Ask HN: Any freelancers here? I need burnout advice
I have about 3 Yoe webdev/+physics/mech eng degree. Worked a few contracts then my own Saas thing, now pretty burned out. Don't really need funding or a team, just a bit of time.
Was thinking to just to dumb manual labour while I recover/finish my product. I don't think I can hack a 3 month job hunt for a "legit" job and I feel like taking tech contracts will also create a lot of mental overhead since I'm in the headspace for my own work right now.
Maybe tutoring would be better than Ubereats gig work, but honestly a lot of software contracts seem to be turned into BS gig work and at least with manual labour you are doing something real.
Looking for validation and ideas.
79 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 127 ms ] threadIf it were me, I’d go work as a barista in San Francisco for 3 months and master my latte arts skills, while also getting exposed to the tech scene out there.
It's also incredibly refreshing to do something totally different. I would choose wisely, though. Not really the same situation, but I went and became a naturalist guide at a nature preserve between my undergrad computer science degree and my Ph.D. Working outside not only totally refreshed me but gave me much-needed perspective. I think something similar can be said for pouring beers or delivering food.
It'll give you ideas for your next gig as well.
Doing gig work might be fine if it helps you survive long enough. If you’re unwilling to get your expenses low enough though, then that’s not even on the table.
Always plan for more time than you need. If you need three months, make sure you have an extra six of padding, if you can. You may need it if forced into the job search or something unexpected happens.
Do you have some money saved up? If so, just take a vacation.
If you bring your laptop with you and keep doing stuff in it, it doesn't count.
- Woodworking
- Cooking - especially baking, since it can be extremely challenging to create the 'perfect' baguette or croissant
- Gardening
- Writing a novel
etc.
Best solution for burnout IMO is to completely refresh your mind with something that is challenging but low-stress.
I have had a number of failures at all phases of projects. One was 20 hours of work and a grand in materials that I were totally junk (I had to pay more to drop it off at the dump). One was fairly low material cost, but ~40 hours in it was ruined.
Now I make duplicates in case of failures. My last project I got material for 10, was able to actually get 7 blanks due to cracks and knots, 5 didn't get tear out so bad they were worthless, and 4 at the end after a final gluing mistake. One for me, and two that were gifts for friends. One spare, out of materials for 10.
I get anxiety about starting new projects because I worry about how much material to get to account for my mistakes.
I have a life philosophy about this: failure is the path to success (I've never learned anything by being right).
It can be hard to maintain the mindset, but it's actually true -- we learn from our mistakes, so nothing is a failure as long as a lesson was derived from it.
If you can maintain that mindset, it takes a lot of the stress out of things!
I don't do woodworking, but I do fairly complicated electronics projects as a hobby, and a similar effect happens. I made a special display case where I put those failed projects on display, next to the final successful one. It reminds me that the failed example was just a stage in development and makes me feel better.
The final product was epic, and I use it every day, but the failed desk was too big to keep.
[1] recyclable as long as it is not fired.
It has come about due to two driving forces; one that I've been on-and-off with learning guitar for years and wanted to record myself and play over backing tracks; the other being that my daughter took a shine to playing piano and I want to improve myself there so I can better help her learn. I've accidentally fallen in love with all of it.
I've ended up looking in to development of audio plugins for DAWs now. The whole thing is quite a rabbit hole...
1) Can you afford to live off a manual labor job? If so, that might be a good approach since you can work that manual labor job and still have mental energy afterwards to work on your SaaS. It's much harder doing mental tech work after already doing mentally taxing work at your job.
2) If you do contracting, does it have to be full time? Presumably you could make more money doing tech contracting than a manual labor job, so if you could work 10-20 hours a week contracting, you'd still have time left for your SaaS.
3) Regardless of your approach to earning money, you need to set aside time for self-care. You need to be sleeping, relaxing, socializing, and sometimes relaxing by doing nothing. It might seem like time not dedicated to your work, but you need to work in a sustainable way as you're finding out.
this is exactly what I was thinking. Thank for the validation, I'm glad someone else has this experience. Also I do a lot of debugging subconsciously, so taking other tech work is just a lot.
Although my very limited knowledge of burnout is that you shouldn't work at all. I don't know. You should probably talk to your doctor or therapist.
Burnout on contracting gigs was always a problem for me because W2 contracting does tend to expect 2000 hours a year. But I hate job hunting so I steered clear of 6 month engagements.
Not saying that you should drive trucks, but I think doing something else -- something completely unrelated to dev work -- might be of help.
Another was how many skills overlap the two fields. Driving the big rig is an exercise in resource management and planning, so you can do things like ensure that by the time you need more fuel, you're in a place where the fuel costs are lower.
Yeah, I can see the resource planning overlaps. I’m glad it worked out for your friend!
There is one stereotype that he confirmed, though: it's common for drivers to keep two sets of driving logs, one real and one doctored, in order to be able to drive longer at a time than is legally allowed without getting caught.
This was quite a number of years ago, though. It's entirely possible that GPS is used to mitigate this these days. I don't know.
1. Read some philosophy (Greek, Indian, Buddhist, whatever) 2. Spend good time with your family, especially your parents 3. Go for hiking 4. Do meditation (on self) 5. Call your childhood friends 6. Try cooking new dishes (and fail, it is fun) 7. Read physical books
I typically take about 10-12 weeks off every year. Today I just got back to working after a 5 week holiday. For the past 6 months before that, I only worked about half time for clients as I was working on one of my own products.
Treat your own project as a client. Keep track of how much time you spend (not to bill yourself, but to keep an eye on whether what you’re doing is profitable), and work during your regular work hours. Keep evenings and weekends for family and hobbies.
Your brain needs something other than screens for a while.
The brain capacity thing is real: context switching destroys your productivity and you can’t use your whole brain for your project if you’re doing that.
I just took on a full time w2 salary position at a mid stage startup. Salary isn’t incredible, but it’s predicable and is allowing me to establish a work life balance. I plan to do this for a couple of years at least to rest my nervous system and rebuild my savings.
There’s no wrong answer - do whatever will bring back your sanity (but don’t go broke doing it, that’s just more stressful!)
At one point I had a 3 month break between research gigs, and just got a temp job moving boxes around a factory. Long hours and bad pay but it was a nice change of pace for a bit.
But a part time job, for a year or two, doing non software work? Especially something social and physical? That might be viable, if you can get your expenses down enough. But most jobs outside software pay so badly, you won’t be able to afford rent or proper food…
Also helps if you are solo, and can cook. And I also think it's a great energy recharger and helped me when I was burnt out.
Having said that, it also shouldn't be something you hate. If you hate it, then it is time to do something else, at least for a while. Also, who knows, taking a manual labor job for a while might give you ideas for how software could improve the situation (just a possibility).
this is a good point I can relate with!
It's important to also have a plan so you know at least roughly how long you can have your break for ($ wise), and what you will do in that time. I've come back to work feeling much better and knowing what/how I want my career to look like/unfold. Job hunting is hard especially now, but clearing your mind of burnout is important to build your resilience and confidence in your skills and conveying that in interviews.