scr programming/$job burnout

[simon wistow <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is the result of a long walk around Barnsbury.

I keep hearing of people, friends, who are burnt out. People are fed up with
programming, with their jobs. I went through a similar phase a while back and
quit my job, went travelling and came back and started doing something fairly
different (but still doing programming). I'm not entirely convinced it worked.
At least a couple of people on this list are feeling the same thing.

Is this just normal mid 20's breakdown?  Or something more? Have we come to
expect more out of life - because so much is on offer, far more than our
parents probably did, and far more money (again probably) - that even if we
have a steady job that pays well, we're still not happy because their seems
to be so much out there. Or the opposite i.e that precisely because we are in
a well paying job and fairly secure whilst still young that we feel burnout
because there's nothing left to achieve.

2 years ago the internet industry was thriving and there were plentiful jobs
for everybody in company's that seemed like they could do no wrong - the money
flowed like wine (or Vodka Red Bull) and the jobs were interesting, you could 
get all the equipment - now it's all gone to shit and nothing's fun any more
and there doesn't seem to be much future in it.

Something interesting came up on this walk - how many of you (I'm thinking
especially of the programmers but it's a valid question for all) would be
doing their job if it wasn't for the Net 'revolution' - and I don't just mean
working for their current employer - I mean how many of you would be working
as, say, a programmer if they hadn't started off doing web stuff?

Simon