How to be a Happy Software Engineer

If we look at the core principles of happiness and use that to examine software engineering, we definitely can see few problems in our fast-changing tech field.

Let’s define what happiness is

Some will say it’s a state of being natural - no desires and low expectations. Some will say it’s a habit that we can learn, we can choose to be optimistic. Some say to be happy is to be present at any moment. All these statements have overlapping values and truth in them.

Do you agree a diligent software engineer might hardly be happy because the tech world is a fast-paced industry? It seems to me there’s no such thing as a truly stable job in tech. From my observation over the years, jobs description for the same title can change quite a lot in a few years. As a seasoned engineer, I have to keep up with the latest technology to stay relevant, that’s just the nature of our work. I’m not saying you can stop learning working in other fields, but in a highly competitive industry like software development and services, stop learning new things will make your skills obsolete.

How to be a happy Software Engineer

Here’s my judgment on how to reduce your imposed syndrome, which in the long-term plays an important factor in our well-being.