Ask Programming: if you ever got burnt out in this job or hobby, how did you get back into it?

19    06 Feb 2017 02:47 by u/something_went_wrong

I still like "crunching the numbers" every now and then by writing database queries or even writing small, quick scripts that help normalize database records. Event writing small scripts that help keep a system stabilized. But for larger application project involvement and dev work, I think I'm burnt out and have been for a long time.

If you've ever been burnt out yourself, how did you get back into the swing of things?

15 comments

10 u/elcob32 06 Feb 2017 03:21

Mix in projects you want to work on. Programming is easy to burn out on when you only write code for others.

1 u/SelfReferenceParadox 06 Feb 2017 06:08

Exactly, find a new or weird idea that sucks you right in.

0 u/Genial 09 Feb 2017 07:04

This exactly. Unless you've got a really awesome job, writing code for others just isn't that fun. Working on your own projects is where it's at.

6 u/tame 06 Feb 2017 03:33

Deliberately work on something small and self-contained that I can completely finish in a short time. I get my motivation from finishing useful things, and large well-engineered systems can take months or years before I actually see my work /do/ anything. So if I'm starting to get depressed about my work, I do some home-handyman stuff or work on a throwaway "hack project" that I can knock off quickly without worrying about over-engineering it.

5 u/AnthraxAlex 06 Feb 2017 03:01

Yeah I've gotten burnt out in this profession before but i never set it down. When i get burnt out i usually find a different employer as it's almost 100% of the time burnout caused by un necessary employer drama and bad decision making thats the root cause.

4 u/RevanProdigalKnight 06 Feb 2017 03:31

That sounds like what I'm going through right now. Hopefully one of my applications/interviews will get somewhere and I'll be able to know for sure if it's me or just my employer.

5 u/AnthraxAlex 06 Feb 2017 03:57

Just keep your head down until you find something and leave on your terms. Be on the lookout for bad practice and management teams that over run their engineering teams with stupid requests.

One question I ask is, What is the strategy for dealing with technical debt and what was the last project that was completed that was entirely centered around addressing technical debt? Another good one is, How often does developer thrash occur? It's impossible to feel like you are making progress somewhere if you are being moved on and off projects and bug hot fixes every other day.

Doing so also ham strings dev teams into never being able to do non trivial refactors to address technical debt in applications. If you are constantly waiting for the next omg freakout explosion or pie in the sky new feature request you would have to hack together and can never be proactive it's impossible to be happy doing this job.

2 u/RevanProdigalKnight 06 Feb 2017 04:00

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep that in mind. Also, you pretty much perfectly described the scenario in my company right now, which is most of why I'm trying to get out.

2 u/something_went_wrong [OP] 06 Feb 2017 04:46

For my particular case, I think this nails it. I wish I would have actively sought to get out sooner. Now I think my prolonged, and so far hidden burnout may end up negatively impacting everyone else in the longer run. And that guilt only adds to my stress.

0 u/prattle 08 Feb 2017 01:52

Sometimes for me it is just moving on. When you are at a place for a while, you accumulate all this crap you have to deal with. It feels good just to think about the chronic issues that will never raise their head again.

2 u/oiseaulibre 06 Feb 2017 02:52

I usually just try to fully jump back in, which ends up with of me half solving a problem half procrastinating for an hour or two (or even longer) until the problem consumes me and I need to figure it out. Then I'm back in the swing of things.

1 u/ShowMeYourKitties 06 Feb 2017 05:52

I've gotten burnt out programming before, and the answer was write more code.

More code, but different code. Burnout comes from working (or overworking) on a project that you're bored with.

Teach yourself machine learning, and create a PoC.

Delve into low-level programming and smash a stack or two, then learn to defeat ASLR and do it again.

Build another image hosting service (seems like a few voaters have been doing this one lately)

Find something that excites you and do that.

And if that doesn't work? Quit your job.

0 u/impulse110 09 Feb 2017 16:49

Grab yourself some fun hardware like an arduino or raspberry pi and do some projects with it. Tons of fun stuff to do.

0 u/mbenbernard 21 Feb 2017 18:53

If you can afford it, take a break or vacation for as long as you need.

Otherwise, leave your job and work on projects that you love for a few months. Then you'll see what you need to do next. And most likely, you'll feel motivated and refreshed :)