Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

I thought I was the only one, so burnt out from software engineering I am glad to be out of a job. I am starting to have physical revulsion at the thought of it, and I have been dealing with the fact that I have even lost my fun time in front of the PC, playing games or browsing. These days I literally feel better doing the dishes than opening Steam or watching YouTube.

If it’s only me, I can say it’s burnout and depression, if it’s an entire class of people, then the world is sick.

As for AI, I have mellowed in my extreme doomer position, though I still believe people have unrealistically high expectations and the reality of it is gonna hit tech very hard in the face soon.

Perhaps AI has instilled into me an appreciation for the human creativity, and humanity as a whole, and there’s not much of it to be found online. The Internet was an exciting place where we came to develop our nerdy selves, and today we find having to accept it has become a smelly, dirty shanty town with open air sewer, everybody hustling for a coin. It’s time to unplug.

I did my taxes on paper instead of digitally this year because of the same anti-computer feeling. It’s a very magnificent feeling, I do find it kind of interesting how I came to feel this way.

I had this experience and then it completely flipped after being out of work for chemotherapy. I was ready to leave software engineering for good, a complete career transition with the years of investment it would take.

But in my time off, I've done my own coding projects and I've rediscovered my love for code. I realized it never left, what I grew to dislike is coding in a corporate environment. But coding for myself is different, I do it for my own rewards and satisfaction. And nothing beats coding for that, really. You get to make things and take pride.

Yes, I still have love for coding, but I only know how to make a living from it in a corporate environment, and I know deep in my bones I cannot muster the energy to work a normal job any more.

I have tried the solo entrepreneur route once, it didn't go very well but these days I figure it's hard to carve a niche selling software to people. I feel I'd have better chances in creative arts (game dev) than selling any other piece of software on my own; it's quite a frightening (and exciting) commitment to go down that path.

I have spent the last 3 months dilly dallying around this conundrum, and haven't made much progress. It's scary having to reinvent your career in your 40s.

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