Burnout

Did you ever experience programming burnout? What I mean is inability to write any code. I quit my last job, which I liked very much, because I found myself unable to perform the simplest task. I wrote one driver for microcontroller, then I spent about month on writing much simpler and easier driver, because I procrastinated and didn't actually focus and write anything. This problem only becomes worse over time. In the past I was able to finish even complicated and demanding projects, now I can't force myself to anything. How to deal with that?

>>31859 Programming is both an engineering and creative endeavor, and like all creative works, there's nothing necessarily troubling with running out of turning ideas into code. Low points are a natural part of the process. Do you feel like you're not able to write the same level of code that you could have before? Trying to force yourself back into that level may or may not make the problem worse. My prescription is to find something to do not related to programming. The less it involves the Wired, the better. Touch grass, take walks, work out -- anything physical will tend to have better grips than anything mental. Stay safe, lainon

>>31859 I may stop programming for a time, but I never stop thinking about programming. Simply be prepared to accept the want whenever it returns.

>>31859 Programming is exhaustive task that requires much self-discipline. Your time management is just bad. Think about that.

>>31859 >How to deal with that? ive been burnt out on programming many times. oftentimes its because i started to resent the type of programming i was doing. in my case, it was webdev, i had wrote a lot of web code, had many active projects, and in the end i couldnt stand writing any more lines of web code, the web had gone to soykaf and the devs behind it complete idiots. JS was a dead end, and we were all just churning out pointless apps with a bunch of tracking bullshit to try to scrape fuarrrking pennies out of the morons who visited our chrome-only web apps. so i stopped writing any code for several months. then one day i picked up assembly language. i had never programmed in asm, and had no real use for it, but i liked that it was new to me. i felt like a novice again, almost like i was just learning programming for the first time. and, very importantly, there was no pressure in asm. nobody is really using it, its use cases are extremely limited, but i could write code freely. i didnt need to think about frameworks or libraries or any monetization bullshit, just writing some code for its own sake, and it was fun. i eventually did write web code again, but got a new appreciation for programming in general. i got more picky with libraries and dependencies, choose tech stacks that were better for the job at hand than the new popular flavor of the month framework, and wrote code in my own way even if it went against the current trend. maybe you need to take a similar path OP

definitely op. Another thing to think about is sometimes a thing being your work makes it easier to focus on. You have time devoted to it and a bunch of pressure and people to give you a more structured path to completion. When you're all by yourself it is up to you to provide that path. Even at work it can be hard sometimes, context shifting on-and-off, the anticipation of doing something hard. The gearing up and gearing down. it helps me to remember why i started, and where i want to ultimately be.

I am burned out since and for years, i can still do some coding but every time i look at it my stomach almost turns. I can write a few lines a day and do some cleanup sometimes, but everyhing is a huge mess and i do it barely aware. My luck since i also hate doing anything and cant do anything else right now im a little more motivated to do it. I love computers and all that, but im so sick of everything, its not just coding but im sick and tired of life in general and have no reason to do anything at all.

>>31990 have you taken a sabbatical? like a nice, long break? human beings are not meant to be doing things like this for prolonged periods of time, let alone doing them for some soulless soykafty corporation for money. i would recommend you take some time off, if you have the funds for it or can live with your parents or something, take months off if you can. fix your sleeping patterns, drink water, exercise regularly. god speed anon.

Yes, but I hate my life, the world, people, my mother, people who tell me that they're "my friends" but then don't really give a soykaf about me, so the only thing left to do is programme, doesn't work?, I'll just do it again, read more books, watch more videos, and whenever I lose inspiration I just watch videos by Terrence Andrew Davis, I love that guy.

>>32038 *Terry A. Davis, you pompous fuarrrkwad.

i've had an 8 month long period of productivity and i'm worried that i'm going to burn out, they never last this long, what's different this time its that i'm exercising, even if i have an extremely stressful day, i burn that stress playing DDR

>>31859 I work as a webdev and yeah, I think i do experience some of what you describe. I stopped programming on weekends because I just couldn't do it. There's times at work when I just stare at my screen not able to write any line. Sometimes listening to fast paced music helps, sometimes it doesnt. I guess i just easily get exhausted, being a perfectionnist doesnt help. I try to work less hard and to do have a better life hygiene and it helps but it amazes me how just writing code can exhaust me to the point of feeling physically weak

>>31859 >Did you ever experience programming burnout? I only have programming burnout. For some people it's fun. For me it's literally survival.

>>31889 I agree. Programming literally makes me want to break things. I don't understand the term "burnout" in such a context. I was burned out of it from the moment I dived into it. Been a couple years now.

Programming used to be fun for me. Lately I've been seriously struggling to care at work. I put things off, simple tasks that I used to be able to crank out in a day now take weeks, I find myself having the re-read documentation a lot. What other job options exist for people like us?

I too have gotten burned out, taking a few days to not think about the project seems to have fixed my brain. I suppose if lain has a dayjob that's not an option. But giving the mind a rest is the only recourse, see if you can make it to the weekend and then try not to think about anything related to programming for those two days. Best of luck.

When I burnout, I go offgrid, slum it, just walk away from life for a while. Pic related, DIY broom made of clothes scraps used to clean an underbridge spot to experience homelessness at. Came up with a solution to incremental mark/sweep GC for a lang I'm building while collecting / sweeping trash IRL. Adding some chaos then filtering it into order is how I force myself to think outide the box. Taking an extreem break can be quicker than a less radical / more orthodox break...

algorithm design & low level code is fun because there are no roadblocks. You actually do what you want. webdevs&co is cancer because you aren't really solving problems. You are trying to decrypt some gibberish dialect to get someone else to do what you want. (api/library). Its like eternal tourist mode trying to figure out the magic words to get by while traveling.

I feel so burnt out right now, at work Im doing a custom llm model and its making me hate everything to do with computers

>>34266 Sounds like that's a healthy lifestyle and definitely one way of keeping yourself productive. Exercise also relieves the stress and keeps your mind happy and DDR is doing the same so all of the stress gets thrown away that you gathered while working. You got no worries and if you start feeling like you might burn out, take a break immediately anon Kinda late to the thread.

>>38487 What's up with the custom model anon? As someone with no compute, I thought those were fun to deal with, like making your own model, setting up the whole pipeline to retrain it based on the previous results etc etc. Would love to know more :D

>>38449 That's actually a good point. I've been a webdev for over 20 years and I'm at a point where I can no longer enjoy coding. I've been experiencing burnout symptoms for over a year. I should try low level coding sometime.

I'm going to kill myself if the rest of my life is writing CRUD microservices over and over again. When I was at uni I never thought want to go into management but after six years of being a code monkey the job of managing people actually has an appeal in it's novelty and intellectual challenge. idk i'll probably end up hating anything after a while

I've been feeling pretty unstimulated by my own projects lately. It feels like I'm sort of just chasing the ambitions of a prior, more insane version of myself. At the same time, the work at the base line is fairly boring. Talk to this PCB factory, supply BOM, talk it out, whatever. oh em gee they wont buy the taiwanese component so I go to the next place. Just minutae. os.walk the directory in python read the files to bytes load into pillow apply transformation write to bytes wowzers.all to accomplish some braindamaged aesthetic that I cared about when I was as hypothyroid as you can imagine.its kind of a chore. maybe I need to eat a seed oil burrito to regain that estrogenic fuarrrkign zeal that mustve kept me interested back then. New tasks. please. a vacation? a day trip. A good book that isn't half my own thoughts. a new person. a new video game. so;me new music. writing well-researched hypertext articlkes.

>>31859 Yes, it's painful. I try to diversity my interests, so that the risk of total burnout is mitigated. >>31865 This, 100%. Read some fantasy books. Go outside. Touch grass. Even going through a math course gave me a much-needed morale boost for programming. Oh, and sleep is important, too.

>>31859 I curse and remind myself why I'm doing this 9-5 job, then get on with the day feeling like soykafe and doing the actual work.

>>31859 I got balls to the wall on hobby projects for 1 or 2 evenings and then I can't focus on work because it's dull, useless, and my energy has been spent. It's been like this for years. I make good enough money that I don't feel like quiting. I think my loneliness is becoming more and more debilitating. And as I save more money, I care less about waking up before 11am. I'll never have fuarrrk you money, but I have no thank you money now. The most beautiful moments are when I just walk away from my WFH job and sit at McDonald's like a total burn out now that the sun has risen from this long cold winter. Saw a chinese mom and her son having a meal together. Beautiful, quiet and calm people. Reminds me of the relationship with my mom. Except less dysfunctional characters, I'm quite sure another beautiful moment was just driving to the countryside alone, parking and walking. The sun was setting, and I was surrounded by snow turning blue, and absolute silent. I could hear my ear ringing and 1 distant snow mobile. I should go back soon. it's been nearly 6 years since a vacation greater than 4 weeks... why not before I turn 30? Btfo my obese manager slurring his words all the time. I'm a sensitive observer.

>>31859 I guess sort of, sometimes, but never to a degree where it was as bad as you describe, I hope you can find yourself able to code again

>>31859 I'm in a, whats the name in english, recycling ? I'm changing jobs, i were a software dev for about 10 years but grew increasingly bored with the job to the point i were on the verge of depression (also because the city i was living in was incredibly "badly-populated", so i'm now pursuing studies to be a simple computer repair guy in a shop in a much smaller town. I earn three times less but i needed to live somewhere else, to work something else, to do something of my two hands other than endlessly typing on a keyboard, living in a safe and sane environment, and working with colleagues whose company is much more pleasant and are much more relaxed than the overly-stressed guys i used to work with. Hope that may help a lainon somewhere