valeri-program

I have the same thing happening just after I became a parent. I think I was not ready for that and it resulted in great turbulence in my work life. I changed 3 jobs in < 3 years and decided to go into game dev, with very little knowledge or talent in it and now I work to get back into my normal line of work. It was a regression to a younger self, but reality is different. I dropped a job that got me 6 times the salary of anyone I know and took a break. Now I am two months into that break and want a normal job and life. Maybe I am depressed because usually I like to challenge myself, but now I don’t have the strength and will keep a more steady life.

Most of the jobs out there are slowly evolving into small FAANGS. I started in a rather small, startup-type of company, but with time it became a big buirocratic machine. And I had a lot of collegues I wish know how to evaluate time and space complexity.

I think the author means exactly that type of vacation feels boring. I know it is strange, but some people feel best when working towards a goal, it is like a drug I guess. If I go on such vacation, then yes - if it is packed with activities this makes thing better, BUT if you have a small child like me, then you cant do much to exert you energy except doing chores and things I am not good at and I get a bit restless. If however I manage to work just for 2 hours on something I become a whole different man after that and I can enjoy my vacation better. I realise that I might be boring to other people by doing so, but learned to accept this.

I share the same feelings. After covid hit I learned that I am not that self-sufficient and I need “the world” to recognize my work. Problem is that, WFH makes it harder to prove yoursef, so I just work my brains off and hope that someday I will prove myself out there. Other thing is that I like to do a lot of “solo” stuff — play guitar, work on side projects, etc. and this does not get along well with family dinners or being in a hotel somewhere. If I do not work at least couple hours a day, even weekends I get really grumpy. I always have some goals and projects to do, ever since a teenager, so I do not think I can and want to change.

Solid point. But it depends - if you are a 20,30-year old with no obligations then there is a high chance that you do not really know how the world works. I guess I’m suggesting your typical mom’s basement rat who neither has the programming skills or the domain/business logic. But the field is quite forgiving, so you can pull it off no matter your background. Here were I live, programmers get paid 5-6 times more than the average income. Some seniors get the same money as a bank director would and of course, not the same levels of stress. A lot of people actually transition to IT and do it successfully, but we are an outsource market and there are companies that hire a lot of juniors and sell them to customers as seniors...so better environment for new-starters. I would say to the author to go ahead and try it! I truly love this field, it is amazing!

I keep reading here that somehow “energy” gives young people advantage. In my experience, having lots of energy can help or hinder. Being a good programmer requires patience, mature view of the world and the ability to think critically. Reading articles and coding all day just serves the ego. A very small portion of young people spend time learning the fundamentals and think about consequences. So, I think you have an advantage! I started at 23 - this can be considered old too, because I have colleagues that started at 8, but I do not see a giant gap between them and me - everyone has strengths and weaknesses