Ask HN: Lost Interest in Job | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Lost Interest in Job

2 pointsthrowaway-283724 comments

I’ve lost all interest in my job to the point where it’s hard to even show up to the office. I’ve been doing full stack engineering for about 5 years now and I’m just utterly and completely not excited about anything related to web dev anymore.

I still enjoy programming but only for things that I’m interested in like side projects and game development which both have very little to do with my day job, and I don’t necessarily want to pursue employment in the few programming related fields I still enjoy lest they become like my current job.

What do I do now? I have to work but even thinking about interviewing for a new job or continuing to work like this makes me sick to my stomach. Preparing to do interviews by grinding leetcode is also not something I want to do anymore, and the result would be the same even if I change jobs.

If you have lost interest in your job, this snippet from my mission statement may help. I does for me.

I will remember that enthusiasm is voluntary and arises from imagining success. I find the pleasure and enthusiasm to begin working on a project by imagining the fruits of success while knowing that once started, continuing my efforts to this end is pleasurable itself irregardless of eventual success.

I actually sit down and ponder what success will be like once I have finish. I'm talking serious daydreaming here. I can spend 15 minutes getting into the spirit of my work.

Yeah, I'm in the same position. Once you "get" web dev it becomes kind of a grind. Like it's not that intellectually stimulating, but there's just a lot of work that needs to be done and you have to devote just enough brainpower to it that it becomes annoying. And then there's the fact that everyone is saying that AI is going to automate the shit out of us in a few years. It's got me feeling like I'm wasting my life.

There’s a troubling trend in the tech industry. I’ll just say that you and OP are not at all alone.

I don’t actually think AI is going to take a good engineer’s job away any time soon but you’re probably going to struggle to find intellectually challenging problems to solve doing front end. Maybe try infrastructure?

Agree completely, it’s not challenging work and it’s so reparative

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