Permanently Deleted

  • Owl [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I suspect you're suffering from burnout. It's normal in our industry, because our industry is horseshit. You can recover.

    Take time to do literally anything else, then sit down and start working through it. Ideally you can find a project you're interested in and/or that can help the world. When you hit whatever makes you start staring into space and bouncing off the task, stop for a bit and do grounding exercises (mentally check off what each of your senses is saying), set a goal for how much further into the task you want to go before taking a break, then do that. Basically treat it like it's PTSD because they're extremely similar.

    A surprisingly large chunk of the industry is composed of programmers working a few years, quitting a year or two, working a few years, and repeating. Because the industry is horseshit and this is how it outsources treating the psychological damage it inflicts. If you can find a different way to support yourself then awesome. But you're stuck in here, then you can at least do union agitation when you're in and other activism when you're out.

      • Owl [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Repeatedly quitting and coming back is particularly common at Google and Microsoft.

        Quitting once and trying to escape the industry, city, and plane of existence is particularly common at Amazon.

          • Owl [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Google lets you skip your interview if you come back within a year. Some Microsoft contractors have to routinely quit and rejoin for contract reasons. It's a thing.