[acidus]

> Also, when you have a mostly physical demanding job, you can easily socialize with your friends afterwards, with dev work you're brain dead by the end of the day.

This! I tend to think the same way. I can drain my brain so much that by 5pm I'll be a ghost. I've found helpful to divide my tasks into smaller composable units and if I can't reach that point then I try to think that I'm doing something wrong and I'll poke someone else in the team looking for some help. It's hard when you don't have anyone you can talk to.

My biggest challenge is stop thinking about work. It's not always like that but when it gets rainy and dark and there is something interesting going on at work I can get 100% absorbed. Not healthy at all but it's hard to overcome it. I'll wake up in the middle of the night thinking about something I'm working on. It's kind of scary but I also enjoy it. Do you feel like that at all?

[PedroBatista]

Yes I'm like that too and I think it's ~80% a personality thing, meaning if you get a job at the local coffee shop you'll still be obsessed or preoccupied with something.

[acidus]

Maybe you wouldn't had that issue if you were, say, a hockey player. Like your body is not prepared to be sitting in front of a screen ten hours a day or a whole shift poring coffee. I've been learning to get over that brain draining feeling by exercising and not just a running session at the end of the day (which really helps) but shorter intervals in the middle of the day. E.g., I had great success exercising every 5 minutes in my pomodoro technique breaks - huge difference. Not sure if that applies to everyone though.

Socializing is also really helpful for me, but it's hard to make quality friends - I am an immigrant which doesn't help at all.

[acidus]

On a side note, I always try to remember that happiness is a choice. Simply try. It takes some work.