
Ask HN: Ever wonder if you would be happier doing something else? - neurotic_coder
I sometimes wonder if I have an unhealthy relationship with programming. At its worst I find myself getting really frustrated and impatient when things aren&#x27;t working, but even in the best of times - when I would describe what I&#x27;m doing as &quot;fun&quot; or &quot;satisfying&quot; - I feel like I&#x27;m just indulging my OCD and neuroticism by relentlessly chasing purity, simplicity, performance. I get obsessive about always making my code more perfect, to the point where it can give me a headache. And I sometimes feel like this builds mental habits that spill over into the rest of my life, making me more impatient and anxious and restless. It&#x27;s to the point where I&#x27;m almost wondering if I should change career fields.<p>Can anyone relate? How did you cope? Did you change careers and become happier?
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poletopole
I was exactly the same way and being that way is what got be terminated from
an employer I worked 7 years for. After that, I took a break for a few months
to do some soul searching and decided even though I spent a decade of my life
becoming the developer I am today, that I had hit peak intellectual
satisfaction with programming. Although I haven't changed careers, I no longer
have a romantic relationship with programming--it's simply a means to and end
for me.

You may not have to change careers because odds are it's your environment i.e.
"job" that's toxic. Once I started doing independent contracting it felt like
this massive emotional burden had been lifted that allowed me to have energy
to focus on what really mattered to me. I'm doing things now that I thought I
would never be capable of because I didn't have a formal background in fields
I ended up not pursuing in school but wanted to. So now instead of learning
new programming languages I study other topics like mathematics and chemistry.

I think the act of making a "career" or business out of something you enjoy in
some degree makes it drab and boring. The best minds in any scientific or
technical field aren't "professionals", they are always in a constant state of
"play"\--which is true for the most prolific programmers that I can think of.
So my advice is to give yourself a license to just have fun! Don't guilt trip
or second guess yourself: go by that textbook or go take that course etc
you've been too afraid to read or attend.

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non-entity
Yeah I think about this a lot tbh.

Turns out I'm not a very good developer, probably average on a wider scale,
maybe a bit below that and certainly bottom teir when it comes to highly tech
minded contexts, such as here on HN. And frankly, I dont care for much of it
at all. I dont hate programming i guess, and while I rank myself poorly as a
developer, I'd same I'm ok as a hacker, meaning I can dig my heels into a
problem I'm interesed in and "hack together a solution" from nothin, mostly
for the sale of wanting to do it. Its very rare that I'm exposed to a problem
that I can get engaged in, but when I do the spark returns.

OTOH no idea what else I could reasonably do. Most careers are going to be
plauged by the reasons that turn me off of programming. There's a handful of
things that interest me, but all stuff that is out of reach because of
education reasons and I make too much money to afford going back to school
(but to little to self fund). Its also hard to tell where my intellectual
ceiling is and if I'd even be able to work on some of those things anyway.

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OJFord
I'm slightly worried that I'm just a little bit behind the curve, and I'll be
in the same position in a few years; so all I really have to say is that I
think spending time on non-programming^ hobbies helps.

^(and better: non-computer, so there's no 'I could write a script to do this
faster' or 'I have so many better ideas for a site/program that would do this
better' temptation)

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ryanchants
Constantly. I'm still trying to decide what that thing might be. I cope by
playing around in different hobbies, trying to find interests outside of tech.
Preferably no screens involved. I'm also trying to develop ideas for side
projects that could subsidize a different career/lifestyle.

