Ask HN: Bored with Drupal, and web development in general.

Too much of anything makes you bored. You obviously don't find development as satisfying or fulfilling as you once did. So take a break from it. I've had this before with freelancing, I burnt out, left and found even more fulfilling things to do like work on my own projects and inventions.

Work on hardware problems! http://techshop.ws/

Well, I have barely worked with Drupal/Joomla/other or Magento/Prestashop or even PHP in general, and I've always thought it would be quite boring after the first CRM/e-Commerce site, as you said, to put together some plugins and glue-code, some customizations and few more...

On the other side, I've worked extensively with Java, and on a lesser extent with Scala, C++, C# and other languages, Unity3D, etc on projects which have little to do with CRMs.

Perhaps you're not bored of working with computer, just worked of the reiteration of the same project with little variations and the technology you're using...

Try something different!

Why not focus on writing your own (lightweight) framework or looking for a more long-term project? Maybe try using something like Symfony to mix things up? Try to create an ecosystem where you can spend time creating new code instead of trying to mush and mash different pieces together.

I was in the same place using Drupal primarily. I found excitement by joining a startup company. Startups typically need to build web apps that are so customized that it doesn't make sense to use a CMS. I found writing code at a lower level really helped me learn a lot more and captivated my interest. No longer was I having to play by the maddening rules of the CMS. Its more challenging but more rewarding and helps you learn whats really going on behind the surface. I would roughly equate coding in drupal to using windows where they try to hide the 'insides' of the application from the developer. You are learning more about the CMS's API and not the underlying processes. Using a lower level framework (rails, django, express) is more like unix where it is more transparent and easier to customize but demands some real understanding. Or just not using a framework at all is nice but can burn a lot of time. Everyone should build their own atleast once, but after that let the frameworks to the boring stuff and stick to coding the fun stuff.

Honestly I feel like this every January - believe me. I think it's because there is a rush of activity leading up to the holidays, and it can be so busy that January just seems flat and dull.

The project I'm working on I haven't looked at seriously for 3-4 weeks. Partly on purpose, and partly because I'm a bit bored doing it for myself. I've got plenty of fresh ideas, but no incentive at the moment.

Is this what you're talking about? Or is it more what @joshontheweb was talking about?

I've been dealing with the exact same problem. I've been working with Drupal for about 4 years now. I've coded some contrib modules, submitted patches to core, attended Drupalcons, etc and am just not that excited by it anymore. Recently I felt as though I was spending most of my time configuring Drupal and not actually developing anything. I was bored out of my mind at work.

On the side I've been working on a few Rails and Node.js projects. I found them to be enjoyable to code and intellectually stimulating. An opportunity came along a few weeks ago to join a Rails based consulting firm. I start in a few weeks and can't remember the last time I was this excited about work.

As some of the other commenters mentioned, I'm hoping the lower level stuff is the breath of fresh air needed. Everyone is different but maybe you should consider switching things up a little and jumping into a new technology stack. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!