[LouisSayers]

I'm honestly not sure how you can make it past say 10 years in the industry without having the mental skills of a Buddhist Monk.

Coding isn't too bad for the most part, but on top of that it's like you have to manage the product owners / managers, coach your team mates, and put up with company politic dribble.

While you're doing all that people are constantly changing their minds, making you task switch to jump on fires the previous devs set up, and of course you're having to learn how to get around some libraries undocumented "peculiarities" or learn WTF it is that some legacy code is doing.

OH and you have to be full stack with knowledge in a,b,c,d,e,f,g.

"Coding" is draining because for the most part it's not coding...

After going through all the BS you just end up questioning why you're at Company Z in the first place. You then come to the conclusion that helping sell more ads isn't how you want to look back on your life or that you're helping prop up a dying product/industry, and you move on to the next shit show.

I'm honestly questioning whether I want to remain in the industry or whether I should take up something like Acting. Interested to hear if anyone's made a similar career move.

[8b16380d]

The grass always seems greener. Dev jobs are objectively very comfortable. Problems exist in all industries/occupations, who's to say they aren't equally frustrating.

[askonomm]

This. I have also felt very burned out and frustrated with our industry, but with a little therapy I've found that most of my unhappiness comes from within, and once resolving those issues I've realized that being a developer is one of the most comfortable, privileged position one can be in. I can literally change a job in a matter of weeks, I have ridiculous salary, and most of my job I actually even love! Not so much the case with a ton of other jobs.

[playpause]

I've done a variety of different jobs in my time, and standard dev work (in a corporate environment with managers and pretend-agile and JIRA etc) is by miles the most stressful, confusing, complicated, bullshit-ridden job I've ever had in terms of day-to-day experience. It's also the most well paid – that's what evens it out. It's not that all jobs/industries are equally frustrating (which is obviously untrue, to anyone who has worked in more than one industry).

The 'objective comforts' you get at some places, if you mean stuff like pingpong and free beers and lunchtime yoga, are sticking plasters that don't actually get much take-up. The only real 'objective comfort' is the high pay, which makes the rest of your life more comfortable, but doesn't make the day-to-day experience of the job any less frustrating, hence developers 'burning out' so often.

[zepto]

> Dev jobs are objectively very comfortable.

Who’s to say dev jobs are objectively very comfortable?

> Problems exist in all industries/occupations, who's to say they aren't equally frustrating.

The claim that the problems that exist in all industries are equally frustrating, is obviously absurd.

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

"You then come to the conclusion that helping sell more ads isn't how you want to look back on your life ..."

Software has been commoditised. The number of people making a career out of "selling software" continues to decline.

The Fortune 500 uses free software.1 Software quality is not correlated to price.

People work for (computer) "tech" companies and are ostensibly paid to write software, but fewer and fewer are trying to sell it. The companies are only sustained through sales of advertising services. None can survive by selling the work of programmers.

1. Meanwhile, companies increasingly overpay for web hosting and use of third party data centers.

[makeitdouble]

> After going through all the BS you just end up questioning why you're at Company Z in the first place

I honestly think this is a natural path, and we should be question a lot more why we work for company Z.

The answer can seem obvious, but even if it’s something like “best money I can get”, having it explicit helps a lot with dealing with the compromises we’re making. And sometimes it’s only after putting it in words that we realize the answer doesn’t make sense.

> make it past 10 years

On one hand I think programmer is not an exception, film industry for instance must be worse 1000 times. On the other hand, that’s probably one of the reason we see people in their forties do startups. Moving on to something else can be a coping mechanism.

[99_00]

See a therapist. Get in touch with your values. They won't tell you what to do but will help you understand what you want.

[fortylove]

Woodworking. That's the dream.