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Comment by Aldipower | Hacker News Reader

Sounds like the normal mid-life crisis. :-P Would probably hit you with every other job too.

I don't know. IT is a bit different in that regard. As a doctor, even if the system is shit, you still help people directly. As an engineer, you build something tangible that can make people's lives easier. And so on. In IT, though, the impact often feels much more indirect. Most of the time you're optimizing processes or helping businesses become more efficient, rather than improving people's lives in a direct way. You're often several steps removed from the people who ultimately benefit from your work. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it just doesn't feel very meaningful to me.

I feel this in my engineering work. My software goes into cars that are mostly bought by rich people. Not very satisfying. I'm somewhat lucky my work goes into real products rather than shelved research projects. But I get my kicks out of helping friends and family with IT tasks. Set up a pi hole for someone. Give them an openwrt router with a wireguard VPN to my jellyfin server. Set up a cheap thinkpad with Debian. It's basic but it makes a visible difference.

I had the same kind of childhood with the VIC-20 and C=64 (and TI-99/4a in school as well). And having launched my career in I.T. I started as a Network Operator and then quickly promoted to systems administration, with SunOS 4.1.x mostly.

And I had purchased a beloved briefcase which I dutifully took to work each day, but my job wasn't really working with paper, much less anything that I needed to bring home with me.

And through those early years I really did fret about this: I produced nothing tangible at work. My work wasn't classified or secret, but there was nothing relatable I could really discuss about my work! What could I show people to prove I was a productive worker? How could I prove my worth, such as later on a résumé to a future employer? There was really just nothing.

And it went on like this for decades. I am sure that I, like many, struggled mightily with this intangible nature. Even my father, as a scientist, at least he brought home the Geiger counter, the film badges, the pager and the gadgets.

I suggest you run this by an actual doctor.

Find an IT-related problem facing the whole world right now and fix it.

For example phone enshittification. Make your own phone that isn't shit.

As other people said everyone goes through this at a certain life stage. You go from exploring the world and developing your own skills, to figuring out what impact you want to have made on the world after you're gone.

If you grew up with a Commodore your mid life is way past.

How do you figure? Commodore had strong sales through the late 80s, and the C64 wasn't discontinued until 1994.

My family's C64 was the first computer I ever used, and I am barely in my mid 40s. And although my family later purchased an IBM PC clone around '89 or '90, that just meant the C64 moved into my older brother's room, where we used it even more.

Life expectancy for most people on HN should be around 72 (give or take), so mid life is in your mid thirties.

Also, using the Commodore in the 90's is probably pretty rare.

"Mid thirties" is absolutely not a common definition of mid life. For reference, Wikipedia defines "middle age" as being the age range from 40 to 64, based on citing nine different sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_age

And also why do you believe the life expectancy for HN users (mostly adults, large portion based in US) is only 72?!

Sure and there you have the problem. No wonder people who do not take mid life literally and plan as if half of it is over with 36 (or let it be 40 if you must) are in crisis with 50. "Midlife" is really just an euphemism for "old, but in denial".

There's certainly that. But a lot of the points of the sibling and nephew comments here ring true, too.

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