
Ask HN: What can you do as a software engineer who has lost their passion? - hnsnsn
Quick background: I started with TI-Basic in high school math class and things snowballed from there. I&#x27;m about to graduate and I&#x27;ve worked constantly since I started college. I&#x27;ve either been coding part time during the school year or full time during various internships. I woke up today and realized that the spark that started it all is dead and has been for longer than I can remember now. I&#x27;m competent at my job and I don&#x27;t dislike it, but I feel like I just go on cruise control completely devoid of interest or passion. I also don&#x27;t really have the energy or excitement to start a personal project.<p>My question(s): Can anyone relate? Does it matter that I don&#x27;t feel passionate as long as I don&#x27;t dislike my job?  What steps can I take to reignite the spark that I once felt?
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med00d
I'm in the same boat, although I'm a senior systems engineer. I had considered
a move to a dev or devops type of role, but I can't stomach the pay cut to
start back at the bottom. I wish I had some advice for you, but I'm really
searching for the answer to the problem myself. I've got some personal
projects that I'm working on, but between work and my 18-month old son, I
don't get much time to do that sort of stuff. When I do have free time, I find
myself wanting to spend that time with my family instead of sitting at a
computer like I do most of the time already, and that's a pretty rough fight
to have with myself.

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techjuice
Normally if we get burned out from regular engineering software or just feel
like we need a change we switch over to another high paying field like
financial engineering, game development, infrastructure automation, big data,
statistics, cryptography, penetration testing, consulting, aerospace for us
that have those special skills or can obtain them (normally requires a few
degrees to become a rocket engineer due to not having the funds for a
production scale wind tunnel or labs) and if the others do not seem that fun
we normally start a business.

As a software engineer you have more outside the field opportunities then
others may have. Since we are very quick learners we can pick up things
unnatural fast compared to others which is why you see many software engineers
or programmers owning multi-billion dollar businesses in Silicon Valley. Ever
meet someone that people keep telling him or her they can't do x,y or z and
they end up doing it on a massive scale way beyond what anyone thought they
were capable of (Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc.).

It is all about finding what you like doing for fun, maybe the software your
building at work is not fun, many go into game development mobile apps or
cryptography and that excites them along with bringing in a nice paycheck if
they do it for their own business.

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mc_hammer
rigorous exercise did wonders for my passion, so did a sport fishing trip.

learning a new language or starting a new project will probably reignite that
spark.

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SixSigma
Can relate. Coding from 12-45 y.o. I've burned out a few times. Now I'm at Uni
doing a degree in Supply Chain Management. I will end up with a bunch of cross
discipline skills and either keep coding or not, who cares.

Do something else. If your passion nags you after a while, all good. If not,
time to let go.

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hurshprasad
My personal experience I realized I love technology but don't enjoy many
facets of application development. I have been doing it for 15yrs, I tried
working for startups, tried middle management, realized it didn't get better
just became a different animal. So I am finally getting out.

But my go too's were stepping back to interests before tech took over, read
books on other topics. I did philosophy, some math, and books I wanted to read
but didn't before. This was the best compartmentalizations for me and helped
me gain perspective and reflect.

I also realized passion, dedication, happiness are all for the most part a
choice we make and I needed something I could do for 10yrs+ and not regret. So
I made my choices and am ready to stick with it.

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devbootcamp
Here is how I got my passion, motivation, and ambition back. Let's call it my
slump-buster.

1\. Find Inspiration. It could be music, watching a movie about a start-up or
some other inspiring story. For me it was listening to Brian Stevens keynote
speech from the RedHat Summit on YouTube. If you listen to the past 3 years he
makes it clear that software developers and Linux are going to rule the world.
Use this as a tool to get you into your command center to get stuff done.

2\. Do not come home from work and go to your command center or computer room.
You need time away from the computer to remember what your passionate about.
Watch TV, go exercise, spend time with your family, whatever makes you happy.

3\. Go to bed early. When your lying in bed, think about your side projects
and what you want to build. Go into detail about the code, UI, technology
stack, where your going to host it. This will help you dream in code and get
you excited to wake up.

4\. Wake up early. I get up around 3am without an alarm clock now because
after dreaming about my passion projects I'm so excited to get up and make
things happen. You would be surprised how focused you can be at 3am with no
distractions. In the last 6 months since I started this new me I have read
over 20 books and wrote several documents for my passion project.

5\. Setup the perfect development workstation. I use my 27 inch mac for
development but I also have 3 laptops running Linux. I told myself I was going
to setup and learn all the best productivity tools to help me code
better/faster. I setup my dotfiles perfectly with all the vim plugins I wanted
to use, tmux scripts, and pushed it up to github and synced it to all my
workstations. It is such a rush to have everything running perfectly.

6\. Start a ritual or habit and set goals. Document all your ideas for your
passion projects in as much detail as possible. Go to Trello or Evernote and
document everything. Include pictures, links, sound, video, whatever to help
you describe your idea and get yourself motivated. I call mine my 5 year
project plan even though it will only take me about a year and a half. (Part
of my plan is to save money and move to SV.)

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room271
Some advice I've heard in the past: don't be pushed from existing stuff, but
be pulled to new stuff.

I.e. work hard to enjoy your current circumstances and only leave if there is
a positive pull - something you really want to do - elsewhere.

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kayman
Read 'Hackers and Painters'.

Think of yourself as an artist. Your medium is software.

Do you have side projects? Unlike a lot of other professions, software puts
you in control. You can build whatever you like.

Regardless of the job, an artist always produces...art. You are lucky to have
a job that pays you reasonably well. Well enough to have enough free time to
pursue what ever would make you happy. Pursue it now. Even if no one else will
see it, get in the habit of producing stuff.

Put it somewhere for display and share it with others.

It's okay to burn out. Relax, take the time to recharge. Accept your cycles of
creativity and periods of rest.

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dome82
Maybe it is related to your passion, maybe not.

Try to enjoy what you have, how lucky you are to be where you are with your
skills. Some people can just dream of those.

Sometimes, it seems that we lose our passion but we just need to stop, refresh
our mind and start enjoying small things in life. The excitement and passion
will be back..at least, that's what happened to me.

Take it easy and stay positive :)

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EliRivers
The world is heaving with people who do their job to pay the rent. It's
normal. The mantra "do what you love" and claims that programming should be
some kind of wonderful life experience is self-selecting echo-chamber chatter.
If you love your job, that's a nice bonus for you, but it's really not
necessary.

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japhyr
Can you combine your skill in software development with another interest? What
other areas interest you?

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trmchale
Build a motorcycle [http://www.rycamotors.com](http://www.rycamotors.com)

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Im_Talking
Maybe your lack of passion isn't about the job.

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bobsadinook
Have you another passion in your heart?

I think you have(like drawing,painting,etc).

I ever felt like this before I'm a painter but suddenly I like philosophy.

And now i hate painting!

