Ask HN: How to deal with job hate/mid-life-developer-crisis? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to deal with job hate/mid-life-developer-crisis?

1 pointdevmonk5 comments

If you hate your job so much that you can't keep from saying it out loud, or even singing to yourself about how much you hate it every morning just thinking about it- but yet when job opportunities come up that you could apply for, you don't because you're holding out for something better, and you drastically want to start a company, but you can't get excited about any certain idea or sit down and bang out any code for ideas you have, what does that mean? :)

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It probably means that you haven't achieved a high enough level of job-hate to get yourself moving. The friction required to start something new is always high, even more so for something like quitting a job or starting a company.

I would suggest taking the smallest step forward in the direction you want to go in. Then when that is done take the next smallest step. This will help get the momentum going.

Thanks! There are a number of things I'm thinking of doing, and I've made a number of steps, but steps in research and talking about all of it don't leave me feeling like I've made much progress. I think I need a plan, but to have a plan, I need a direction. My plan has been to get a direction, but that plan is not being executed quickly enough. I know sometimes it just takes time to be inspired, but I'm burning out in the process.

Being inspired just means hating/loving something so much that it causes action. You don't hate your job enough to leave it so try thinking of something you love so much that will cause you to leave it.

From your other comment - you want to work for yourself and not for someone else. Search for a person who is doing such cool stuff, or owns such cool stuff, or is surrounded by such attractive people, etc that owns their own business that it'll get you moving.

job opportunities come up that you could apply for, you don't because you're holding out for something better

Your next job just has to be better than your current one to make the jump worthwhile. If you hate your current job as much as you say, it shouldn't be that difficult to find one at least incrementally better.

I think the problem isn't that you hate your current job so much, I think you just hate the idea of working for someone else. You're probably also used to the security that working for the man brings, compared to the uncertainty and possibility of failure that founding a startup brings.

You nailed it.

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