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Sorry you are feeling burnt out, been there, it sucks! The way I've come to solve this for my self is separating programming into professional programming and
by _benj 4y ago
Sorry you are feeling burnt out, been there, it sucks!
The way I've come to solve this for my self is separating programming into professional programming and hobby programing.
For professional programming, I do it to make a living, to earn a salary, and that is it, nothing more and nothing less. If I wasn't being paid for what I do at work I wouldn't do it. I aim to be a good team member, skillful, helpful, add value to the company, but that's all. I don't expect to find enjoyment in it. When the boring part of programming comes along, I'm not surprised, it's just work. There will be times in which I happen to enjoy what I'm working on and I also actively try to find ways to make my workplace a place that I'm happy, or at the very least not miserable, but doing boring things is just part of the deal. And looking around at other careers, is not a terrible deal ($$$).
But I also happen to program as a hobby, not for professional growth, or to hustle, no, I program because it is something I enjoy. When I'm programming as a hobby I'm very intentional to not mix work with my hobby, since the purpose of the hobby is to enjoy the hobby!! I will use 7 programming languages, start 12 projects and finish none, and you know what? I can! and I love it!
It comes down to the source of motivation. Notice how you can start a project and be super excited about it, but the moment you bring money into the mix, i.e. you wanna monetize the project or get a tons of stars on github, the initial energy seems to dissipate... that's because at the beginning of the project the motivation was internal, curiosity, discovery, the joy of learning, or whatever. But the moment that the motivation becomes external, say, money, open source fame, professional advancement, the internal motivations tends to disappear.
Anyways, I hope this makes sense and you can find some balance.
- David_GG 4y agoI fully endorse this approach and actually practice it myself, even I`m not a professional coder, just a newbbie who came back to it; you can apply this to any industry and or activity which is "vocational", from music to teaching to whatever you might feel a passion about it. To me is also a relief many times to be aware of "this pay the bills" this is what I love to do. Now I`m loving code again thats why popped here (Paul Graham and his essays to be blamed for :)). One flaw on this "tactic" for myself is that regardless of being an activity to pay the bills, I am naturally bounded to do quality job, and some times that is just not feasible. But this is another kind of personal weakness and does not undermine the tactic itself