
Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do? - atemerev
I have an extreme case of neophilia. Well, most of HN readers like new things, but in my case this is really extreme. I start many projects, but never finish them because they are inevitably losing novelty (I had better luck with shorter projects). I am a fairly decent software engineer, but I never held a job longer than 1 year (for the last 12 years), and recently I realised that the only thing that motivates me in software engineering is learning new things and trying new fancy toys, not building something working and useful (this is obviously an invalid approach in engineering, and it makes me sad enough to consider leaving this career path for good). I&#x27;ve been fired from 2 jobs this year (having a stellar start, then quickly boring for good). Everything I do seems to be motivated by novelty, it seems like a dangerous addiction now. I am 32, jobless, and have more than $50k in debt now.<p>What should I do? Is there a cure from novelty-seeking behavior? Or how it can be managed to be useful, not disabling? Please help, if you have any experience coping with this...
======
duncanawoods
I have found people like you really useful to know because you have had
contact with such a broad range of techs that when I have a problem, I can
quiz you and get some killer pointers for where to look next.

I wouldn't want you to change, just to find your place in the world and
satisfaction in being naturally you. Its like you have pockets full of keys
and really good at finding new keys just no locks to use them with. There are
other people who have the opposite problem and have locks they obsess over but
find looking for keys exhausting, frustrating and confusing. You can be a
force multiplier for them.

One idea, if you wrote a blog about each new thing you try, you accidentally
create something "you stick with" because its about all the things you are not
sticking with :) When your attention moves on, its not a failure any more
because each article is a success. Documenting what you are doing might also
let you spot some patterns that take you to the next level.

I wonder if you might find teaching \ training a rewarding occupation. Keeping
up with continually moving tech and having a breadth of knowledge might make
you excellent at that.

~~~
lamontcg
Yeah, I've got the opposite problem. I'm naturally conservative and dislike
novel things because I figure they're a flash in the pan. I'm very cynical of
new hype, and prefer tested technologies.

My enormous blind spot is that I then miss legitimate trends, and I can
completely fall behind in the industry.

I also find myself not learning new tricks and techniques that would improve
my workflow, and have to take time out of my schedule sometimes just to play
around with new approaches.

I can definitely see how both approaches lend something, and both approaches
have huge weaknesses.

The biggest issue that I've actually seen with novelty-seekers it that they'll
build something based on some new framework or tool--that turns out to be be
really rough and they hit those rough edges and get frustrated. Then instead
of trying to fix the tool they're using they move on to some other new shiny
tool of the day. That behavior can leave a ton of tech debt in its wake.

~~~
twnaing
I am also one of the novelty-seekers.

As you mentioned I do really have 'ton of tech debt'. I hope I could change my
behavior and reduce my tech debt.

------
y0y
Do you often show up to work late? Are you seen as generally unreliable? (Be
honest with yourself.)

Do you procrastinate a lot?

Do you have a hard time transitioning? Are you late for things because you a)
can't accurately estimate time and b) can't pull yourself away from the thing
you're doing at that moment even though you _know_ you're going to be late if
you don't?

Do you have a very unstructured sleep schedule?

Do you have high impulsivity? Spending (sounds like it)? Speeding? Substance
abuse - including alcohol?

Did you breeze through HS with decent grades without trying but then suddenly
find college and its unstructured environment and lack of supervision much
harder and hard for you to succeed in?

If you answer yes to many of those questions, then you may want to talk to a
psychiatrist about the potential for you being ADHD.

I was very much the same way and was diagnosed at age 29. Best thing to happen
to me. I've managed to turn my career and my personal life around.

Everything you describe sounds like the impulsive behavior of ADHD to me, but
I am not a medical professional and I am not trying to diagnose you. You just
sound an awful lot like I once did.

Best of luck..

~~~
colordrops
Interesting. My answer is an emphatic yes to all of those questions. In the
back of my mind I've always suspected that I would be diagnosed with ADHD, but
never talked to anyone about it. In the end I just chalked it up to being a
different kind of person and catered my life around my behaviors instead of
trying to force my behaviors into some ideal notion.

Looking back at the age of 40, my life has been much richer for it, having met
interesting people, traveled to strange places, and worked on amazing
projects. Most of the behaviors you listed have naturally attenuated through
experience and age.

But to be honest I still struggle (albeit somewhat successfully) daily with a
lot of it, so I'm wondering what treatment you got that worked so well. I'm
definitely not interested in drugs for myself, but would still like to hear
your thoughts on that if your treatment included them.

~~~
atemerev
OP here — I am on treatment now, including medication. Didn't help me
strategically, but it was worth it being diagnosed nevertheless. At least,
medications helped me stopping losing things.

~~~
icoder
I'm confused, you ask a question like this (which is already hard to answer
without knowing your full background) and you leave out the fact that you were
diagnosed with ADHD recently (and are on treatment), only to mention it in a
reply-comment? Do you think these are unrelated?

~~~
y0y
Based on his other replies, it seems he's given up on adhd treatments and
probably didn't want all the replies focusing on that (oops!). I guess he was
hoping there were some strategies others use that weren't related to treating
an underlying neurological condition. /shrug

~~~
atemerev
I currently take Elvanse (the long-action form of Adderall). It works for some
issues (like forgetfullness and occasionally focus-related things), but it
does nothing for novelty cravings. Before recently, I considered it to be a
good thing, but when I understood that it is a primary driver of everything I
do in life, I had doubts. Hence the post.

~~~
y0y
Aye, I understand. The impulsiveness is a big part of ADHD. I believe you
should continue to work with your psychiatrist. Point this out to them
specifically and let them know that while you are seeing improvement in some
areas, this one is particularly bad for you and that you would like to explore
some other medication options - either dosage change or new medications all-
together. Worst case scenario is you go back to the medication you're on now
which at least helps somewhat.

------
tunesmith
I know you can't share your entire life context in a short question, but upon
reading this I really wondered if the employers that fired you would have
described novelty-addiction as your problem. In many cases, "novelty" is just
another word for "avoidance".

Is it possible you are just abandoning ship on any project as soon as it gets
hard? The first few stages of any tech - googling, researching, following
tutorials - is pretty easy. Shorter projects are easier than longer projects.

When you read textbooks, do you actually do the exercises, or do you just
skim? There's an entire second part of learning that involves thrashing and
struggling against your own limitations as soon as the tutorials run out, and
that's where the real learning is. The trick to that is to accept that it's
supposed to be hard and you're supposed to feel helpless and dumb when it
happens. The successful ones are the ones that keep trying anyway in spite of
their own feelings of stupidity.

Anyway, ignore this comment if it doesn't apply, but your question can be read
in a variety of different ways, and this one interpretation is just if you
haven't toughened up and learned some tenacity.

~~~
atemerev
I enjoy feeling dumb. This means I can learn something new again! :)

------
roneesh
You might be a good candidate to teach at a coding bootcamp.

PROS: 1\. Your energy level would match the students 2\. You could make sure
the curriculum stays up to date, and every few years transition some large
parts of the curriculum to a new language/framework. 3\. You have tons of
experience to draw for the many left-field questions you would get 4\. The
consistent new influx of students might feed that need you have for novelty

CONS: 1\. Not sure if you could teach each session knowing 80-90% is the same
content as the last, but you're just changing 10-20% for this batch. 2\. Could
you handle answering some of the same newbie questions every 3 months? 3\.
They would, like most jobs, want you to stick around, but this isn't a total
CON, they are likely more amenable to you leaving than almost any corporate
gig.

So maybe it's something to consider!

I do think you might need some more help in managing this, but in the
meantime, you can always find work that fits what some part of you needs right
now.

~~~
atemerev
There are not any bootcamps like that in Switzerland. Probably a good idea to
organize one and hope I don't fail in organization minutiae again. :)

~~~
randomacct1234
While reading this I wondered in what country you life. If it has more to do
with the expectations from the people around you. I quite given up a so called
regular life. I'm very interested in new stuff too (although I'm able to get
through some boredom) and even start to appreciate this side of myself. I
probably never will be the best in anything, but I never was anyway, so in the
end it's for me just what I enjoy. I also like to teach stuff to others and in
this case I'm rarely bored to repeat myself. I lived/live in Switzerland too.
One another different thought: The companies I worked for (in Switzerland, big
and small, but not Google or MS) never had something like a career for
Engineering related fields where you gain some relevant benefits (most of my
friends best benefit was that they now not even have paid overtime, are called
Senior Engineer and get a irrelevant amount of few bucks more). After a few
years the only possibility seems to get into project management which is for
me too boring (yet). Maybe we should start a bootcamp in CH?

~~~
atemerev
Will be happy to partner with (or just talk to) locals. My email is sorhed at
gmail.

------
jng
Fixing that may take a long time, but it will probably fix your whole life, so
it's worth it to just focus on this instead on software or work. Dedicate to
work only the minimum necessary time for survival.

There are probably a number of causes, but coffee may be one of them. Don't be
radical, but if you're having too much coffee, I'd suggest cutting down to
just one coffee in the morning. It will take a bit of effort but may help you
concentrate.

Then I suggest you try to focus on finishing things as the main goal. You have
to get rid of the addiction to the rush of novelty, but you can get addicted
to the rush of publishing, with obviously positive results. In order to do
this, lower the bar enormously. Take only TINY projects: writing a short
article or even a tweet. Writing a tiny piece of software that does something.
Cleaning up one corner of your disk. It is _key_ that you accept average or
even poor quality, that shouldn't be a consideration. And it is very, very
helpful that you _publish_ the result: post the essay on Twitter, Facebook, or
a blog. Upload the code to github and share it. Obviously, cleaning up your
disk drive isn't so amenable to be published, so maybe you want to write a
line in an "achieved.txt" file.

Make sure we are talking really small projects here, and that we are not
expecting anything from them but completing them. They will be small and
mediocre. No problem at all! You can't solve everything at the same time. Make
things small enough that their scope fall under your current reach, which you
said is tiny - so make tiny thing! Err on the side of caution. You want to
make sure you complete them. Half-an-hour projects are _perfectly fine_ here!!

Do this for a week and recap.

~~~
badpenny
_There are probably a number of causes, but coffee may be one of them. Don 't
be radical, but if you're having too much coffee, I'd suggest cutting down to
just one coffee in the morning. It will take a bit of effort but may help you
concentrate._

I'd suggest gradually cutting down to none. Apparently the alertness and
general cognitive enhancing properties of caffeine don't really exist and all
that people are noticing is the effect of the caffeine on their caffeine
withdrawal symptoms.

~~~
randallsquared
Given the way that first cup of coffee in months can affect a person, you seem
to be suggesting that caffeine withdrawal is a permanent condition. ;)

~~~
lomnakkus
OPs point is that your brain adapts to the level of caffeine you're ingesting.
So if you're _used to_ drinking coffee then you're basically at the same level
of alertness/functioning that you were before you first started drinking
coffee (i.e. before it became habitual). The effect you notice from the first
cup of coffee in the morning is really just the coffee counteracting the
withdrawal you feel after ~6-8hrs of no caffeine.

------
staunch
(This is intended as just another idea to think about)

The long-term passion and commitment come _after_ some level of success, not
before.

Steve Jobs didn't dream of dedicating his life to Personal Computing. It was
his early successes that fed into his self-image and a feeling that it was
what he was meant to do.

Maybe you need to find the right project.

Turn your weakness into a strength by publicly launching a new project every
week. A new mobile app, web site, screencast, open source project, whatever.
They don't have to be good, just a bit useful. Make things that you want and
try to give them away and/or sell them to other people.

There are a lot of ways to make a living as a skilled programmer. Most people
have trouble finding the right kind of project, and that's mostly because they
don't iterate quickly enough.

~~~
jondubois
Yes, I think passion and self-image are often tightly coupled. Passionate
people tend to project their ego/self-image onto their work.

------
brandonmenc
> Is there a cure from novelty-seeking behavior?

Start a project, commit to the technologies beforehand, and deviate under no
circumstances.

Facebook was built with PHP. AdWords was built with MySQL. Instagram was built
with Django. GitHub was built with Rails. Stack Overflow was built with
Microsoft technologies.

It seems there are few instances where a "boring" tech stack prevents the
product from being built. If the idea is good enough, you'll make it work with
what's on hand.

If you can commit to a stack, yet still can't finish a project, you may have
to face some uncomfortable possibilities: that your ideas are no good, or that
you're simply not a very good programmer.

Attention span _is_ a requirement for being a decent programmer.

~~~
atemerev
I have a huge working memory and ability to hyperfocus (occasionally), which
helped me to deliver some quite successful short-term projects. It is
persistency I have problems with.

Commitment to stack is some problem for me, but it's OK for 6 months, maybe
even a year. Anything longer-term, and I inevitably think something in the
lines of: "this Java code now looks like shit, I learned so much new things,
why not rewrite anything in Scala/Akka/Go/another interesting stack du jour?"

~~~
nojvek
Sometimes this is not a bad thing. I started something in PHP an year ago,
about 3 months ago I played with node, evaluated it and it felt like it would
give a productivity boost in the long term. And it did! I am a lot happier
with the new codebase. I guess it really depends on what you're working.

------
invalidOrTaken
Most addictions are flights _from_ rather than flights _to_.

I realized embarrassingly recently that I am a mental coward---if I don't like
the implications of something, I just don't think about it. This is
surprisingly non-disabling in a classroom setting, especially if you enjoy
learning. It is a no-good for homework, though. I was everyone's favorite
student---and failing.

My _fear_ of unpleasant mental work (
[http://paulgraham.com/schlep.html](http://paulgraham.com/schlep.html)) led to
an _inexperience_ with mental work, making the fear _worse_.

When I untangled all this, the solution manifested itself in a few different
pieces:

1\. I gave up on the entitlement of always being in a flow state. This was
scary, and my faith helped.

2\. I started my days by planning them. I am actually not very good at this,
and often I just write "coding" for a significant portion of the day, but the
biggest benefit here is that I force myself to think about whatever it is I
don't want to think about.

3\. At the end of the day, I write down what I did that day. This forces me to
confront myself about whether I'm planning badly or not.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6906843](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6906843)

------
theWold
I would second a therapist/counselor/etc. Did that during college (thanks to
the couseling services my Uni provided), and it helped me just not feel _too_
crazy.

I spent a long while, and still do, thinking about what am I heading towards.
I know a lot of people don't know this and there is no way I will ever know
all the details to make a decision, but I prefer the 'fail to plan, plan to
fail' montra. Thus I plan, but am willing to scrap my planes in the wink of an
eye, contingent on new infromation.

This is what I did and maybe you'll find something helpful in this method.
Find what makes you tick. Make a list of things you enjoy doing. Try to be
specific as you can. (You like novelty. Okay then maybe something like 'I like
to learn a new trade skill (wood carving, stained glass, etc.) every 6
months.') Try to begin to boil it down to a long list. Keep adding things to
the list, and take a break from the list every now and again (just to bring a
fresh pair of eyes to it). If an idea seems broad, try to break it down (when
I did/do this, I try to be able to tell someone the idea and they would be
able to go out and do it exactly how it is in my head).

Then next to the list make columns like 'Financially sound ideas' (buying 32
Raspberry PIs to make a large cluster computer is not as financailly sound as
Learning how apache2 works), 'Speed of doing' (you can learn how to write C at
a basic level in an afternoon, but learning how to weld may take you longer),
'Practical for you to do' (if you weigh 400lbs and wanting to go backpacking
through the Rockies is not as practical as learning how to write better on a
whiteboard), 'It would bring me immediate gratitude', 'it would bring me long
term gratitude', etc.

After you make a large list rank each column with 1-5 or some other ranking
system (I liked the 1-5 because I could say I really hate, sort of hate,
neutral, like, love an idea). Then you can hopefully start to see things that
rank high in each category you made. (e.x. I really want to take a trip around
South America (drive for two weeks or so through the Andes). It isn't
practicle, it isn't quick to do, it isn't finacially sound, but it would be
one hell of a memory. It is something I want to strive towards and go one
day.)

~~~
atemerev
I can write good code in Java, Scala, Python, Perl, MATLAB, Javascript, and
now learning Go. I can configure Apache, nginx, Ansible, Docker... I worked
with nearly every favor of Linux, OpenSolaris/OmniOS, CoreOS, etc. I learned
how to do things in big data, business intelligence, algorithmic trading.
Learning new things is not a problem, this is what I enjoy. Most of them are
marketable.

What's killing me is inability to stop learning and start focusing on doing,
intensely and persistently. When I have a job, I can't focus on the job. When
I try to run my business, I can't focus on administrative side and routine
(and successful routine is the essence of every business). I only want to
learn, even if it is self-destructive, even if there are many more urgent and
important things to do.

~~~
arunaugustine
I can relate to your situation. While I have not completely figured it out,
one thing I realized is that, even though I shelve many of my side projects,
occasionally I come back to some of them, with fresh enthusiasm and move it
forward another step or two (before loosing enthusiasm again). I realized that
given enough "cycles" at least some of them are bound to be completed.

So a new approach I am trying is the "GPU Pipeline of side projects". First, I
choose to trim my list of side projects to a few important ones (4 is a number
I like, so four). I work on them in a parallel pipelined fashion. So I have
one that's more advanced, one that is being setup, one that is being fleshed
out, one still in ideation phase (you get the idea).

Secondly, I realize that when building things, the novelty can come from
"recursing down to the details". For example, setup a AWS pipeline for code
deployment would mean, learning how to setup an Ec2 deployment, then a Chef or
Puppet instance, then easy config management of them, best way to document our
setup (gitbook etc) and so on.... So if we use our boundless curiosity, which
is both a strength and a weakness, to look a little deeper, we will find
enough novelty to keep going even in a "single" project.

What I realized is that one single project is like a LISP S-Expression.
(project). You (eval project), and it returns (list sub-project1 sub-project2
interesting-research3 wonderful-idea4) All you have to do is keep eval'uating
the sub-expressions till you hit an "atom" of truth to share with the world.

~~~
xor-xor
Your conclusions regarding "GPU pipeline of side projects" and "recursing down
to the details" resonate with my personal experience a lot. Great s-expression
analogy!

------
pbreit
I know I'm a monster but my answer would be something along the lines of "suck
it up". We're on this planet for 80 years or so. There's going to be some
repetition. Not everything is going to be "novel". Best to train yourself to
lose this odd hang up.

~~~
pugio
In my experience, advice to "suck it up" usually indicates a lack of
understanding on the part of the advisor, and an assumption that your mental
state is similar to that of the person asking for help.

The OP is asking for strategies, alternate ways of viewing things, ideas he
hasn't though of or dismissed. "Suck it up", is something we all try, or
attempt to convince ourselves we "just" have to do. It usually doesn't work.
The brain is changed by tricks and nudges, not some doomed-to-fail attempt at
overriding yourself through (easily depleted) willpower.

If sucking it up worked for you, then you are probably in a very different
situation.

------
tudorw
Hunter or farmer?

The hunter seeks new challenges, is less risk adverse, needs to be good at
responding to the unknown and seeks the thrill of the pursuit and catch.

The farmer is more risk adverse and has the patience and diligence to gain
satisfaction from seeing plans develop, mature and deliver results.

For me, while a definition of ADHD delivered by someone trained in identifying
personality traits might be useful in developing a perspective on the
strengths and weakness of one's personality, one might choose a more 'active'
approach and look at the techniques that can help mitigate the most
destructive aspects of the 'condition'.

Everyone is unique, we are somewhere on a bell curve and I don't believe that
classification is particularly helpful, knowing one's self is not always any
help in changing the status quo.

In terms of advice, I've never met anyone who has come to any harm from
seeking talking therapy, I loved CBT and met a very nice councillor with a
'holistic' approach, trained in many diverse disciplines and with a very
rounded and realistic angle, baby steps towards things you want to change.

Good Luck :)

~~~
neya
Good advice. Thank you :)

------
coldtea
> _I realised that the only thing that motivates me in software engineering is
> learning new things_

One could question if you really "learn" those new things, instead of merely
skimming over them, since you don't seem to stay with them long enough to
really get into the details.

Maybe what you're afraid is really learning? Which involves comitting to a
stack, and also getting to the parts where a project approaches being
finished, which is where the real and important issues emerge.

------
ldd
I will try another approach that has not been mentioned so far.

I know this is HN, but you haven't really mentioned anything about novelty
outside software. Now, I will try to not make assumptions, but is it perhaps
that you are only seeking novelty in a very constrained way, which makes you
feel uneasy about your choices?

What type of food do you eat? What hobbies do you pursue? Maybe you have a
very monotonous life (or at least you think you have it) and try to compensate
in your career with novelty.

If I were in your position, I would first write down when and where I
experience these 'novelty rushes'. The key here is not looking at these notes
after you write them for at least a couple of weeks. After a couple of weeks
doing this, look at what you wrote and see if it maybe has to do with other
factors in your life (maybe you rush to try something new after an argument
with your wife, when you don't drink your coffee in the morning or when you
don't go running for 1 or 2 days)

Perhaps it has nothing to do with your life outside this area, but maybe you
just like reading documentation. At any rate, writing down what you are doing
when you get these 'novelty rushes' would help you identify the problem.
Hopefully.

~~~
atemerev
Oh no, my life is anything but monotonous.

I lived in 6 different countries (going through bureaucracy hell while getting
paperwork done each time), visited another 20 or so, tried getting a PhD,
founded two startups (failed both), etc etc.

Part of the problem. :)

~~~
nathan_f77
This sounds very similar to me! I've also been thinking about going for a PhD
one day, or at least a degree. What was your field of study?

I don't know if I can think of any practical advice. But I'm in the same boat,
and I think this can be a good quality if it means you are constantly thinking
of new ideas. I also love starting new projects, and have even been able to
finish a few. Recently I even posted an unfinished project on Reddit, which
got a few laughs, and that's all I was going for.

If you're up for it, I would enjoy chatting about some of the projects we
worked on, and countries we've lived in. I'm still looking for the perfect
place on earth to settle down for a while, although I think I might have
actually found it this week (New Plymouth, New Zealand).

Feel free to send me an email, my address should be in my profile. And we can
also maybe work on some ways to mitigate the addiction to new things.

~~~
atemerev
Computer science / network science (I am fascinated by complex networks /
scale-free network properties).

Can't find your e-mail, contacted you through your blog form. :)

------
rachelandrew
My own experience is that I look for novelty outside of the main job I'm
doing.

Our product ([https://grabaperch.com](https://grabaperch.com)) is a PHP and
MySQL CMS. A self-hosted PHP and MySQL CMS. That means that we are not only
PHP, but we have to support really old PHP, we support right back to PHP5.3 as
that is the reality of the terrible shared hosting people use. Then in the UI
we have to support the browsers that our customer's clients use. So we can't
use all the latest front-end techniques.

So it's very easy to get bored and not learn anything new.

To counteract that my personal projects tend to be about really new stuff, for
example I've spent a lot of time writing and talking about an emerging CSS
spec that interests me. I tend to implement new and interesting things in our
own stack too where we don't have the constraints that the product does.

So my best advice would be to see if you can channel your novelty seeking into
places outside of work, and accept that work sometimes involves having to
stick at something that is boring. Sad but true!

------
kevinr
Have you considered a career in information/computer security?

I have some of the same tendencies, and infosec has given me all the
entertainment I can handle and then some.

(There are other fields adjacent to software engineering which you might
prefer as well---consulting, operations.)

~~~
meowface
I have a career in infosec, and unfortunately I'm suffering the exact same
problems as OP.

------
innertracks
I can relate I think. Whether you need a cure or not is probably a question
for you and a therapist. Ask about sliding fee scales and other options.

My story and maybe something for you to explore. I never held a job longer
than 24 months when I was younger. Not being able to figure out a career
direction and trying to get some direction in 2000 I sought testing at a great
organization called Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation. They do aptitude
testing and have been for 70+ years. Lots of data and studies on job
satisfaction, aptitudes (which are different from both interests and skills),
and success. Check out their web site they have some great info.

I tested high aptitude (80 - 99th percentile I think) on about 1/2 of the 19
or 20 aptitudes they've identified in their research. About 10% of the
population tests this way. Most people have 3 or 4 max. The problem is if the
aptitudes don't get used they agitate. Deeply. Like having a team of 20 sled
dogs all fighting to run and no sled to pull or direction to go.

So I have learned I must use them or suffer the consequences. For example,
Argentine Tango exercises my musical and social aspects. Engineering
aptitudes, inductive reasoning, rapid idea generation, etc... all need
expression. Some more so than others. Ideaphoria is rapid idea generation,
handy in marketing or teaching, and a real pain if it is suppressed.

Commonly people with many aptitudes have a lot of difficulty with careers.
Some use seasonal work or multiple part-time jobs or many different activities
in one job to deal with what can often be conflicting drives.

Whether or not you are in this situation I don't know. What I did learn that
may be of help was that I needed to respect the cards I was dealt in life.
Gifts or burdens depended on how I looked at things. It's okay to have
multiple projects and very diverse abilities and interests. Some may get
abandoned quickly while others stick around.

Sharing seems to help. Get a blog up and start writing about all your
projects. The ones that work and the ones that don't! For some reason sharing
project results seems to help regardless of how they turn out. For example, I
just had a surprising and inspiring response from HN readers on a blog post I
wrote in November. I didn't realize other people would find what I was doing
interesting enough to discuss!

I'm going to be 50 this summer and finally feel like I'm getting a handle on
things. Keep at it. I hope some of this was useful. Get the help you need as
you find the resources. Take care of your health, physical and emotional,and
honor your gifts.

~~~
i336_
I agree with hanniabu that this should be higher up, this is definitely the
kind of thing I come to HN for.

I'm definitely going to have to follow up on aptitude testing! I reckon I fit
the description of sled dogs to a tee; I actually have absolutely tragic
committal issues and I wonder if that might be the cause.

Link to website for Johnson O'Connor:
[http://www.jocrf.org/](http://www.jocrf.org/)

Testing is apparently $675, $750 in NY.

FYI, this particular group doesn't franchise outside of Atlanta, Boston,
Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco,
Seattle, and Washington, D. C. - and sadly I'm in Australia.

~~~
innertracks
Thanks for your kind words. Glad my experience was helpful. Best of luck to
you!

------
angdis
I have some similarities with you. 8 full-time jobs in 15 years all after a 9
year stint in graduate school where I quit a PHD program. I also crave trying
new things even when they're risky, much to the horror of the people I work
with (I'm in manufacturing, so I deal with operations and supply-chain people
everyday).

You cannot "cure" what you find motivating. Just learn to live with it and
perhaps force yourself to take longer "tours of duty" in jobs. Consecutive
jobs held less than 1 year is universally considered a red flag by employers,
as is getting fired. Engagements lasting 2 years in fast-paced industries are
generally OK. If you're good at what you do you can probably control your urge
to quit for a bit longer and do enough to not get fired. 2 years is not a long
time and if you're able to do other things besides work, it can be a great
advantage to have a job while exploring new things.

Another thing to consider is your life outside of work and your relationships
with family or a significant other. If you're defining yourself strictly
through work and ignoring the role you play in the lives of others, you're
going experience some profound disappointments. In other words, perhaps your
career decisions aren't really the root cause of your turmoil-- perhaps it is
something far more personal? In that case nothing you do related to work will
resolve your issues. YMMV-- just a thought to consider.

------
rybosome
> I realised that the only thing that motivates me in software engineering is
> learning new things and trying new fancy toys, not building something
> working and useful

I used to feel this way as well, but at some point things changed for me and I
began to care deeply about the impact of a technology far more than what
components it was assembled with. The obsessive, myopic phase is good for
awhile because it gives you the motivation to build useful skills when doing
so is hard work, though it does become a burden eventually for the reasons you
list.

Others have recommended speaking with a therapist or counsellor, and I agree
with that advice; you may be surprised at how deeply-held attitudes or
patterns of thought can hold you back.

Finally, I can tell you what changed my goals, though this is obviously
anecdotal and not treatment advice. I joined a big tech company, which gave me
the ability to work on projects with a ton of reach. I didn't realize how
tired I was of working on little-used web apps and experimental stuff that
never saw the light of day until experiencing the contrast.

~~~
atemerev
Looks interesting. Impact matters, of course. The problem is that there are
not many impactful tech companies headquartered in Switzerland, where I live
(except maybe in finance, but they are just big, not doing new things), and
not many big companies accept remote developers, but it's worth looking for
opportunities.

~~~
rybosome
Not sure where in Switzerland you are, but Google has a pretty big engineering
office in Zurich. :-)

But yes, good point. This may not apply in your case. I wish you luck...the
search for motivation and purpose is fundamental to identity.

------
mindcrime
I can relate. I get bored really quickly as well, and I am one of those people
who usually kicks ass at a new job for about the first year, and then starts
to tail off after that because I'm bored out of my mind.

I've found two things that seem to help:

1\. Start a startup. I started Fogbeam at least in part because it gives me an
outlet to pursue things that are interesting to me, and a place to work on
really cool new cutting edge stuff, even if my day-job doesn't. Back at my
last "boring enterprise software development" job, I found that coming home
and working on Fogbeam stuff helped keep me sane. (Note: in my scenario the
startup is just a side project, but if you have savings or feel like raising
money, I suppose you could just jump into it full time. YMMV)

2\. Become a consultant. I started consulting for Mammoth Data back in 2012,
and I've found that this consulting lifestyle is quite a bit more interesting
than the typical "sit at the same desk, working on the same product, with the
same people" routine. I'm constantly working on new and different things...
every project is different, and since we focus on "Big Data", analytics, BI,
etc., there's a non-stop stream of new technologies being invented / released
that we have to try and keep up with. In the past year or two I've worked with
Neo4J, Hadoop, Spark, Storm, Kafka, Knox, HBase, Phoenix, Couchbase, EMR,
Google's Cloud stuff, Impala, Kinesis, Pentaho, and probably some other stuff
I'm forgetting. The downside, of course, is the need to travel a lot at times
(which is another of those "good and bad" things) and the feeling you get
sometimes that you're drowning in all this new stuff. Example: In the past
month or two, 3 different major companies have released distributed Machine
Learning platforms (Google, IBM and Microsoft). And every day or two there's
some new Hadoop / Big Data related sub-project hitting the Apache Incubator.
And as a consultant, I feel a need to be on top of all of that stuff.. which,
unfortunately, it's pretty much impossible to be.

Another side-note: You may find that signing up for and taking lots of MOOC's
on Coursera, Udacity, EdX, etc. may serve as an outlet for your neophilia, and
might let you stay more focused at work. Just treat coming home and working on
a cool new class on Machine Learning or Synthetic Biology or $WHATEVER as a
reward for putting in a good day of hard, focused work at the day-job.

~~~
mercer
Any tips on how to get clients as consultant?

~~~
MortenK
Start with consulting agencies. That's companies that acts like brokers
between independent consultants / contractors and companies.

Later on, you can get business from LinkedIn, mouth to mouth, previous clients
who now contact you directly etc.

------
peterkelly
Here's how to turn your "problem" into an advantage:

Write.

You love learning new stuff, but get bored quickly. Seize the enthusiasm you
have for a new technology while you've got it, and make the most of it. Create
books, online courses (e.g. Udemy), and blog about what you're learning. Build
up experience and a reputation as someone who can turn lots of new and
confusing technologies into stuff that helps other people learn.

If you already have, or can develop, the skills necessary to write and present
well, after 2-3 years you could have a pretty impressive portfolio of
material. If you can successfully monetise that, you've got yourself a career
that fits your working style.

I recommend checking out the book "Authority" by Nathan Barry:
[http://nathanbarry.com/authority/](http://nathanbarry.com/authority/)

~~~
atemerev
A good idea. English is not my native language, but everything can be
improved, and I have some editorial skills (worked as a journalist some 10
years ago). I like writing.

It's much more difficult to make it lucrative, though.

~~~
sokoloff
From the posts on this topic, I'd have never guessed your native language
wasn't English, so this is in no way a handicap for you. (Other than it may be
more effort for you than a native speaker, but your end product is quite
good.)

------
rifung
I don't know if it will help but the way I tried to stop job hopping was to
realize that I work to make a living, and if I want to learn stuff and play
with new toys, I can do that on my own time. After all, they don't pay me to
learn, they pay me to get stuff they need finished.

It sounds like you need to see a therapist. However I imagine that's difficult
if you're in debt, so you probably need to first try to get a job and pay that
off.

Honestly there's going to be parts of any job that you don't like. Unless you
are filthy rich or have someone paying for you, you're going to have to do
things even if they bore you sometimes. The best you can do is try to do them
efficiently so you can spend more time learning.

------
adrtessier
It sounds like you may be best off seeing a psychotherapist that may be able
to help you better understand and control your novelty-seeking. Your pattern
sounds self-destructive and it is obviously causing you distress.

Also: have you considered contract or consulting work? If you have the freedom
to travel around for work, it can be more dynamic and rewarding than your
current pattern.

~~~
atemerev
I own a one-man consulting company, through which I am doing some contract
work (mostly in algo trading / finance, and yes, I do realize that poor
financial software engineer sounds like a joke, which I am). But finding new
customers and _especially_ managing the administrative side of this business
is getting increasingly harder for me.

I do see therapist occasionally, but it is quite expensive (especially given
my loads of debt) and doesn't help much. I was diagnosed with ADD, and therapy
helps with some focus related issues, but not with novelty seeking behavior.
:(

~~~
reirob
In similar situation like you.

What helped me is outsourcing the administrative stuff (book-keeping, taxes)
to an accountant and forcing myself to meet with him once per month
physically, best is to make an appointment a month ahead. Insisting on the
physical meeting is a trick to force myself at least once in a month to
prepare for the meeting (getting all the documents together, travel receipts,
invoices, letters). It costs a lot of money but it is worth it for me.

The next trick has a similar pattern: find somebody to spend talking time on a
_regular_ basis, at least once per week. Not necessarily a therapist, but a
friend, partner, colleague with whom share some common interests. Then force
to keep those talking meetings. This helps, because you can talk about your
anxiety, talk about what new things you have found, etc. I do it with a friend
on a weekly basis and with a psycho-analyst at least once per week - if I
don't travel.

The third trick I discovered only lately when being under huge pressure, in a
situation in which I didn't know a way out: I started writing as a form of
talking to myself. It worked best by "switching off the screen", i.e. typing
without seeing what you type (either by literally switching off the screen, or
by putting the font to same color as background - I made color scheme mode
Vim), it gives you an additional motivation to re-read it later. When I first
discovered this, it felt later like magic. I use this trick only when under
big pressure - didn't make it to a habit, yet.

Maybe this advice helps.

I wish you to find a way to cope with your life and get to a situation where
you can have a decent and more stable life, but still learn new stuff. Good
luck.

~~~
jamesdelaneyie
>It worked best by "switching off the screen", i.e. typing without seeing what
you type (either by literally switching off the screen, or by putting the font
to same color as background

That's really interesting. Have written to get stuff out before but there is
always the reading, writing, rereading, editing flow that kind of makes it a
pain. Going to try 'switching off the screen' next time.

~~~
reirob
Exactly this. Re-reading and editing breaks the flow of writing - too many
hesitations. When writing with "screen switched off" I can't correct mistakes
beyond the last typed word. This forces me to write as I would speak.

I'd be interested to know how it worked for you.

------
hcarvalhoalves
You like technology and learning, but you don't have an engineer mindset.

You can look for research jobs or freelance, where you can try lots of things
quickly.

Alternatively, find a business partner or team that complements your
skills/interests.

------
ideaoverload
Seek professional help,good therapist who you trust. People get treated for
all kinds of addictions, your case likely will not be that special nor hard. I
am not an expert but I would guess addiction may not be the only psychological
problem to address. It might be expensive but should be worth it. Good luck.

~~~
mutagen
Seconding this. There are many other great suggestions in here to try but I
would augment them with therapy. Find one you relate to, one that is accepting
of the other things you're trying, and work with them.

Colleges often offer low cost services if you're concerned about cost right
now (with the ACA this should be less of an issue). There's often a waiting
list, get on it now.

~~~
atemerev
I live outside the US (In Switzerland. Before that, I used to lived in Spain,
Denmark, Italy, Switzerland again, and Russia, where I was born). Part of the
problem, it seems.

------
clockwerx
Oh and: want to market yourself as a tutor? I'd pay a reasonable rate for 1:1
tutoring on the math side of things for an hour or two a week. Get a few
recurring people at the right rate, you get the novelty of a stream of
problems others are trying to solve and an in depth way to see how others
think.

------
vic_nyc
Start a daily meditation practice. Just 15 minutes a day can work wonders - I
speak from personal experience, having experienced some of those symptoms
myself, and pretty much all of them gone. Here is a very effective one:

[http://www.ishafoundation.org/Ishakriya/Learn-
online](http://www.ishafoundation.org/Ishakriya/Learn-online)

~~~
atemerev
Tried Headspace meditation app, worked quite well indeed. Then stopped it
after 4 months of effort, can't get back on track. Same problem here. :)

~~~
fennecfoxen
Well, GO BACK TO IT then. Seriously, you're going to need to make a real
material effort to fix your problems whatever you do, and if you're unwilling
to bite the bullet and muster some self-control to work on things like
exercising your self-control then _there is nothing anyone can do for you_.

I'd guess you don't have a novelty-addiction problem, you have a problem where
you're unwilling to apply yourself to hard things with long-term payoffs, and
the novelty-addiction is what fills in the gap. Maybe there's some reasons for
that (procrastination of emotionally difficult things in favor of mood-repair
is a big deal for a lot of people) but you'll just need to deal with them.

------
jharohit
I would suggest create a profile on Upwork.com (or some other active
freelancing website) and list down your areas of knowledge. Price yourself
competitively - slightly below average rates so as not be considered cheap and
low quality but not overpriced as well.

This will help in 2 ways: 1) Slowly bring in cash which will tackle your $50k
debt in definite time period. Remember "compounding" is the biggest weapon! 2)
The client's project will be short self contained tasks which will bind you in
a timeframe to complete stuff. This is very important if you want to grow the
focus and tenacity that you lack right now.

After a couple of months or a year, you will notice substantial benefits. The
big debt will have come down a lot + you would have learnt to execute on
ideas.

Now you will finally be ready to execute on your own stuff and make it big
hopefully.

(Advice rendered from personal experiences!)

~~~
Const-me
Second that, also from personal experience.

Well, I sometimes worked longer, but never longer than 3 years at one place.
In addition, I don’t remember being fired, my employers were generally happy
with my performance, instead I got bored and quit myself.

For me, freelancing is working OK. Today I’m working on some Windows Store
SDK, yesterday I’ve worked on an industrial-grade WinCE embedded software,
tomorrow I gonna work on a cross-platform OSX+Windows 3D authoring software,
and in my spare time, when I’m bored, I learn CUDA.

------
rathereasy
There's nothing wrong with you. Your passion for novelty and learning can be a
huge asset in the right environment. There are companies who hire software
engineers to quickly build proof of concept prototypes to then throw the
prototypes away. You might be a good fit for that. I know Nuance in Montreal
has teams that do it.

Also, you might want to consider switching to front end software development
if you haven't already. There's always a new framework or library to learn in
front end development and the development cycles are shorter.

------
jeffmould
I can somewhat relate. Although I was able to trace the cause of my novelty
addiction to a particular job. I then built that into a career path for a bit
(doing short term, very targeting consulting jobs. Most were subcontracts to
larger projects) and oddly got tired of it and forced myself back to focusing
on one thing. I do still find myself reverting back to always wanting to do
new things. Usually I will devote a few hours a week just to doing something
new or learning something new. Downtime between projects is used for learning
as well. I make this a habit to feed my addiction to new things.

My first job in a R&D/Testing type role was working for an application service
provider. I was responsible for evaluating new hardware from vendors before it
would be released to our data centers. I had to not only test the hardware,
but ensure the applications worked correctly, performance test, and document
configurations. Each week was something new and I had great relationships with
vendors such as Compaq, HP, Dell, and Microsoft that would constantly send
demo hardware/software just so I could play. I left the job to take a position
at Microsoft, and looking back regret it. I stayed at Microsoft for a little
over a year for the same reason as you, I got bored. That is when I switched
to just doing consulting.

But, if that doesn't work, I would look for positions in R&D for a company
(that is the type of position where I traced my problem back to). Depending on
the company/position you actually get paid to find and work with new "toys".
Also, look at testing type positions.

------
jwatte
What kind of job requires novelty? How about reviewer/writer of new
technology? How about testing of new products? May not pay as much as software
engineering, but you seem to not actually be successful at doing that anyway.

Also, if you haven't yet talked about this with a mental health professional,
you probably should. It may take trying a few before you find someone who
understands your particular problem.

------
TrevorJ
A few things that have helped me:

1\. Realize that tendency CAN be a powerful tool if you channel it correctly
and get yourself into the right environment. I'm in media, because the tools
change quickly, each project has different problems to solve, and there's a
broad, somewhat disconnected set of skills that are useful.

2\. Every job, no matter how passionate you are about it, will have some crap
you just have to get through that you don't want to do. Don't confuse
temporary boredom with lack of passion.

3\. Willpower is a muscle, and you CAN get better at powering through the
portion of your work that you don't enjoy.

4\. If you master things quickly enough you can move up in your career so that
you are doing new things with each new move.

5\. It's worth talking to your healthcare provider about these concerns, there
are a variety of tools and strategies that can help.

6\. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Use your free time to explore
widely disparate disciplines.

7\. Limit your time aimlessly browsing the internet. It's a great tool, but
using it without purpose seems to make it much harder to focus on tasks.

------
wwwater
I would look at the problem differently. I think this approach when you try to
accept that you are "broken" or "ill" does not really help or motivate. I
would consider myself, my brain, my subconsciousness as a one whole and try to
interpret the signs it gives me. Like if you are bored by a project, that does
not mean that you are a bad person who has problems with concentration or
something. It might mean that it is not complex enough for you.

There is this theory that says that for every IQ level you have to find an
appropriate occupation. If the occupation does not require the whole your
potential, you feel bored. If it requires higher abstract capacities than you
have, you feel overwhelmed. So the thing is to find your level.

On my previous job I switched projects every 6 months. At the beginning they
all sounded so exciting, I didn't know anything about things that I would have
to do on them, so I was so eager to start them and learn all the stuff. But
after 3-4 months they were so boring, I was struggling so much and then I
always inevitably landed in my boss office telling him that I cannot stand it
anymore and I have to switch the project otherwise I have to leave the
company. But the thing is this subconscious urge to do something different is
much stronger than rational thoughts. I can fight for some time with myself
and then I give up.

But then I decided to switch the whole industry where I was working. And now I
am incredibly happy with that switch. Now I am on the same project for 8
months and it is nowhere any sings that I wanna jump to the next thing. It is
very different here and the tasks I have, they require really whole my mental
capacities leaving no place for boredom.

So what I wanted to say is that IT project != IT project. You can use the same
programming language to build something that is not that complex in its nature
and it will make you bored, or you can use it to solve a very complex problem
and then you don't need to satisfy your thirst with new technology because the
project itself is already demanding whole your mental abstract capacities.

So what I would do in your place, is that I would try to find an industry
which is not only using new shiny tools but also builds something extremely
complex. You have to find a complexity level appropriate for your. So take
something that you think you are not capable of (something with complex math
or physics or whatever) and see whether you can deal with that.

------
anaolykarpov
Define for yourself a different set of objectives: find the novelty in staying
2, 3 years at a company, in having a life without debt, in having money set
aside. Work for a company that has a big and complex project. There are
projects where it's virtually impossible to get to know all the parts of the
code. Lower a little bit your definition of novelty when you're at work:
consider as new having to work on bugs/features that you don't have any idea
where are situated in the codebase when you first hear about them. Remember,
there are jobs where you have to work only 8 hours.

Take one of those jobs and spend your afternoons working on your own projects
which can be implemented using whatever technology you want and can be as
concrete as you want.

Look at your job as a necessary hell, but try to find the fun in it while at
work and always remember that you have your fun projects back at home

------
redthrow
You reminded me of an article by Nassim Taleb called "The Future Will Not be
Cool":

[http://www.salon.com/2012/12/01/nassim_nicholas_taleb_the_fu...](http://www.salon.com/2012/12/01/nassim_nicholas_taleb_the_future_will_not_be_cool/)

------
dathrowaway
That is a lot of debt. I was once in debt like that and I eventually found
Debtors Anonymous to be very, very helpful. I ended up deciding my debating
behavior was causing a lot of the other problems in my life and dealing with
that really gave me the space to figure out my other problems.

DA website:
[http://www.debtorsanonymous.org/help/questions.htm](http://www.debtorsanonymous.org/help/questions.htm)
There is a meeting every day somewhere in the bay area. If you come to the
friday night Laurel Height meeting you'll see me:
[http://www.ncdaweb.org/SF.html](http://www.ncdaweb.org/SF.html)

~~~
atemerev
Not living in the Bay Area, or even the US. Is there something that can be
done e.g. over Skype?

------
Scarblac
You finished the level. Time to move on to the next.

You probably have a good idea how great software development should be done.
But can you get 10 programmers to actually work like that and stay profitable,
while they still don't resent you too much?

------
fivedogit
I think you should sidestep into a related but more appropriate job.

Above all else, engineers should be obsessed with the proper functioning of a
system, throughout all aspects - speed, security, robustness, etc. What tools
are chosen are chosen only for the purposes of enhancing those goals. An true
engineer senses these needs and works towards them uncompromisingly. To choose
otherwise - for any reason - is to be a bad engineer, which it sounds like you
are (sorry! Just being honest!)

The good news is that having an insatiable appetite for novelty has its place
in this world. Could you work as an angel scout? Or a tech crunch (-style)
writer?

------
hittudiv
I am on similar lines, but i have a stable job .. (changed 3 jobs in the last
6 years). I quit my own startup because its boring. I cant stick to a project
for more than a month.

Try working with a really growing startup you might like it. I was into infra
for a while, the QA team, then development, then scaling dbs etc... Keep
changing the role.

It is not just about the job. Try doing a course on coursera/edX. I do
multiple courses across very different domains. I did Mathematics, biology,
Electronics, then philosophy, Quantum computing etc. It gives you the element
of "novelty" if the job doesnt interest you.

------
stared
I am a novelty-seeker and I've turned to freelancing (in my case: data
science). A lot of short, fast paced projects, everyone being different and
requiring me to learn new things.

------
oneJob
Also, check out the book "Changing For Good" by James Prochaska. There is
quote, (not from the book) "Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite
your own teeth." So bounce ideas off people you know and trust. Seek council
and constructive criticism. Read evidence based "self help" books. Get a life
coach. Because, "I want to change this or that about me" is never as simple as
it seems. Especially if you want to make it a beneficial change.

------
tvm
Such behaviour can be hardcoded for certain types of personalities and is not
bad per se. You're just trying to achieve something that isn't compatible with
your personality.

I'd perhaps recommend doing an MBTI personality test (there's a bunch of them
on the internet). This might help you to understand the mechanisms behind your
behaviour and most importantly give you some hints how to make yourself
useful.

I recommend to consider psychologist only as last resort.

~~~
atemerev
All right, let's assume I decided that software engineering career is not for
me. What careers are compatible with constant novelty-seeking?

~~~
funkyy
Open a novelty blog and write about what you love? You can make money from
advertising and Amazon affiliate links. You could make a living out of it
rather quickly.

Other thing - become a remote freelancer. Get in to projects that last 1-3
months. You can make good money while doing what you like.

Also the short interest period on projects is not part of your personality,
but it might be a stage. I had same thing, but turned out to be good for me. I
used it to my advantage - I learned everything I could. I would jump from
niche to niche making money along the way. My base would be marketing, from
there I could freely move to tech, programming and consulting while making
money. It took a while but I grew up from it. Now I am full stack startup
owner - I do everything from programming, through customer service to
marketing - and it is awesome.

~~~
cryoshon
I doubt the affiliate path is a way to actually making a living... it's been
fiercely competitive since 2010.

~~~
funkyy
I mentioned affiliate as a way of monetizing blogging, there is many ways,
affiliate through Amazon is just easy.

------
matt_morgan
I know it may not sound like it, but you could be depressed, or in any case
treatment for it may help. Talk to your doctor, or get a recommendation for a
therapist.

------
mattdesl
I feel a bit like this sometimes. It is one of the reasons I embrace small
JavaScript modules on npm. You can write a 100-line module with a narrow
scope. It can quickly (even on first release) reach a stable and frozen API,
and it will prove useful for years to come.

It allows you to experiment with a wide range of topics while still providing
useful contributions to the community.

------
hnuser123
I have seen plenty of jobs where requirements are to go for novel solutions,
get preliminary results and then pass on the job of following up to another
dept. I wouldn't say your case is bad, but just not a good fit. Nevertheless
there should be balance in everything, getting fired twice in short time may
not be a good sign.

------
nikanj
Find a company that embraces neophilia, these guys for example
[https://blog.enki.com/coding-is-boring-
unless-4e496720d664#....](https://blog.enki.com/coding-is-boring-
unless-4e496720d664#.6re1ueq6b)

"Component has bugs? Rewrite it in a new language!"

------
tylercubell
You ought to consider a career change. If what you've been doing for the past
12 years hasn't worked out, it's time to reflect and make some hard decisions.
"If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail." The
problem with the replies in this thread is most folks are from a tech
background and are suggesting you double down on the software development path
because that's all they know. From what you said about your job history and
debt situation, this isn't working out so well for you. Why not pick up a
skilled trade like plumbing, electrical, or HVAC? They all pay reasonably
well, there's always something new to learn, and you're always going to new
places and working on new jobs. And you'd be surprised how successful people
with 'dirty jobs' are. [1]

[1] [http://www.npr.org/2013/11/01/240780579/are-people-with-
dirt...](http://www.npr.org/2013/11/01/240780579/are-people-with-dirty-jobs-
the-most-successful)

------
j-l-
Looks like you have to adjust your mindset (definitely not easy but probably
achievable) or, if you are confident enough, to adjust your career. For
example you can write articles and do workshops/lectures. Third option (more
EU one than Swiss :) would be to postpone the decision.

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kazinator
If we add CR to "neophilia" we get ...

    
    
       ophilia
    

The CR moves the cursor to the start of the line without a LF, so the "ne"
prefix gets overwritten with the rest of the word.

Sheesh ... what did you all _think_ I was talking about?

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bbq
Consulting firms will offer new projects every ~6mo.

There are research engineering jobs that also might be a good fit - you deal
with a lot of different problems and get to satisfy your need to learn
additionally from the researchers.

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encima
I have a similar issue of self destructive behaviour with impulses I cannot
control. An extreme solution that I was recommended by my therapist was DBT,
it is less therapy and more learning to.control the urges.

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mgmeyers
I would recommend a 10 day vipassana meditation retreat (they're free).
They're extremely difficult, but participating in one will jolt you out of
your cycle of cravings.

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borislout
I am this same way, I'm constantly looking for ways to learn to work with it.

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finishingmove
You should man the fuck up, and focus on doing your job, first and foremost.

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eecks
> I am a fairly decent software engineer,

You need to stop saying that. You're not a software engineer.

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borislout
I am exactly the same way

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findjashua
contract work?

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LargeCompanies
I am much like you, yet am older and I too havent been able to hold a dev job
for longer then a year. My addiction is the high obtained from starting up and
the opportunities that always seem to knock and i pursue, yet never work out.

I recently had an awesome remote front end gig, yet this crazy outlandish
opportunity knocked and I tried to ignore it, but they kept knocking (reality
TV show for startups), so I gave up my job for it. I didnt make it that far in
the competition, so now I am jobless .. late 30s .. similar debt .. dont own
my own home .... no family and g/f is tired of my lifestyle/gave up on me.

Overall you are not alone .. this stuff for those who struggle with business
guys/girls (im an inventor), don't have rich relatives or friends (investors
to help you have a long runway to figure your road to success) isn't easy.
Yet, we continue to do it ... it is an addiction, yet again Im too old now to
drop everything(as I just did).

Also, there are so many of us in the industry who jump from one dev job to
another for various reasons. Again, you are not alone ... we all have the
desire to leave our mark on this earth and or just do what we love to do..
create awesome stuff on the web! Ironically my stuff helps me get jobs and
then as you can see above distracts me from keeping many great steady jobs(but
I AM DONE unless those who knock offer me loads of money & or a solid job
doing what I love to do; invent).

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illumen
Craftsmanship. Quality.

There's always a new technique to master which can be brought upon in your
work.

It is novel once you get there, but may take a while.

Quality construction, impeccable tailoring, expert craftsmanship – these are
the marks of quality.

There's novelty in the next feature around the corner, but there is beauty in
something crafted.

Ecstatic pleasure can be obtained from crafting. Perhaps give it a go.

~~~
atemerev
My problem is precisely that I don't get any pleasure from crafting (unless it
is a really novel way of doing something). This is something I just can't
feel, like color-blind people can't see some colors.

