Programmer Burn-out
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Looking at some of the postings here and elsewhere, I wonder ... What are the signs when a programmer is getting close to burn-out. What should programmers and others do to reduce the probability of burn-out. Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover, if at all, and over what timespan. And did professional help actually help or hinder the recovery.
I've been programming since 1980. Up until about 6 years ago, I was coding 14 hours per day - because I liked it. I started feeling burned out 5 years ago. I no longer program at home unless I need something fast and small. Quite often, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer for any reason. I reject new programming (and computing) technology without evaluating it (or feeling bad about doing it). I simply don't care anymore. How's that? I hope the rumors about 2012 are correct. It'll be good to get back to sticks and rocks for weapons and cave drawings for communications...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001-- modified at 16:33 Friday 21st July, 2006
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Having never suffered this - Perhaps ... Nothing left in reserve? Psychological ? Fear ? Self Destruction ? ????
OK. Sounds ominous. I would imagine that burn out of any kind would be the result of poor working conditions and over work. That is, if work sucks, you need time to recover, so you feel like you have a life. I don't get much time away from work, but I love it, so, I'm cool.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
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Looking at some of the postings here and elsewhere, I wonder ... What are the signs when a programmer is getting close to burn-out. What should programmers and others do to reduce the probability of burn-out. Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover, if at all, and over what timespan. And did professional help actually help or hinder the recovery.
It's like love in a relationship. Sometimes it's hot, heavy and fun. Other times it's a lot of work to keep going. What's important is to keep going the good times will come again and so will the bad times. It's your attitude towards each that shapes your true success. Burn out is an excuse that people use to defend quitting when things actually get hard.:rose:
When I'm joking people take me seriously.
When I'm serious they think I'm joking.
I'm left to conclude my life must be a complete joke. :sigh: :laugh: :cool: -
Looking at some of the postings here and elsewhere, I wonder ... What are the signs when a programmer is getting close to burn-out. What should programmers and others do to reduce the probability of burn-out. Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover, if at all, and over what timespan. And did professional help actually help or hinder the recovery.
Richard A. Abbott wrote:
What should programmers and others do to reduce the probability of burn-out.
Lot's of physical excercise on a very regular basis. Lot's of interaction with other people *in person*, let's say parties or sports teams or something where you can completely forget that you in fact do any programming at all. (I never discuss programming with anyone outside of work itself, it's really a very boring topic to discuss with strangers or non-programmers and in some ways even more boring to discuss with other programmers). Lot's of interest outside of programming of course. And most importantly if you don't feel interested in it any more, stop doing it and find something else either temporarily or permanently. I hear becoming a bartender for a while is a good option. ;) You make burn out sound like a disease that should be overcome, it's just a choice of how to spend your time, if you're tired of it stop doing it either temporarily or permanently.
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Looking at some of the postings here and elsewhere, I wonder ... What are the signs when a programmer is getting close to burn-out. What should programmers and others do to reduce the probability of burn-out. Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover, if at all, and over what timespan. And did professional help actually help or hinder the recovery.
The signs are simple, you have problems concentrating, you don't feel any pleasure writing code, you forget your ideas fairly easy. What helps? Well for me a vacation always does the trick. Some place quiet without any computers around and a couple of friends who are not into partying all night long and are actually there for recharging their batteries too. After a few days I'm Tip Top and ready to get back to work. I'm in a burnout state right now, and have been since June. I haven't had a vacation for two years, but surprisingly the last couple of days have been quite good. That's probably beacause I want to finish already the application I'm working on in order to get a few days of vacation before I start work in another place from August 1st.:->
regards, Mircea Many people spend their life going to sleep when they’re not sleepy and waking up while they still are.
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I've been programming since 1980. Up until about 6 years ago, I was coding 14 hours per day - because I liked it. I started feeling burned out 5 years ago. I no longer program at home unless I need something fast and small. Quite often, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer for any reason. I reject new programming (and computing) technology without evaluating it (or feeling bad about doing it). I simply don't care anymore. How's that? I hope the rumors about 2012 are correct. It'll be good to get back to sticks and rocks for weapons and cave drawings for communications...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001-- modified at 16:33 Friday 21st July, 2006
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
I simply don't care anymore. How's that?
But how did you recover, or are you still troubled ?
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
rumors about 2012 are correct
Yes the Olympics are comming to London. Are these roumours Mayan ?
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It's like love in a relationship. Sometimes it's hot, heavy and fun. Other times it's a lot of work to keep going. What's important is to keep going the good times will come again and so will the bad times. It's your attitude towards each that shapes your true success. Burn out is an excuse that people use to defend quitting when things actually get hard.:rose:
When I'm joking people take me seriously.
When I'm serious they think I'm joking.
I'm left to conclude my life must be a complete joke. :sigh: :laugh: :cool:code-frog wrote:
Burn out is an excuse that people use to defend quitting when things actually get hard.
I don't think this is entirely true. My current job is remarkably easy and I get a 3 day weekend every other week, and yet I still can't seem to get anything done or muster up the ability to concentrate for any length of time. To be honest, I feel a little like John (above) - I'm really quite tired of computers and all I use them for at home now is to play games. I have stuff that I need to finish, both at work and for pleasure and yet I just can't seem to be bothered to do anything about it. I've thought about changing careers, but what else am I qualified to do, besides teaching? After 12 years in the software industry, my skill set is pretty well defined and there really aren't any entry-level positions available in oher career paths that will pay the same as programming... I agree that changing jobs can work for a while, but I am really trying to resist that for the moment. As I said, the job is fairly easy, the benefits are great and the people I work with are great. I just can't seem to get excited about programming any more. Every day seems like one long clock-watching exercise.
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Looking at some of the postings here and elsewhere, I wonder ... What are the signs when a programmer is getting close to burn-out. What should programmers and others do to reduce the probability of burn-out. Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover, if at all, and over what timespan. And did professional help actually help or hinder the recovery.
Richard A. Abbott wrote:
Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover
I went through it already - for years. I found what made it interesting again was getting back to my roots. I started learning programming to make games (doesn't everybody), so I started studying OpenGL to do just that. So, far it's doing quite well to make programming interesting once again. I'll let you know it continues to go in a couple of years. :laugh:
Jeremy Falcon
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Richard A. Abbott wrote:
Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover
I went through it already - for years. I found what made it interesting again was getting back to my roots. I started learning programming to make games (doesn't everybody), so I started studying OpenGL to do just that. So, far it's doing quite well to make programming interesting once again. I'll let you know it continues to go in a couple of years. :laugh:
Jeremy Falcon
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
I started studying OpenGL
I recall you asked some time ago if people would be interested in OpenGL articles that you might write. Are you still planning to write some?
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Jeremy Falcon wrote:
I started studying OpenGL
I recall you asked some time ago if people would be interested in OpenGL articles that you might write. Are you still planning to write some?
PaulC1972 wrote:
Are you still planning to write some?
Eventually, I'd like to. I'm just trying to get past the newbie stage myself. :-D I'm writing a mutlimedia dll that wraps libpng, freetype, etc. but keeps a consitent interface (win32 dll, so it's a c interface) for use with OGL I may post on CP. I'm still in debate on that though.
Jeremy Falcon
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
I simply don't care anymore. How's that?
But how did you recover, or are you still troubled ?
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
rumors about 2012 are correct
Yes the Olympics are comming to London. Are these roumours Mayan ?
-
PaulC1972 wrote:
Are you still planning to write some?
Eventually, I'd like to. I'm just trying to get past the newbie stage myself. :-D I'm writing a mutlimedia dll that wraps libpng, freetype, etc. but keeps a consitent interface (win32 dll, so it's a c interface) for use with OGL I may post on CP. I'm still in debate on that though.
Jeremy Falcon
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
Eventually, I'd like to
:cool:
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code-frog wrote:
Burn out is an excuse that people use to defend quitting when things actually get hard.
I don't think this is entirely true. My current job is remarkably easy and I get a 3 day weekend every other week, and yet I still can't seem to get anything done or muster up the ability to concentrate for any length of time. To be honest, I feel a little like John (above) - I'm really quite tired of computers and all I use them for at home now is to play games. I have stuff that I need to finish, both at work and for pleasure and yet I just can't seem to be bothered to do anything about it. I've thought about changing careers, but what else am I qualified to do, besides teaching? After 12 years in the software industry, my skill set is pretty well defined and there really aren't any entry-level positions available in oher career paths that will pay the same as programming... I agree that changing jobs can work for a while, but I am really trying to resist that for the moment. As I said, the job is fairly easy, the benefits are great and the people I work with are great. I just can't seem to get excited about programming any more. Every day seems like one long clock-watching exercise.
There's two different types of burn-out. Burn-out that I was referring to is cutting out right when things get tough and not making it over that hump to better times. What you are talking about may not necessarily be a symptom of work but of life. Factors influencing you and/or others like you is poor health, unhealthy lifestyle, not enough exercise. If there's other parts of your life that chew on you as well then you need to get a bigger picture of life and fix a few things. Rarely do I find a situation where a person is just genuinely sick of work it almost always goes hand in hand with problems in other areas of life that snowball into general lack of motivation and satisfaction. I suppose if I were you I'd look at your life in general and see if there's other things that generally clog your satisfaction. If you don't exercise regularly and don't have a healthy lifestyle you need to do that foremost as that will be the baseline that influences other changes for the better. If your body isn't sharp your mind won't be either. Anyway, look at your entire life and see if other things are holding you down as well. If so time to change a lot of things but don't expect work to be some epiphany it won't be. When the rest of life is going well it's amazing how *easy* and fun work can be. So be wary of life-burn-out it's a silent killer that ruins many.:rose: - Rex
When I'm joking people take me seriously.
When I'm serious they think I'm joking.
I'm left to conclude my life must be a complete joke. :sigh: :laugh: :cool: -
I've been programming since 1980. Up until about 6 years ago, I was coding 14 hours per day - because I liked it. I started feeling burned out 5 years ago. I no longer program at home unless I need something fast and small. Quite often, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer for any reason. I reject new programming (and computing) technology without evaluating it (or feeling bad about doing it). I simply don't care anymore. How's that? I hope the rumors about 2012 are correct. It'll be good to get back to sticks and rocks for weapons and cave drawings for communications...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001-- modified at 16:33 Friday 21st July, 2006
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
the rumors about 2012
What rumors are those?
Software Zen:
delete this; -
That was good!
When I'm joking people take me seriously.
When I'm serious they think I'm joking.
I'm left to conclude my life must be a complete joke. :sigh: :laugh: :cool: -
Looking at some of the postings here and elsewhere, I wonder ... What are the signs when a programmer is getting close to burn-out. What should programmers and others do to reduce the probability of burn-out. Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover, if at all, and over what timespan. And did professional help actually help or hinder the recovery.
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There's two different types of burn-out. Burn-out that I was referring to is cutting out right when things get tough and not making it over that hump to better times. What you are talking about may not necessarily be a symptom of work but of life. Factors influencing you and/or others like you is poor health, unhealthy lifestyle, not enough exercise. If there's other parts of your life that chew on you as well then you need to get a bigger picture of life and fix a few things. Rarely do I find a situation where a person is just genuinely sick of work it almost always goes hand in hand with problems in other areas of life that snowball into general lack of motivation and satisfaction. I suppose if I were you I'd look at your life in general and see if there's other things that generally clog your satisfaction. If you don't exercise regularly and don't have a healthy lifestyle you need to do that foremost as that will be the baseline that influences other changes for the better. If your body isn't sharp your mind won't be either. Anyway, look at your entire life and see if other things are holding you down as well. If so time to change a lot of things but don't expect work to be some epiphany it won't be. When the rest of life is going well it's amazing how *easy* and fun work can be. So be wary of life-burn-out it's a silent killer that ruins many.:rose: - Rex
When I'm joking people take me seriously.
When I'm serious they think I'm joking.
I'm left to conclude my life must be a complete joke. :sigh: :laugh: :cool:Thank you Dr. Frog ;P
code-frog wrote:
What you are talking about may not necessarily be a symptom of work but of life.
While this may be true, it certainly isn't a factor for me personally. While I won't even pretend to exercise as much as you, I'm certainly not a couch-potato! And my home life sounds very similar to yours (wife, kids, blissfully happy, too many computers etc. ;) ) Curiously, as soon as I posted that last message, I spent the next hour or so furiously working on something really interesting! I think perhaps I just need some more "exciting" projects to work on - something to bring the old spark back... I'm tired of maintaining old shit that wasn't written properly to begin with, and just patching it up and moving to the next dull thing. I haven't written any C++ for over a year now (and that used to be my bread and butter) - I'm all C# web apps, legacy VB6, SQL Server etc. I've just written a cute little C# desktop application and I really enjoyed it... I think I'm going to make some changes to my websites this weekend (check sig for details), as I've been neglecting them in favor of this[^].
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Looking at some of the postings here and elsewhere, I wonder ... What are the signs when a programmer is getting close to burn-out. What should programmers and others do to reduce the probability of burn-out. Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover, if at all, and over what timespan. And did professional help actually help or hinder the recovery.
Richard A. Abbott wrote:
What are the signs when a programmer is getting close to burn-out.
I guess that all depends on the role you play. There is burn-out from repitition, mental carpal-tunnel syndrome? you just can't get the mental energy to do what you used to, it becomes tedious and unfulfilling and you spend more time longing to do something else than doing what you used to do.... This is time to change aspects of work that you can, or take a vacation -- usually before it gets this far. Vary your daily routine so that one day does not mirror another. There is creativity burn-out, the programmer's equivalent to "writers block" in which case the exact same methods for professional writers getting rid of writers block works too. of course with appropriate modifications for dealing with computer programming: http://www.infoweb.co.nz/free-articles-for-reprint/writers-block[^]
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Thank you Dr. Frog ;P
code-frog wrote:
What you are talking about may not necessarily be a symptom of work but of life.
While this may be true, it certainly isn't a factor for me personally. While I won't even pretend to exercise as much as you, I'm certainly not a couch-potato! And my home life sounds very similar to yours (wife, kids, blissfully happy, too many computers etc. ;) ) Curiously, as soon as I posted that last message, I spent the next hour or so furiously working on something really interesting! I think perhaps I just need some more "exciting" projects to work on - something to bring the old spark back... I'm tired of maintaining old shit that wasn't written properly to begin with, and just patching it up and moving to the next dull thing. I haven't written any C++ for over a year now (and that used to be my bread and butter) - I'm all C# web apps, legacy VB6, SQL Server etc. I've just written a cute little C# desktop application and I really enjoyed it... I think I'm going to make some changes to my websites this weekend (check sig for details), as I've been neglecting them in favor of this[^].
Miszou wrote:
Thank you Dr. Frog
I'm just a hose head with a strong opinion. :-D I've learned at times and over the internet my opinion is like garlic. Sometimes it's just the perfect thing and it really lines up well. There's other times I find out that the recipe is a dessert and my garlic just ruined it.:-O I'll still claim I was talking (originally) about a different kind of burn out. Career burn out is harder to address and handle but seems like you are on it and that's all good.:-D
When I'm joking people take me seriously.
When I'm serious they think I'm joking.
I'm left to conclude my life must be a complete joke. :sigh: :laugh: :cool: -
Looking at some of the postings here and elsewhere, I wonder ... What are the signs when a programmer is getting close to burn-out. What should programmers and others do to reduce the probability of burn-out. Any CodeProject members suffered this (or know somebody who suffered) and how did you recover, if at all, and over what timespan. And did professional help actually help or hinder the recovery.
I too feel like I'm going through burn-out crisis and have bee for a couple of months. Its comforting to hear that others also suffer as if was starting to feel like I was the only one in world with this dark ominous cloud hanging over head. Its even better to hear the great advise that helps you though these times. For a while now I have living a pretty unhealthy lifestyle, eating too much and hardly exercising at all, and it would seam that this has been contributing to by burn-out more that I had envisioned. However over the past week or so I have started to turn this round I now try and exercise at least every other day and am trying to eat better. Roll on a fitter and more productive me!
There are No Stupid Questions. But there a LOT of Inquisitive Idiots.
