How I Restored My Passion For Programming & You Can Too
I recently went through a phase where I lost all interest in programming. I heard colleagues, seniors & managers tell me that “you must learn in your free time to keep up with the latest technologies” or “you must be willing to put in extra hours in your initial years”. After all, isn’t that what a “real developer” do?
Fuck, no, I don’t want to spend all my free time coding. I quickly assumed I was just not cut out for it, or maybe it was a case of burnout.
Luckily, it turns out it’s much more common in our field than in others. There is this tyranny of passion. It’s so strong that it freaks newcomers out. I used the same word in my title, passion, but the nuance is that for me it’s an interest that doesn’t overpower my other interests.
I want to tell newcomers like me….
“Keep going; don’t change your path.” そのままでいいがな”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life
Yes, sometimes you can be done with it. Yes, your salary could be more important. And it is absolutely OK to want to finish every evening by 5 pm. Don’t worry about any baseless allegories regarding passion, talent or what not. Instead try a few more different ways of learning. Too often the problem is just in how you’re learning. Here are 5 ways that worked for me.
- Try to engage with developer community
It’s probably easier to stay interested if you’re doing it along with other people.
I am very socially motivated and when I recognised that I am losing interest in coding, I tried to get in touch with other developers (for example in local meetup groups). The refreshing perspective helped me to generate great ideas for side projects and motivated me to code.
I used to challenge my friends to solve programming bugs & asked them to come up with new amazing ideas and tricks. I would love if my friends tell me there is a more efficient way to implement a functionality.
As quoted-
“simply interacting with others — playing a game, for example — offers new stimuli and helps prevent the depression that can come with solitude.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
Whenever i felt low or demotivated I used to talk to my fellows. Take their experience as learning and share mine too.
2. Program For Yourself
Programming as an outlet for your creativity will guide you to create anything in your mind.
Here is a quote from one of my favourite books-
“Be led by your curiosity, and keep busy by doing things that fill you with meaning and happiness.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life
You might also be able to create something that no one has ever seen before or make a difference in people’s lives. Engagement seems to be greater if one’s working on a project one cares about.
You can start with a language that is really versatile like JavaScript. You can create anything with the right lines of code — If you love to read, you can use it to build web apps, desktop apps and now mobile apps with React Native to write your own book reviews.
3. Take a break
Hours worked = Productivity? Think Again..
Working hard for unreasonably long hours might drain out your energy, leave you completely consumed and unable to see the opportunities or add creativity. It is of utmost importance to add adequate ‘ME TIME’ which will help you rejuvenate your energy to propel productivity to the next level.
As quoted -
“25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of rest for each cycle,”
“Being in a hurry is inversely proportional to quality of”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
So take a break and remind yourself why you started it in the first place. Visualise your goal and possibilities you will have if you keep going.
4. Streamline Your Progress
It is a bad idea to assume you will be an expert programmer within a few weeks. Instead appreciate incremental progress and see how the compounding effect works for you.
“which help us enter a state of flow. When we have only a big goal in front of us, we might feel lost or overwhelmed by it; rituals help us by giving us the process, the substeps, on the path to achieving a goal. When confronted with a big goal, try to break it down into parts and then attack each part one by one.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
As quoted above, do not work on everything at once. It will be best for you to divide your project into modules to achieve it in a streamlined fashion. For example, if you are building a mobile app, you might want to work on the UI and UX first, then work on backend and api integration.
5. Practice
When it seems that you are losing interest remind yourself that interest comes with practice.
You work, you search, you try to understand, you struggle for hours but it doesn’t work..
All of a sudden, you understand what’s happening ! You make some changes, reload and BOOM, IT WORKS!
You know that feeling. When you get good at something, you enjoy it. You feel confident.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
As quoted, Practice leads to excellence and excellence fuels interest.
