[gregjor]

40+ years programming, a couple of episodes of burnout. I tried managing but didn't like it. Got into freelancing that at least allows me to travel and live anywhere I want. I can't say I love writing code, or doing system admin, but I don't get stressed over it either, and I do like getting paid.

Maybe figure out how to do the bare minimum to maintain an income while you figure out what you want to do.

[throwaway_43793]

Thanks. I want to move to something else that is not coding. Coding is too taxing on my mental health, and I don't think I can do it on someones terms anymore. I am trying to build a business on the side, but until it becomes profitable, I want to find a job where I can still make good money and support myself and my family.

[gregjor]

I understand, but you might want to ask why you find coding so taxing on your mental health. Maybe coding per se doesn't cause the problem, but the rest of the job or work environment. I don't get the same pleasure from writing code that I did two or three decades ago, but I don't find it particularly frustrating or bad for my mental health, either. Perhaps you can come to terms with that. Any job will have frustrations and mental health hazards, you have to learn not to internalize the work and the job, because that causes the problem. In other words the frustration and boredom and feeling of burnout comes from you, not from the code.

[throwaway_43793]

I feel that most of it is pointless. I'm past the stage where I can argue with people over stupid engineering architecture decisions. It's all full of BS and ego.

Most people would rather die defending their favorite language/stack/framework than change their POV. I'm tired of wasting my time on countless meetings trying to "convince my engineering team-mates to write tests/use strongly typed languages/avoid new-age BS like lambda/k8s".

Sure, leadership feels like BS as well, but at least this BS IS the job. With coding, the job is to write code, which usually ends up being 20% of the work time anyway, so I'd rather do BS all-day and get paid for that (often times bigger salary), while doing my own thing with my own architecture and framework, than try to explain my manager why it takes 7 days to change the width of the button because the app is so over engineered that any line you touch creates a butterfly effect that can bring the entire organizations to bankruptcy.

[gregjor]

I get it. I freelance for small companies that don't have all of that nonsense, usually working directly for the owner or a stakeholder who can make decisions.

I gave up with the technical arguments a long time ago, too much effort trying to swim against the current. You get less of that outside of the software industry -- I worked for a long time in enterprise logistics where the team had to focus a lot more on solving business problems and a lot less on "best practices" or the latest language or framework. Not exciting but not as likely to induce rage, either.

[bruce511]

I've worked for my own company for 30-some years. Occasionally I consult for a big corporate.

Each consulting gig reminds me why I'm not cut out for that world. It's everything coding is not. But when a corporate hires me to write some code, I understand that the corporate BS is the job .

I still love coding. But working for a corporate is not coding (at any level). Coding is what you get to do when there's a gap between meetings.

I know jobs are hard to get right now. But you might find more joy working in a small company, with people who already fit your preferred tech choices. I will say there's somewhat less job security and a lot less pay, but equally there's no bs and there's more freedom to actually code.

[andrewf]

Sounds like you might enjoy switching jobs with https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42289955 (not because of the "seniors" bit, but the more general thing where they're rewarded for biz outcomes and don't have any tech colleagues)