways to exploit that skill that are a bit less soul crushing even if the money isn't quite as good. E.g. Korean baking. I should get off my ass and go looking.

jamesjyu 7y ago

I wrote a bit about my journey from tech to fiction that may be helpful perspective: https://www.jamesyu.org/blog/my-journey-from-frame-maker-to-painter/ https://www.jamesyu.org/blog/my-journey-from-frame-maker-to-...

gniv 7y ago

> By the way, any late career change suggestions for a software engineer who's got some money saved up and is sick of tech? Because, fuck. My current ideas (for myself) so far: 1. Move to another office. Same job, but different environment, different people, different weather too. 2. Go part time. Three days out of five. I think I can do this in my current job. 3. Go to a college to teach CS classes. Scary, but possibly more exciting.

jodrellblank 7y ago

because my job is totally devoid of meaning There's a self deception. Meaning isn't out there in the world, meaning is in people's heads. There's no meaning but that which we make for ourselves. It isn't your job which is devoid of meaning, but your interpretation of your job compared to your interpretation of other jobs. That is to say, your suffering doesn't come from the outside, it comes from the inside.

caconym_ 7y ago
What do you think I meant, when I said that? Do you think I believe in a font of cosmic meaning that flows out through some human pursuits but not others, and my job is in the latter set? I'll tell you: that's not it.
- jodrellblank 7y ago
  I think you said exactly that. That some jobs inherently have meaning, that yours doesn't. Stating that you would become a drunk to cope with the lack of meaning in your job says that you don't believe the meaning is in your head and changeable, but that it's in the job and unchangeable. You say "any late career change suggestions for a software engineer who's got some money saved up and is sick of tech?" as if the sickness is in the job, because of the job, and not in you and your reaction to it.
  - caconym_ 7y ago
    I'm sorry, but I don't believe every possible human activity is equally amenable to "finding meaning" in. You're welcome to believe that, but I don't, and your dogged attachment to a particular interpretation of my words that justifies the dispensation of this nugget of sophomoric wisdom isn't interesting. You aren't saying anything that a reasonably intelligent person in my position hasn't already considered a thousand times from a thousand different angles. Sorry.