Why There’s so Much Burnout in Software and What To Do About It
This is a post in my occasional series, Notes to a Young Software Engineer. Sign up here.
I was programming alone in my apartment — the GPU heating my cold apartment, a few days stubble on my face, and my last human interaction eight days before — when burnout hit me.
At the time, I was attempting to will my 3D printing CAD startup into existence with a remote team. Initially, working out of my apartment meant I could code without interruption. Then the isolation became stifling. Days would go by without seeing another human, other than a sporadic Skype call.
Given our limited funding, I did more than I bargained for. Not just the backend coding and algorithmic work I so enjoyed, but the frontend development, the marketing, and the fulfilment.
Interacting with our users even became discouraging. I would get angry emails when our free software — which we had built for fun — was sporadically offline.
“I appreciate your explanation [why the website was down for 24 minutes] — and the fact that it’s free — but if it isn’t accessible it’s of no value.”
Eventually, my productivity ground to a halt. It took me six months to recover.
