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The question is "Can you program"? If the answer is "Yes", then stop watching TV, playing video games and lurking on the internet. Honestly, this will sound h

The question is "Can you program"? If the answer is "Yes", then stop watching TV, playing video games and lurking on the internet. Honestly, this will sound heartless, but if you can play video games you can also work. The problem is more in your head and you need to shed the victim thinking and start focusing on what valuable you can do. Even if your output is less than it was before, you can probably pay for a reasonable lifestyle. Right now there is a lot of huge companies that will hire anybody that can code anything. Trust me on this. It is total seller's market. There are people who can't code and still get the job. You say you are burned backend-centered web developer? You can probably get hired for full time, less ambitious job or contract and do your job in a fraction of time. The key word is "Less Ambitious". Which should help with your burnout. Just put a very strict work time / free time boundaries. My burnout comes when I can't leave work even when I am at home and the solution is to give yourself permission to have time off. It is all in your mind.

lumost 4y ago
This advice is not particularly effective. Getting hired into a backend firm is tough as all of them want the same things, if you don’t have those things - then getting a company to “yes” is hard. People watch tv and play video games because they do not have a high mental demand. If you are on pain medication, or going without - your “free” mental cycles may be non existent
- twawaaay 4y ago
  When I was burned out I got hired into a large bank (think Citi, Credit Suisse, maybe not necessarily Goldman Sachs which has high standards). They have huge amount of backend. Super slow development filled with people who do not have large ambitions and only express them so that they are not labeled as waste. My principal developer was a woman from India who could not write a loop. She worked there for 6 years. Deadlines are not deadlines, only suggestions (just make sure you are not working for a team that has regulatory deadlines). Perfect place for a person that wants to just get by with as little effort as possible. You don't even have to think bad about it -- as long as you know how to code and are doing slow, steady, honest progress you probably are doing more than most of people working there. As to playing video games -- yes, they have high mental demand. The only difference between solving problems while playing the game and solving problems in IDE is your will power. Games are fun and work not necessarily. When I was burned out I would not do anything. I would lie still and do nothing because I had no willingness to. I think if you can play games you can also sit by the computer and do other things.
  - Camrecorder 4y ago
    - twawaaay 4y ago
      Being burned out is a real condition. And so is depression, chronic pains, tinnitus, and so on. Just because something is hard to ascertain doesn't mean it is not real. But there are various levels to being burned out or depressed. And then there are people who aren't really burned or depressed, they are just looking to rationalise their laziness. Which is the person that wrote the post? We don't know. What I know is that if you have mental capacity to play video games you can also most likely do a lot of other things.
  - Delk 4y ago
    > As to playing video games -- yes, they have high mental demand. The only difference between solving problems while playing the game and solving problems in IDE is your will power. This isn't really true. Disregarding the fact that the mental demands of software engineering work and games can be of different kinds, there is also absolutely a difference in volition. Games are played voluntarily, and there's generally no external pressure (at least in single player games). Facing demands at work -- or even having the obligation to show up -- is not voluntary. You can also switch games at will. You can stop playing at will. Most people can't do those at work, at least not to the extent that one would actually feel free to do so. Whether you've got a sense of control and are doing things voluntarily, or whether you're doing the same things because you are or feel forced or obliged to, can AFAIK show up as actual differences in your neural activity (with stress-related areas being more active in the latter case). Anecdotally, and based on personal experience, burnout can also seriously turn things you used to enjoy into something that triggers immediate anxiety and (malignant) stress. That might be similar to the difference in volition if an activity that used to be within your control and more or less your own choice turns into a malignant stress-inducing forced one. At least it certainly doesn't help if you're both feeling forced to do something you don't feel is within your control and getting a massive stress spike out of even thinking about it. If you want to twist that, you could still technically say it's in your head, but it can be an actual physical difference. You're not wrong about all the things you're saying. Finding a place with lower actual demands, and settling with that at least for the time being, might actually be a good idea for OP. It's quite possible that OP might have a much greater chance at landing such a job than it feels right now. It's quite possible that some things actually aren't as bad as they feel to them right now. But saying someone is capable of doing a mentally (and, in burnout, probably emotionally) taxing thing A because they're capable of doing thing B that may or may not also be mentally taxing in a similar or different way isn't quite right. And pinning things onto the will power of a burned out person can be outright dangerous. I have no reason to doubt your personal experiences, but other people's experiences with burnout can be rather different from yours.

lumost 4y ago

This advice is not particularly effective. Getting hired into a backend firm is tough as all of them want the same things, if you don’t have those things - then getting a company to “yes” is hard. People watch tv and play video games because they do not have a high mental demand. If you are on pain medication, or going without - your “free” mental cycles may be non existent

twawaaay 4y ago
When I was burned out I got hired into a large bank (think Citi, Credit Suisse, maybe not necessarily Goldman Sachs which has high standards). They have huge amount of backend. Super slow development filled with people who do not have large ambitions and only express them so that they are not labeled as waste. My principal developer was a woman from India who could not write a loop. She worked there for 6 years. Deadlines are not deadlines, only suggestions (just make sure you are not working for a team that has regulatory deadlines). Perfect place for a person that wants to just get by with as little effort as possible. You don't even have to think bad about it -- as long as you know how to code and are doing slow, steady, honest progress you probably are doing more than most of people working there. As to playing video games -- yes, they have high mental demand. The only difference between solving problems while playing the game and solving problems in IDE is your will power. Games are fun and work not necessarily. When I was burned out I would not do anything. I would lie still and do nothing because I had no willingness to. I think if you can play games you can also sit by the computer and do other things.
- Camrecorder 4y ago
  - twawaaay 4y ago
    Being burned out is a real condition. And so is depression, chronic pains, tinnitus, and so on. Just because something is hard to ascertain doesn't mean it is not real. But there are various levels to being burned out or depressed. And then there are people who aren't really burned or depressed, they are just looking to rationalise their laziness. Which is the person that wrote the post? We don't know. What I know is that if you have mental capacity to play video games you can also most likely do a lot of other things.
- Delk 4y ago
  > As to playing video games -- yes, they have high mental demand. The only difference between solving problems while playing the game and solving problems in IDE is your will power. This isn't really true. Disregarding the fact that the mental demands of software engineering work and games can be of different kinds, there is also absolutely a difference in volition. Games are played voluntarily, and there's generally no external pressure (at least in single player games). Facing demands at work -- or even having the obligation to show up -- is not voluntary. You can also switch games at will. You can stop playing at will. Most people can't do those at work, at least not to the extent that one would actually feel free to do so. Whether you've got a sense of control and are doing things voluntarily, or whether you're doing the same things because you are or feel forced or obliged to, can AFAIK show up as actual differences in your neural activity (with stress-related areas being more active in the latter case). Anecdotally, and based on personal experience, burnout can also seriously turn things you used to enjoy into something that triggers immediate anxiety and (malignant) stress. That might be similar to the difference in volition if an activity that used to be within your control and more or less your own choice turns into a malignant stress-inducing forced one. At least it certainly doesn't help if you're both feeling forced to do something you don't feel is within your control and getting a massive stress spike out of even thinking about it. If you want to twist that, you could still technically say it's in your head, but it can be an actual physical difference. You're not wrong about all the things you're saying. Finding a place with lower actual demands, and settling with that at least for the time being, might actually be a good idea for OP. It's quite possible that OP might have a much greater chance at landing such a job than it feels right now. It's quite possible that some things actually aren't as bad as they feel to them right now. But saying someone is capable of doing a mentally (and, in burnout, probably emotionally) taxing thing A because they're capable of doing thing B that may or may not also be mentally taxing in a similar or different way isn't quite right. And pinning things onto the will power of a burned out person can be outright dangerous. I have no reason to doubt your personal experiences, but other people's experiences with burnout can be rather different from yours.