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Comment by mrcharles | Hacker News Reader

Find a hobby. Something that is completely mindless, and won't use any of the centers of your brain that you use for programming. If you do love programming, you may just be burnt out; if you are like me, you spend long stretches coding for most waking hours. Eventually you'll run risk of burning out.

Me, I build plastic robot models. It's no brain power at all, just precise physical motions. It's mindless and enjoyable, and at the end of the day you have something to show for it.

There's a lot of posts here saying take a break, but you really have to make sure that you are truly taking a break, and not just substituting programming with something else that uses the same parts of your brain.

edit: Here's one of the first models I built. Unpainted just to see what it looks like. http://www.flickr.com/photos/37553996@N07/sets/7215762298535...

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Absolutely this. Programming simply cannot be the only major thing you do with your life, it's unbalanced, unhealthy, and unsustainable.

For me, I'm a fairly serious photographer on the side, and I spend a lot of time studying visual arts of all varieties - going to galleries, museums, talks and the such. It works a completely separate part of my brain that doesn't get a lot of exercise during the day.

The next question is: are you healthy? Are you getting enough exercise, sunlight - are you eating well? There are tremendous psychological impacts on what you do when you don't physically feel at your best.

I've spent almost 30 years in computer/electronics engineering (both hardware and software) and I think one thing you will suffer from is a lack of accomplishment. When it takes months or years to complete a project, you need to gain a sense of accomplishment from the little victories along the way.

As the parent notes, finding a hobby that's unrelated is useful, but not only as a diversion ... you can gain that sense of accomplishment in the preparation of a good meal or in completing a weekend woodworking project.

Yes, it's the sense of accomplishment, of finishing something that is the primary benefit of building these little models. You get to do it, it's relaxing, and you can say "I built that" at the end.

Hmmm ... I missed one other point.

It's much easier to show your friends and family the mission-oak picture frame you built than some obscure bit of software. It needs no explanation and you'll be gratified (hopefully) by their response. Explain a low-level library you built to these same people and their eyes will glaze over while they hope you talk about something regular humans deem important.

These toys are amazing.

They really are. You don't even need glue to put them together (though some parts will fall off easily if not). But in terms of reward for effort they can't really be beat.

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