Re: ::scr programming/$job burnout

[Simon Batistoni <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 03/12/01 16:18 +0000, simon wistow wrote:
> 
> 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.

I think it's all of these things. I think you're also forgetting the
pressure that London adds to the mix. My parents were fairly average
for their generation. They got married at about 26, bought a house
40 minutes' commute from London, and started a family when they were
28. They were both working in hospitals, getting above average but
not spectacular pay. I had a typical if slightly loveless
middle-class upbringing. I had access to a home computer from the
age of 7, etc etc.

I can't see how I'm ever going to get to that "settling down" phase.
London's too fucking expensive to save any meaningful money - you're
trapped in a cycle of renting unless you move away or get a
fabulously well-paid job. And I can't see myself wanting kids 5
years from now, and in one sense that feels strange, that things
have changed so much.

I think we judge ourselves by those around us, and by what we saw of
our parents' achievments and working lives. In some ways, it feels
so easy. I'm already earning around two thirds of what my Dad earns
- he's been working his way up the ladder for 30 years now, I've
been in employment for 2 and a half. But partly it seems stupid -
how can such a disparity last?

Everyday computing is fairly easy once you have core skills - to us,
it seems we're being fabulously paid to do monkey work. But we're
required by the way the world is going, and we're a fairly rare breed.

What's more, for most of us, the last big recession came at a time
before we were worried about earning money. Sure, our parents may
have fretted, but it washed over us. We've had it incredibly easy
for 3 years - job hopping at will, getting bonuses, benefits and
large pay packets. And suddenly, that's not the case. We have to
consider staying in jobs we hate because nothing better is coming
along. But to be honest, I think we're being spoilt. Work sucks, on
the whole, and moaning about how programming isn't that fulfilling
any more seems like a joke when you consider that some guys are
going to work in London's sewers every morning to carve away the
huge lumps of solidified fat that congeal there after being washed
down the sinks of fast food chains...

> 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.

Well, it's in a trough, that's for sure. I don't think you can say
that there's no future in it - we've already gone too far down the
road of instant communication, information on demand and constant
connectivity for it ever to fade away. The number of people online
is still increasing, and it won't be unfeasibly long until some kind
of internet access is at least as ubiquitous as (and in some cases
provided by) the TV in people's homes.

I think the big change is that we've all hit the brick wall of
reality. 2 years ago, you could dream of the company you were
working for making it spectacularly big, of gigantic bonuses, or
share portfolios which made you massively rich, and it seemed
attainable.

Of course it wasn't - the internet was a business system which tried
to cram in most of the growth of other industries in a couple of
years, instead of a couple of decades. Some parts matured too
quickly, whilst others (most noticably the underlying technologies
IMHO) didn't mature enough to keep up.

And marketing. Marketing killed some good things by drowning them in
real-world expectations which just translated poorly to the new
medium. But we've done that rant.

There will always be jobs for the majority of us in computing, or
web jobs, if we want them, and I believe that innovation will begin
in earnest again given some time, hopefully with a little less
unjustified heat underneath it next time. There will be interesting
jobs to do, if we all hang in there.

> 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?

Well I certainly wouldn't. It was building a site for a tiny web
startup that allowed me to learn both perl, and the basics of
sysadminning Linux. I'd dabbled as a hobbyist before then, but not
enough that I could have got a job in today's climate. The fact that
I was vaguely knowledgable, cheap, and a fast learner all worked in
my favour.

And whilst coding the same old same old (take data from web
form -> formulate database query -> run query -> munge data -> return page)
can get tedious sometimes, I can't think of anything that my English
degree would have equipped me for that I'd rather be doing.

At least I'm connected, I can converse with a large subsection of my
friends via email and IRC whenever I want, I have access to
interesting news and entertainment and I'm well paid.

When I wake up feeling burnt out, I tend to just give myself a good
slap and get on with it :)

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