Five Ways to Burn Out for a Programmer

From a translator
Burnout in the life of a programmer can happen for a variety of reasons; if you set out to list all the ways in which it creeps up to us, then this listing alone will take a lot of time. This is another reason why you should not underestimate the burnout process - otherwise one day you will have to look for the way back, and it can be very expensive. The last line is not at all unfounded - only the love of the code was able to help me once - when, it would seem, everything was bored and wanted nothing, reading the turned up McConnell brought back memories of how I once liked to program. And today I like to do it again.
And now - a word to the author.

I only recently moved away from my burnout - despite the fact that it happened several years ago. Yes, it was not easy for me ... very difficult. When I think about what happened, a lot of reasons come to mind about what happened to me - but the most interesting thing is that I have never attached importance to each of them. Want to repeat my path and burn out? Please, I have a whole list ready to do in this case:

1. To think about the project and only about it

Admit to yourself: the business wants you to create the best product "for our customers." You put aside any functionality due to the fact that you do not have time to deadline. You are planning a project and analyzing it from all sides in order to break it into several “digestible” parts, which then must be embodied by one of the encoders (in the role of a monkey, or code monkey, by the way, you can be alone). You create a working prototype, then get feedback and do another iteration. And all this - without a single thought about his beloved.

In this case, I have news for you: once you started programming simply because you liked this lesson. Why not continue to do it because you have fun again? Spend quite a bit of time making the feature that you really wanted to see. Or challenge yourself - do something that previously seemed impossible to you. Show the result to all your friends, and do not just collect the “feedback” - boast about what you did.

2. Negative attitude to everything

- Familiar with Docker? Slop thing! But who will entrust their production to a new, unstable toy? ..
- Go? Am I like someone who really wants to write each library themselves? .. All I need is already in PyPI. And in general, the project I'm working on is so tightly limited in choosing technologies that I don’t need all this.
- Jenkins, speak? What’s in the yard, 2008? ..

It's very easy to get into this trap. It’s easy to tell other people which choice is the wrong one. I have a theory that this is connected with the activities of the programmer - we constantly have to look for errors in our code and correct them, because if we do not find them, then someone else will find.

But it does not seem to me that we should be so negatively inclined regarding our work, the decisions made (even when these are not our decisions) and what we are working on. The best of the projects in which I happened to participate became such because of the good and positive-minded teams. We liked to come to work every morning, discuss our project with each other, restrain critics and turn their efforts to good.

3. Use only familiar means, because it’s faster

You are the guru of Java + Spring + Hibernate. Or, let's say no one dares even question your knowledge of Python. Each of your projects, including personal ones, should be done on what you know best - because the main thing is business, right? Well, not that.

Although this speaks well of you as an “entrepreneur,” it’s better to create a prototype and play with it, becoming an expert in some new unfamiliar technology — and you can safely choose new, still “immature” means. Advice that would seem obvious and repeated at every corner - but that's just the more experience you get, the harder it becomes to follow it.

4. Often change jobs

Also known as the "pursuit of luck." Getting bored with what you're working on right now? Itchy in some places? Time to blow dust off your resume!

This is a very, very, very bad practice.

When you quickly change several jobs, it usually helps your salary grow a little, but you yourself take away such buns as:

• Growth in the company (developer -> manager -> director)
• The acquisition of expertise in their field. For the sake of obtaining a degree, people spend from 4 to 6 years - just imagine how much you can learn in such a period at work.
• You have to start all over again.
• If you are a good developer, you will first have to prove it before someone listens to you.

How does all this relate to burnout? Your career tramples on the spot, you do not delve into any of the topics (develop only the breadth of knowledge), people in new jobs do not trust you, and you constantly have to prove something to someone.

5. A lot of work, ignoring your life

“You don’t have to work hard, but the best ones prefer this path.” You want to impress the bosses, or to hell with the bosses - yourself, and you are putting all your strength into catching up with the unattainable deadline. You manage to deliver the project on time and with all the features that you wanted to do. You are a real hero, and - lucky! - even get a bonus.

Suppose for the first time this is all wonderful. But what about the second, third? .. Not always and not everything will go smoothly. This is a time bomb - you never know which of the "times" will explode.

TL; DR
Burnout is easy!
If you want to burn out, just use the above methods.