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How do you keep the drive after years of development?

7 points by Eliahu_horwi ↗ HN
Hi all, I have been coding for the last 4 years, about 15 hours a day, 9 in my day job and another six on 2 failed side projects. I am now in a senior position but lately I feel like nothing new is happening and every challenge is the same old one with a different title. I am starting to rethink my path as a developer. Thinking I need to get into new fields of coding I have started coding blockchain and AI, at first it was magic, nothing like any code I ever knew but now 6 month later its starting to smell the same and I know in a few month it will get old. I am a person who always needs new and interesting challenges and I feel like the software industry can no longer provide me with them, of course, there will always be new challenges but I feel they are all of the same type. How do you keep the drive after so long? alternatively what job in the tech industry or out of the tech industry could you recommend where every day is fight or flight, a battle for survival where if I fall asleep on my watch I will lose?

Thanks

10 comments

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JudS
At some point you're going to have to come to grips with what motivates you. Writing code just for the sake of writing code will always get old eventually.

Find a company where you can see the purpose of your work. Where work is something other than a constant stream of assignments to be completed. If all you do is assignments, the work will never be fulfilling. Make sure that your work drives the success of the business/effort that you're working for.

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pizzaknife
I'll add that with actual "purpose," double down and also insist on expanding your skills in and around development to whatever ends also suit your personal interests ~ basically ensure that your gig also provides you time to explore creatively in your field, on the job (even if such exploration is not directly related to your company's product or industry).

Emphasis to "on the job" - this is one of those few, rare lines of work where "learning" can and regularly is achieved for "free" (time and internet connectivity, invested), but that doesn't mean that improving your skills should be entirely shouldered by you and burdening your non-working life.

Eliahu_horwi
Thank you, I do that and I expand my field to all things startup related. Up until not long ago, my goal was to climb up the ladder, eventually be the CEO/CTO of a company and then advance from there. now I am not so sure, what says I won't get bored of managing a company after 4 years?
Eliahu_horwi
Thank you are absolutely correct, I have worked for 2 startups and I never let my self just do assignments. I always push my self to the limits, try and innovate and find new ways to solve problems. But again, after 4 years in startups (My dream since being a kid) every discussion feels De Ja Vu and every UI/UX problem is more of the same. I am very passionate about my work and I try and position myself in a place where I can actually do work that matters and not just code but again after years of doing this it starts to feel old.
tboyd47
Programming is not a fight-or-flight battle for survival. It can be a quite comfortable career. Pushing yourself past your limit on a regular basis isn't going to improve your job security, it's just going to burn you out and ultimately have the opposite effect.

If you're feeling burnout, don't run from it. Handle it. Find a way to relax for an extended period so your brain can stop reeling from the pressure. What worked for me was just crashing on my parents' couch for 3 days. Some people go camping. I dunno. I had a really good Ask HN about 8 months ago on this topic where I got a lot of good advice from people here.

Eliahu_horwi
Thanks, I that is exactly what I am wondering, is it just burnout and a good long holiday or a hobby can solve or is it something more ad I need to change my line of work. before starting in the tech sector I thought tech is big, it has money, it must be a constant stream of excitement, that is not the case and I am a person which actively seeks new excitements and needs to have a sense of urgency in life
tboyd47
> is it just burnout and a good long holiday or a hobby can solve or is it something more ad I need to change my line of work

Burnout can be both. My understanding is it's where your line of work gradually starts to get associated with unpleasantness. There are levels and degrees of it and it can get worse over time. Sometimes taking a break works, changing companies, finding another niche within the same profession, or sometimes you really do need to find a whole 'nother career. For some people it's a lifelong battle. I recommend taking a few days and removing yourself from work just to think it through.

[dead] hemendrasingh
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twobyfour
15 hours a day? You're almost certainly burnt out. Can you take 6-8 weeks off work? See what happens if you force yourself to step away from the keyboard for that long.

That will also give you a chance to re-evaluate why you code. Mastering a skill can be a motivating challenge. But if that's your motivation for leaning it, you'll run out of steam once you reach a level of mastery that satisfies you.

It could be that you need a new skill to master. Perhaps something technical (math? Machine learning?) Perhaps something non-technical (finance? People management? Carpentry?)

It could be that you simply need a goal or challenge to which you can apply your skills. For many of us, programming for programming's sake gets old pretty quickly. But building something that solves a problem for people doesn't. Maybe the problem you'll solve is something small (the Jetsons promised me a robot that will unload my dishwasher...) or maybe it'll be big (climate change? Refugee crises? World peace?).

Or you might be one of us who doesn't have an explicit purpose to their life except to muddle through and spend time with the people we love. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It just requires accepting that programming doesn't have to be an all-consuming passion. If it's something you just do for 30-50 hours per week in order to earn a paycheck, that's ok too. If you'd rather spend your 40 hours doing that than doing sales, that's really all that matters. Find your meaning and challenge in your loved ones and your hobbies.