I started coding in the mid 90's and have been there, to different degrees, several times. It usually is because I'm in a rut, using the same languages and tech

I started coding in the mid 90's and have been there, to different degrees, several times. It usually is because I'm in a rut, using the same languages and technologies in the same domain. Another new way to not shoot yourself in the foot with Javascript... So, mix it up and find something challenging that you find personally interesting: - learn a language or technology that you've always wanted to, but never had a good "reason" to - change your abstraction: if you are a javascripter learn C/C++ or assembly. If you are a VHDL guru, go learn some Python, Ruby, Elixir, or Javascript. - Take one of the "how does that work?" questions that have been inside your brain since you first used a computer and get about figuring it out. The dang things are fascinating at every level, from transistors to gates, to operating systems, to compilers/interpreters, to micro-services *AND* it is all documented and available on the interwebs. - learn more about your tools. There is nothing that makes me feel efficient and productive like when I'm jamming out code, making edits about as fast as I can think of them, floating from tool to tool in a smooth cycle of iterative development. Most of that is just patterns of keyboard shortcuts. - program away the boring parts. If you have "boring" tasks, see if you can program or automate them away. The programming should be less boring than the task you are automating and you will have your first minion.