7 ms·

Ask HN: I feel like im getting close to hitting a wall.

2 points by taway22 15y ago

Some back story, 5 years ago I was in a slump, I had stopped school for personal reasons and I became borderline depressed. My whole family suffers from bipolar disorder so its something I am used to. I digress.. I was never a good student in school, high school I barely attended and I really had no business being in college when I did go. Luckily I have always had a passion for computers. About 4 years ago I got sick of wasting my life, started going to the gym and being motivated. I had my father who works in the finance industry see if he could get me an internship somewhere in tech. I was offered a job about 6months in because they were happy with my work and how fast I picked everything up. I have been working with perl and mysql for nearly 3 years now. Perl was the first language I learned, I dabbled in others (C++/Java/Lua/JS). I am 100% self taught and very motivated. I have some modules out, nothing too crazy. Perl is a very awesome language to those who use it. Unfortunately all the places that look like a blast to work at are mostly python/ruby. I currently support my girlfriend who is a full time student, rent, misc bills. I cant afford to just quit and learn a new language. I also have two start ups one a mobile app with another developer and another whom gave me an equity stake to keep me. I work close to 85hrs some weeks. I cant even afford a vacation. I really don't know what to do, am I to just accept this as my life and be a Perl developer? I know I can do other projects in other languages, but when all you do is get projects in a single language how can I become anything better than proficient. Do any of you have similar situations or any advice you can offer me? I just feel like i'm losing my passion that used to keep me up 24hrs a day writing code. I'm only 26 so this is scaring me. What will happen when i'm 30?

kls 15y ago
What will happen when i'm 30? You will be on top of the world again. Seriously you are in the beginning stages of a burn out, which I am convinced is a form of depression brought on by the software development industry. We see it so many times, I wish a professional in the mental health field would study it specifically. Anyways, back to you specifically, you need to get away on a vacation first and foremost that won't in and of itself fix it but it will help to arrest it's progression to a full blown burn out. When I say vacation, you don't have to jet set off to Aruba or something like that, going camping or to some semi-local retreat will do. Just get somewhere away from any and all computers. Now that will make you feel better but if you go back and just jump back into your old routine it will only have bought you a weeks worth of motivation at most. Old habits will creep in, and you will be back to square one. You are burnt out because of something in your work life, most likely the use of the same technologies to do the same things over and over. You need to change the technology and you need to change what you are doing with it. Our interest change over life and it sounds like you are hitting one of those age brackets where some things that where very important in the early 20 start to become irrelevant as you head for 30. The point being, reevaluate your interests and start to isolate problems in that interest that you can solve or that you can help others solve. Take a look at the popular technologies, pick one you like and start to solve that problem in a new language. Getting started is tough while in burnout especially when you are not getting the successful feedback because you have adopted a new language and technology. But you will have to trust me here, it only takes grinding through it for a little while, and then you implement something (a small routing in a new language, a cool screen for an app) and then all the sudden you are back. It's like waking from a slumber. Those of us that are prone to burn out do so because we become bored, you have to stop doing what you are doing now and start doing something that you are interested in. You probably feel like you have done everything you want to do in your current role and therefore there are no challenges left. Unfortunately when you are in it, it seems so difficult but when you look back on it, it truly is as simple as do something else. The thing to remember is that burn out does fade, even if you stay put and don't change anything generally ones role will change enough over time that it will remedy the burn out but there is no guarantee that it will happen quickly. If you take active efforts to change it, you can get yourself out of it in short order. I am sorry that you are going through it and I wish you the best, just remember that it is temporary, and that you can help to make its duration shorter. There may be other burn out periods in the future but once you have the tools to deal with them, they become easier and easier to manage. Good luck to you, and if you ever need advice on the subject my contact details are in my profile.
- taway22 15y ago
  Thank you, this makes me feel better.

2 points by taway22 15y ago

kls 15y ago

What will happen when i'm 30? You will be on top of the world again. Seriously you are in the beginning stages of a burn out, which I am convinced is a form of depression brought on by the software development industry. We see it so many times, I wish a professional in the mental health field would study it specifically. Anyways, back to you specifically, you need to get away on a vacation first and foremost that won't in and of itself fix it but it will help to arrest it's progression to a full blown burn out. When I say vacation, you don't have to jet set off to Aruba or something like that, going camping or to some semi-local retreat will do. Just get somewhere away from any and all computers. Now that will make you feel better but if you go back and just jump back into your old routine it will only have bought you a weeks worth of motivation at most. Old habits will creep in, and you will be back to square one. You are burnt out because of something in your work life, most likely the use of the same technologies to do the same things over and over. You need to change the technology and you need to change what you are doing with it. Our interest change over life and it sounds like you are hitting one of those age brackets where some things that where very important in the early 20 start to become irrelevant as you head for 30. The point being, reevaluate your interests and start to isolate problems in that interest that you can solve or that you can help others solve. Take a look at the popular technologies, pick one you like and start to solve that problem in a new language. Getting started is tough while in burnout especially when you are not getting the successful feedback because you have adopted a new language and technology. But you will have to trust me here, it only takes grinding through it for a little while, and then you implement something (a small routing in a new language, a cool screen for an app) and then all the sudden you are back. It's like waking from a slumber. Those of us that are prone to burn out do so because we become bored, you have to stop doing what you are doing now and start doing something that you are interested in. You probably feel like you have done everything you want to do in your current role and therefore there are no challenges left. Unfortunately when you are in it, it seems so difficult but when you look back on it, it truly is as simple as do something else. The thing to remember is that burn out does fade, even if you stay put and don't change anything generally ones role will change enough over time that it will remedy the burn out but there is no guarantee that it will happen quickly. If you take active efforts to change it, you can get yourself out of it in short order. I am sorry that you are going through it and I wish you the best, just remember that it is temporary, and that you can help to make its duration shorter. There may be other burn out periods in the future but once you have the tools to deal with them, they become easier and easier to manage. Good luck to you, and if you ever need advice on the subject my contact details are in my profile.

taway22 15y ago
Thank you, this makes me feel better.