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A couple of simple suggestions: 1. Learn a new language. Even if you don't expect to use it on the job, it can be exciting to spend time learning a new languag
by WorldMaker 4y ago
A couple of simple suggestions:
1. Learn a new language. Even if you don't expect to use it on the job, it can be exciting to spend time learning a new language and working basic practice examples in it. Depending on your employer, you may even be able to convince them to allow you to use some "professional development" time and resources at work to do this. Check to see if your employer has things like PluralSight access and if your manager would be interested in giving you 10%/20% time to professional education/learning. You may need to be able to market whatever language you pick as "potentially useful to future projects", but good managers often encourage a small bit of "professional development" time because it keeps you sharp (and that is good for them).
2. Find some reason to code for fun outside of work if you need it. Be careful with any attempts at moonlighting because the failure case is burn out (and possibly dangerous levels of burn out at that) and work/life balance is generally a good idea. As others have suggested you could build a hobby project of some sort, perhaps a game idea you might want to explore. If you want more "guide rails" (which might help to avoid some burn out by narrowing your focus) there are things like attempting Project Euler problems [1] or also a small category of Games on Steam where playing the game encourages/requires writing some of your own code. For instance, I've been playing some Bitburner [2] lately. It uses JS to "play" but you can start from a very stripped down "no toolchain, no frameworks" place and just explore/learn the game's API at your own pace with end goals already encouraged by the game structure. It may be an interesting anecdote to some of your current work struggles.
[1] https://projecteuler.net/about https://projecteuler.net/about
[2] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1812820 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1812820