
Part 2: How I dealt with a burnout - chriseidhof
http://chriseidhof.tumblr.com/post/9700449196/how-i-dealt-with-a-burnout
======
cletus
The most notable part of this post for me was this quote:

> I went through a major transformation during my burnout: I now see
> programming as a means, not an end.

People, which is more typically a fallacy of youth, waste a lot of time
arguing about pointless crap like Python vs Ruby (which are so similar
technically that it's basically an argument about idioms).

Part of this I can understand: people often argue about things as a formative
stage for their own views.

This also manifests itself with programmers trying to make the code "perfect",
which will often entail overengineering or constant refactors (note: lack of
sufficient refactoring/rewriting is a problem at the other end of the
spectrum).

Another antidote to programmer burnout is this: go get a non-programming job
if you've never had one. There are few better cures for your current woes than
seeing how much worse things could be.

~~~
kahawe
> _go get a non-programming job if you've never had one_

I would add: go get a non-programming job demanding physical labor where (one
way or another) you are building something or tear something down. It can be
incredibly satisfying to just do some simple but physically demanding work and
see actual results at the end of the day, results you can actually touch. And
it will also show you how much worse things could be if you are doing the same
kind of repetitive tasks every day for the rest of your life.

Or it might end up showing you a new love for a completely different kind of
job; a smart and handy craftsman can easily keep up with good IT salaries and
can do just as interesting work including all sorts of hacks and interesting
problem solving.

I wish I could find it but there was a long article in the NYT I believe about
a dude who moved from complicated analysis to repairing vintage motorcycles
and he could demonstrate very well how the skills he developed there are
easily comparable to PhD degree problem-solving in an office job and he got a
lot of satisfaction and freedom out of fixing broken bikes and seeing how
happy his customers were when their much beloved bikes would suddenly run
again.

So, it doesn't always have to be web startups - there are a lot of interesting
and satisfying jobs out there outside of IT, if one is brave enough to explore
and push to see just how deep the rabbit hole can go.

~~~
shioyama
Is this the article you're thinking of?

The Case for Working With Your Hands
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?pa...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?pagewanted=all)

~~~
kahawe
YES! Exactly that one, thank you for linking it!!

------
s00pcan
"More about that transformation and the results in the next post."

Seriously? It's just needlessly split up. There's barely any substance to this
post. You know what you're doing, so quit it.

~~~
mcormier
Yeah somebody is getting off on watching their analytics numbers go up.

------
jsn
Yeah, a month of 100 hours work weeks can be bad. Three months are much, much
worse.

It's not just hours, though; what's worse is that "no time to stop for gas,
we're already late" mentality of all deathmarches. So you end up working from
unrealistic specs implementing architecturally unsound decisions using wrong
tools and digging through a mess of unreadable ad-hoc code along the way. For
100 hours a week, no less.

It's funny, but what helps me most to recover after a deathmarch is more
programming -- but done right this time. Something small, something smart,
something that needs more thinking than typing. Maybe Euler project or
codegolf, or maybe your own small scheme or forth implementation, or something
:)

~~~
berntb
Interesting, another poster argued the opposite -- to do manual labor without
much mental demands, as a way of getting over burnout. :-)

(For the record, I have friends that use both methods and it seems to work for
them. Personally, I read literature (-: ok, an exaggeration -- sf&f :-) and
just take time off.)

------
brettvallis
When we're young (varsity age) we're unstoppable. I worked 18 - 20 hour days
for about 2 years! But, we're not really. It takes its toll on the body (and
the brain), slowly, without you realizing it, so you don't have an opportunity
to rectify it before it takes you out completely. Balance. Work hard, sure,
it's fun, but exercise, eat well, and sleep. You have to fill up the tank once
in awhile too...

------
anon263
I found this account interesting. At some points in my life I would spend
eight hours a day programming at my day job, then spend most of the evening
programming on my own projects. It seems like I've never had a problem with
burnout.

However, I've also noticed that I can have a lazy streak. I've been in
positions where I'm working on an open source project with an upcoming release
deadline. I know there's a bunch of stuff I should really be doing to make the
deadline, but my inner self rebels and I watch a movie or read HN instead.

This has made me wonder if my "lazy streak" is actually functioning as an
effective protection against burnout. I've seen this laziness in other areas
of my life as well, such as school and even at work. I used to feel guilty
about it, but I don't really think that way any more. Now I feel that it
actually helps keep my longer term productivity up.

Now all of this is based on very subjective feelings. It would be pretty hard
to prove anything conclusive either way. I don't know what makes me be this
way or if/how it could be learned by someone else who is prone to burnout. But
I do believe it's worth thinking about.

~~~
sgns
Sounds to me like you are in contact with your 'being'. That's rather good
actually. The way I've come to think of it, when people get too anxious they
start to make violence on themselves - and think they should be something they
are not. But changing oneself based on rejecting what one is doesn't work.

------
chubs
"It would take about six weeks, and the deliverables included an iPhone app,
an iPad app, a web application (both backend and frontend), and two Mac
applications. It was very interesting, and I managed to get everything done"
Simply: wow. You're a shipping MACHINE. Good on you!

~~~
chriseidhof
Well, it was a working prototype. The end result definitely wasn't ready for
shipping yet.

------
alecbenzer
I feel like I've been in a constantly resurfacing burnout since I was in 7th
grade... (I'm 18 now). Though in line with what other people said I wish he
had offered more insight on what exactly got him out of his burnout.

~~~
sgns
My sympathies, I was there, too. The key to me was finding what I was really
passionate about and doing it. Detaching from outcome.

------
snowtiger
it seems like a transformation from programming itself as a goal to delivery
of product/service whatever achieved with programming. I personally favor this
view of programming as a tool not as a goal

------
noeltock
Seems like extreme shipping needs breaks of equal time :)

------
hupa
Diddums.

~~~
bilban
Doldrums more like? ;)

