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Comment by carlmr | Hacker News Reader

>Not interesting, not depressing, just neutral.

The absence of feelings sounds exactly like depression.

Depression is a bit more complex than that though. You can be emotionally neutral if you're just not strongly affected by what you're doing, it's probably the default state if you've done something for a while. I'm emotionally neutral when I brush my teeth.

True, let me rephrase what I meant then, if everything, day in, day out, feels emotionally neutral, that's very depressive sounding.

Yeah for sure. Anhedonia (no longer enjoying things you used to) is a strongly associated symptom. Of course it could just be a rut and you need to shake up your routine, introduce some variety, but that's matter of severity rather than category.

But it doesn't seem that way. I'm not unhappy, or suicidal, or gloomy about the future. I just don't find that anything really feels "new" and therefore nothing really seems exciting. It's like if I got that cliche question "what are you passionate about" in an interview, my answer would be "nothing."

I think it's fair to not be passionate about programming. As long as you have some sort of creative/passion outlet.

> As long as you have some sort of creative/passion outlet

I used to feel that I did, when I was younger. Not really these days. But I'm not sad about it.

Ma, the passion police is at the door again.

you have 24h to present evidence of sufficient artistic hobbies to your local station.

Don't you have the feeling you want something exciting?

I'll put it this way, I have no real burning desire to do anything that I haven't already done.

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