I've been programming for 53 years and have never been burnt out from the act of actually building software. In fact it's been the opposite for me. Every time I've ever had a significant challenge, alone or in a small competent team, to get something built quickly and right, I've savored that challenge. The times I've sat up all night long coding are some of my fondest memories. I remember with startling accuracy every time we struggled getting something to work, got it figured out, and danced. I remember every white board, direct message, even every slice of pizza in the trenches.

I've even commented here on HN many times that I've never been burnt out coding and never will be. I'd be the last one out of here to turn off the lights when everyone else was burnt out.

But now I am most certainly burnt out, not from building software, but from being incarcerated in dysfunctional I.T. hell.

For OP and the posers who think they understand the mindset of serious software developers, here's what really burns us out:

  - the same stupid meeting every morning where nothing is raised or closed and no non-programmer has a clue
  - taking direction from the same clueless bosses who have never accomplished anything but treat us like their children
  - the new technology or philosophy du jour that does everything but address the root of any problem
  - management that absolutely cannot grok fundamentals like cause/effect, critical path, detail/issue, urgent/important, diminishing returns, etc.
  - continuous leadership bombardment of idiocy and stuff we know can't work
  - management's complete failure to solicit or accept feedback from those of us who actually know
  - nothing written down and no one remembering anything
  - confusion by almost everyone about the difference between activity and achievement
  - no written business requirements, technical specs, or test plans, but instead, some new untested methodology
  - leaders who don't understand the difference between steak and sizzle
  - continuous business failures because of poor leadership, not technology (and they keep doing it!)
  - I could go on and on, but I wouldn't get anything done today and be just like my boss.

I'd love to see an OP that addresses any of all of these things I've been suffering from for years, instead of a headline with a precise metric on a misunderstood premise.

I'll suffer all day today and then to get rid of the corporate stink, build something cool for myself later tonight. That's not personal burn out, it's industry burn down.