The absence of excitement may stem from a number of things. The first thing I would look at is mental health, which is important to personal well-being. In particular, a sedentary lifestyle is so hard on the body. Otherwise, if an older developer is relatively healthy but struggles to be excited about their field, then I would suggest changing things up. There are many ways to try out different roles that relate to tech without leaving tech entirely. Or...just do something radically different from tech.
For some people, changing their job is the answer, but for others, even a career change won't feel different. For this bunch, my hunch is that the choice of field is not what's truly bothering them. In which case, I would revisit my first point -- make self-care a priority.
I haven't directly answered the question posted by OP because I think trying to convince yourself to be excited about something leads you further from a solution that addresses the root cause.
I hope the answer I gave was not too prescriptive. There is no judgment here. Best of luck, OP.
The responsibility on one individual to change the world can be onerous. There needs to be viable alternatives, enforced by institutions, for correcting systemic issues.
There's the consideration of lawful behavior. There's the consideration of restoring social justice. And then there's the consideration of compassion for the victim but also the perpetrator. The perpetrator is clearly in pain, which doesn't justify their wrong-doing -- they are in pain though.
I agree with this assessment as a person of colour who was born in an English-speaking country. I also have a degree on English. I'm currently at a threshold where I could get better, but the margins in terms of pay-off to diminishing returns is not appealing.
I think there are many great observations made in this discussion. Yours stood out because it specifically addresses responding to failure. In my experience, systematically confronting personal failings leads to explosive personal growth whereas copying someone else only gets you the surface stuff. Take thus with a grain of salt because I am not the <insert-successful-person> of anything.
I guess my question is, "why would you like to know?" Of course, there are times when knowing important information can be the difference between helping people and harming people. Otherwise, I think there are other ways to either ascertain the truth or even find peace in not knowing. I take some solace in being okay with not knowing some things.
I understand that this article seeks to clarify and help the learning process, but this perspective could easily be co-opted by institutionalized racism to exclude ESL students and developers.
Unrelated to the post, at a previous gig, we used Sentry.io. Other than the first 45min wait time when you first hook it up to Sentry's API, it was a smooth experience. How do you like working at Sentry?
I'm not Ben, but I have worked with him for the last 2+ years at Sentry. The whole Toronto office is super positive, and I love working with them every chance I get. Not to derail the thread too much but thanks for giving us a try and hopefully checking out the jobs page Ben linked to :)
For some people, changing their job is the answer, but for others, even a career change won't feel different. For this bunch, my hunch is that the choice of field is not what's truly bothering them. In which case, I would revisit my first point -- make self-care a priority.
I haven't directly answered the question posted by OP because I think trying to convince yourself to be excited about something leads you further from a solution that addresses the root cause.
I hope the answer I gave was not too prescriptive. There is no judgment here. Best of luck, OP.