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Comment by dartos | Hacker News Reader

What an inspiring passage.

I’ve been feeling the exact same way about software lately.

It’s just no fun anymore. I should do something pointless like making a wayland compositor for myself or something.

When I struggled hard with burnout, I found that hobbies were an important part of fixing that -- but it was important that the hobbies had little-to-nothing to do with computers (I had computer-related hobbies too, of course, but they didn't seem particularly effective in terms of mitigating burnout).

Personally, I’ve found that if I get super interested in a programming project at home that I’ll get too distracted and unfocused at work, which feels pretty miserable. For that reason, I’ve mostly given up on programming at home in favor of reading and other hobbies.

I do think this is a good approach at work though. There’s always something I can investigate that I’m interested in at work that I can find enjoyment from. Even if it isn’t exactly what I’m ideally supposed to be working on, I’m able to help people and provide valuable insights that are beneficial for my team and company.

This is a much more satisfying situation than either spinning my wheels because I’m not interested in what I’m working on am too distracted by projects at home.

A good thing is to remind that you have not to finish hobby projets. Dont feel any shame about putting it aside and start something more interesting, do it : it's not work and you do it to let off steam. You may even come back to it later

Yes!

I think that the real difference between an activity being a hobby and it being a job is that a hobby activity is always optional. If I don't feel like working on a hobby project today (or ever again), I don't have to. On the job, I don't have that option. That makes a world of difference.

Go and meditate. You will never find truth in thoughts/words/code/beliefs. It can be in trillions of possible combinations. You can keep churning it out for infinity and not reach anywhere.

My same thought. The software I'm required to write isn't necessarily fun anymore. I find more fun writing tools when I need them. I'll find myself needing a helper tool, I start writing, I enjoy writing it, then I realize I went off the deep end and made a really cool thing and completely lost track of time.

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