It is important to understand that everyone has sometimes escape phantasies (teachers, therapists, baristas, founders, medical doctors, professors, developers, etc., they all do) because something is making them truly unhappy in their day-to-day job and they assume other people happier. Finding about the root cause what makes you unhappy will usually lead to more satisfying results than just running after to become a farmer or woodchopper because it has nothing to do with "computers". Sometimes the answer is to switch roles but more often than not you still haven't tackled the underlying issues and the misery starts again.
For some people, sitting on a chair all day staring at a screen can be a true source of misery. When I am closer to nature, doing things with my body, I invariably feel better.
As someone who have done this for more than 10 years professionally and being doing computer stuff since mid 90's, it was fun at first, but staring the computer screen is not good for one's health. Issues such as carpal tunnel syndrome or eye problems often comes up. Jobs involves staring at screen ought to limited to a few hour max per day.
Some jobs are just hell, and the reason people stick in those jobs is that they don't know any better. Nobody has shown them other opportunities, they think getting another job and performing it would be difficult. They think their current salaries are OK because they have nothing better to compare with. For those people, the root cause of their misery is the job and all of them would be better off switching careers.
I went to college and tried a year of grad school, and then ran off to become an electrician. This is a profitable career but is extremely tough on body; any position within the industry, it is still physical labor. Now, after fifteen years of sacrificing myself "for the big bucks," I am left wondering whether I will be able to fit into a work environment that isn't construction [knowing that I must make this transition].
It is paralyzing fear, and removing this debilitation is hard when people are literally throwing bonkers money at anybody even claiming to be a skilled tradesman, right now — my body is done! The money is good! Whatdo?!
I'm currently "taking time off" and re-exploring a childhood love of computers... learning python, bought a new computer for first time in over a decade... trying to love this all!
And now with all the AI coding and copywriting... UGHHHHH. The timeline, it's just brilliant and perhaps I'll just retire and enjoy a new AI existence =P
What do you exactly mean with lack of respect? All the professions i've listed above face issues regarding lack of respect all the time (angry shop customers, angry patients, angry board members, etc.). If you feel undervalued in your current team, i would advise to interview with another company/team. If you feel undervalued in your social life, switching roles/jobs usually won't make the problems go away.
It feels like the first one. Problem is there are not many opportunities here, mainly failed, almost failed projects from the west, that need to be relocated, otherwise they don't have the money to survive. Thanks.
I could use this advice too. I love programming; it was a teen hobby prior to making a career out of it. I inherited some elements of my old man's work ethic ("If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right", "Do it right the first time", etc) which I think are, at best, a low priority, and at worst, incompatible with the way software is built in the majority of software gigs. Value first, quality ..maybe.
So I'm attempting to reconcile the reality of modern, corporate software development with the way I derive satisfaction/meaning from my career. Boiled down, my naivete about our relationship with work, which is undoubtedly encouraged and exploited by society, has started to wane, and now I'm trying to uncouple how I get meaning/satisfaction from how I get money.
New years resolutions aren't for me but this year I tried to start loosely viewing things in my life like investments, specifically in terms of ROI. It's more of a reminder of how to think than a spreadsheet. I imagine myself as having an 'energy' budget. Sometimes I spend some energy and I get some back; other times I get nothing in return. As far as my career goes, I need to spend X to get my pay check, which eventually converts to energy. Sometimes I spend X+Y, hoping I get something more, like recognition/education/satisfaction. Sometimes that Y is engaging in a debate in peer review. Sometimes it's trying to anticipate one's manager or "showing initiative". The important thing is to track Y and if there's no return, mark that as a bad investment to be avoided in future. I burned out a couple of years ago because I was spending Y like mad with zero regard for the ROI, or at least with the vague expectation there would be some ROI one day.
Obviously this is not novel, or even a good analogy ("all models wrong; some useful"), but this framing is a (potentially) temporary way to adjust my thinking and behaviour from the brainwashed, single-minded, career-focused, please-notice-me-ceo-daddy track I started out in after school/uni.
By doing something else in my spare time. Don't get me wrong, I still play with tech sometimes, but staring at a screen all day and then going home to look at more screens makes it MUCH worse. Read a book, take a walk, attend a class somewhere, etc. You are not meant to work all day every day...enjoy the fruits of your labor.
