
Ask HN: Life as a developer gets boring real quick.remedy? - oggyhead
For the last 3 years I have been developing software of mainly the web kind. Did Clojure dev last year, some C projects before that and have a bunch of scala projects this year and hopefully a bunch of Haskell projects later this year. After failing culture fit tests at companies of interest after passing tehnical rounds, I&#x27;ve taken a step back to examine where things are going. The more I examine my life so far, though plastered with opportunities to work with functional Lang&#x27;s that most people don&#x27;t get, everything I&#x27;ve done so far seems meaningless. I excercise regularly, I don&#x27;t like people that much though I do put up a front, I don&#x27;t play video games not do I read literature or watch anime or any shows. I  am relearning proof writing in math, but after a while it gets boring because there isn&#x27;t any end goal in mind. Will take up some Bayesian based learning soon.. point is my life feels like it&#x27;s the programming equivalent of a crack whore&#x27;s life. Not sure what to do
======
sp527
This is going to sound odd but I'd recommend journaling. You need to spend
some time free writing to access your subconscious and gain insight into how
you really feel and especially what you value. You'll be amazed at how
effective it is. I'm of the opinion that a substantial share of ennui arises
from a failure to commit to routine and honest introspection.

With respect to software, your feelings may stem from a perceived deficit in
value creation. No matter what we do, we all want to feel like we're
contributing in some way and we all try to find ways to achieve that. Could be
blogging, OSS dev, teaching classes, turning an app into a business (or just
putting it out there for people to use freely!), etc. If you're just hacking
on things to learn, that's great and necessary. But you might be better served
taking it a step further.

~~~
oggyhead
Thank you for the reply. The journaling part sounds very logical for anybody
of any situation :) your words do ring a clarion Bell. Thank you so much

~~~
marktangotango
I'll piggyback on this and note it seems like you're self worth is tied up in
some sort of uber coder thing. I can relate to a point. After I'd read Fred
brooks and some other literature (specifically Weinberg) that talked about 10
or 100x programmers, and tied that with Paul Graham's beating the averages, I
had this idea that a true uber programmer could reimplement some significant
thing with enough cleverness, and suitably powerful language. A concrete
example would be some 100x-er recreating Google in 6 months or something (this
specific example is a bit flawed due to hardware and storage requirements but
meh).

There are a lot of flaws with this line of reasoning, but mainly the activity
of writing code becomes secondary to defining the problem domain and solution.

------
stepvhen
You sound like you need a hobby. Have you tried baking? Like, get a
breadmaking book from a ised book sttore, read it carefully, and make bread.
Its super rewarding, not that difficult, you end up with a finished product
(that you can eat!) and its not math or programming.

Also, read literature anyway. Learn how to by doing it. If a novel is daunting
read short stories (particularly Jorge Luis Borges or Cesar Aira). Reading
wasn't important in my life until about 2 years ago, and since then books have
improved my life dramatically. Its low cost, high yield, fully analog,
ubiquitous, and enriching. Just learning new words makes it easier to form new
concepts in your head and be better at stuff like math and programming.
Seriously I cant suggest reading enough.

But really, this sounds more serious than just boredom or ennui. I side with
Cozumel, and might suggest looking into a counsellor.

~~~
mattchamb
I love baking as a hobby. While programming used to be my hobby, I find it
can't be both my hobby and career without driving me insane. Baking has the
iterative trial and error improvement factor, while also producing a product
that everyone enjoy without having it explained. As a bonus, women love a guy
who can bake.

------
mythrwy
Programming is a lot of fun, but at the end of the day it's a tool rather than
life itself. If you lose track of this (which is easy to do), it's a slide
down a dark hole.

I'd recommend putting down the electronics for a bit as much as possible. You
might wish to learn to enjoy people and look for opportunities to do so. Spend
more time observing yourself and your world without tinker toy distractions.
Spend some time alone (leave the smartphone out). In nature maybe. Think about
life. And death. What life means, what you would regret if you died tomorrow.
What you really want. Who you really are. It's uncomfortable sometimes, being
around people and being around ourselves. We look for distraction. And that's
what you have to overcome.

I'd venture a lot of us on this site have the same symptoms to various
degrees. I know I do from time to time. It's a job hazard I think kind of like
skin cancer or a bad back. The above paragraph is my way out of the hole and
back to a grip on what's important.

------
Cozumel
This sounds a lot deeper than just being bored as a developer, maybe see a
counsellor? They'll be in a better position to help you than any of us.

------
i456
Spend some time not doing anything: sit on a chair, close your eyes, and let
your brain do its thing. Try not to focus on any thought. Some people would
call it meditating, I call it letting go. In this world where we're always
distracted, it forces onto me some boredom, during which my brain very often
comes with unexpected answers to problems I've been working on lately.

In my case, I also often get hindsight into what I should be doing, and often
end up doing things good for me, instead of things I've been asked to do
(makes me do for me, instead of doing what others want me to do).

------
uptownfunk
I notice you talk about what you have been doing (programming, proof writing)
and what you haven't been doing (watching tv, reading), but not at all about
what you'd like to be doing.

Find something you'd like to do, and the only way to do that is to explore
other things than what you are currently doing (since you are obviously not
finding real satisfaction in it).

Might I suggest volunteering your time or a charitable activity? That can be a
very fulfilling activity for some.

------
apohn
>> After failing culture fit tests at companies

>> I don't like people that much though I do put up a front

Question: Do you not like people or do you not like the people you have to
interact with on a regular basis? If you have to eat lunch with the people you
work with, can you enjoy it or do you tolerate it/hate it?

I used to work in the consulting arm of a software company and got to interact
with a lot of different teams. After the novelty of having a new challenge
(new language, new algorithms, new project, etc) every few months wore off, I
started to realize work was more enjoyable when I didn't mind spending time
with the people I worked with. When I felt forced to work with people I didn't
click with the work itself didn't matter - I felt either bored or frustrated.
I asked about lunch because sometimes I'd rather have done anything else than
try to force a conversation with some of the teams I used to work with.

"Enjoying" spending time with the people you work with is also not about
after-hours or having a lively conversation. I used to work with a machine
learning algorithm team that was filled with brilliant people, but they had
zero interest in the typical office banter, small-talk, ping-pong, etc. Put
them at a lunch table together and there conversations were not very animated.
But after a while, an observer would realize these folks enjoyed spending time
together, and there was a reason they had been together for 10+ years despite
getting offers from big name companies who paid a lot more.

In my view it's easier to find a job with the a particular technology than it
is to find a place where you can tolerate the people you work with for 40+
hours a week. I love to code and I'm introverted, but I struggled to fit in
with the typical "developer" office environment and found myself happier in
teams were I get to code but my role is more business facing.

------
flaviusas
Try to attract interesting parties and make them approach you first by doing
projects which are interesting to you. Keep those projects production-ready.

Then the parties who value your work will naturally approach you, and by
default value your work and give you more decision power in whatever the two
of you will want to pursue together.

Sounds twisted, but that's how life works.

Oh, and making the program is not a goal in itself, solving the problem is.

------
muzani
I had the same issue around the middle of my job. I took a break, started a
cafe, thought F&B would be something better. It immediately shocked me back
into programming. That's one approach - just do something else (preferably low
cost) and see what you like more. Some people did up liking F&B more than
tech.

~~~
le-mark
"Food and Beverage" should be obvious from the context, but I had to look it
up. On r/entrepreneur they talk a lot about starting cleaning companies, as
another example.

------
PaulHoule
[http://store.steampowered.com/app/282900/Hyperdimension_Nept...](http://store.steampowered.com/app/282900/Hyperdimension_Neptunia_ReBirth1___ReBirth1/)
<\- Here is how you can play video games and watch anime at the same time;

------
nonplus
It sounds like you expect a lot out of your job. I think the 'as a developer'
part is going fine. Not liking people is fine. I don't have any good advice on
the picking a hobby part. Most of mine are not things I picked up because I
enjoy them. They are things I started doing because I wanted to build
something. You sound like you might have that in common. You could try
woodworking; it provides you many opportunities to take shortcuts, which would
show in the final product. That won't really help with the meaningless part,
but it passes the time.

------
bluemix
Life is all about choices. You can choose what you do next. It seems your only
choice is always programming, of course you get bored.

Try something new and exciting, maybe extreme sports?

------
smnplk
What about girlfriend/boyfriend ? How is your love life ?

------
tehlike
Start your own company, or a side project. See how it goes.

~~~
rl3
The former isn't a decision to be taken lightly. It's also not a good idea if
you're not in the right place mentally. Think of a company as an automobile
that drains your emotional gas tank. If you start out with a low tank, you're
going to have a bad time.

Side projects however are great provided you enjoy the experience and don't
let it turn into a job.

~~~
tehlike
I think part of ops problem is having a purpose. There is nothing like having
a company to force that.

------
ndh2
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHGDyONZAfc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHGDyONZAfc)

------
wcummings
Find a more interesting career.

