Burnt Out! -- Help!!! 8

[DeanConsulting]

I have been programming for over 22 years. I am approaching 39 years of age this year. I use to turn out code and ideas with a blinding pace. I use to write software as a hobby, for my shareware business, and for the company that I work for.

Then, one day after working for my current employer for the past 4 years, I do not have the desire or the energy to write software like I use to. Don't get me wrong, I still love it and will remain in the field. I love my current job, and not planning on leaving anytime soon, but working on the same project for almost five years has burnt me out big time.

I guess I have a bad case of burn-out and/or programmer's block.

Anyone out there got any suggestions for me to try to get past this ordeal? It has been hindering me for almost a year and a half.

Thanks in advance,
nb


---------------------------------------
Noble D. Bell

http://www.noblesoftware.com

http://www.noblebell.com

 

[KornGeek]

1. Open up app, start new project.
2. Enter database creation wizard, define fields.
3. Add standard DB aware stringlist or grid component. Tie properties in component to database.
4. Add DB naviation control to form. This happens to have all relevant buttons (scroll back, forward, save, delete, etc)
5. Voila, I got a working recipe program.

I would agree that this procedure is not programming. It is using a program generator. It uses no logic, design, or problem solving skills. At the end, you have a working program, but is it really the program you want? I believe that wizards often provide a good starting point, but seldom provide the right solution.

However, it think it would be folly to make statements assuming that this is how most programs are written these days. That would be akin to saying "Ford released 3 different models of SUV this year. Nobody drives motorcycles anymore." There is no logical connection between the fact that wizards exist and that some people use them and your assumption that nobody programs anymore.

And what kind of experience do you have to be able to make such a statement about my opinion? I see where your posts lie on this board, and that really tells me much. Tell me this though: What difference is there in slapping a few components (controls) onto a form and a few rudimentary statements, and doing something like prepare a Powerpoint presentation or an Excel spreadsheet or even a Word doc? Personally I find no difference whatsoever, having done all of them (VB, Delphi, and Oracle forms if you want to know that side of my experience).

While I'm not overly familiar with AlexCuse's posts on this board lie, I've read many of his posts on other boards, and they've told me much as well. Things such as he is intelligent, considerate, clever, and at times funny.

As far as "slapping a few components on a form and adding a few rudimentary statements", if that's what your programs look like, then I would agree that you're not programming. However, I slap controls on forms, remove much of the time and effort involved in creating a user interface, and focus my time and energy on the complex problems that go on behind the scenes are are typically not visible or appreciated by the end-user. I also know that there are many others that behave similarly. I feel that we are "programming" by any definition of the term that has any merit.

Just because problems can be solved in a more hands-on, detailed manner doesn't make that a good solution. Use C (not Visual C or anything like that, but old school C) to create a windows program and you are likely to spend half of your time on the user interface. The fact that this has been greatly simplified is, in my not-so-humble-at-the-moment opinion, the best thing since soda in a can (sorry, I don't drink much beer).

The more tools that are developed that allow us not to worry about certain parts of our applications, the more time we can spend on the complex or groundbreaking aspects. Thus, innovation is born.

When you want a hamburger, do you :
A) plant some wheat, which you will later turn into flour, which you will in turn bake into a bun
B) plant tomatoes, lettuce, onions, mustard seed, etc. to create your condiments
C) buy a cow, slaughter it, trim off the meat you want, and cook it

or

A) Buy a hamburger.

If you spend all of your time raising livestock and crops for your burger, how will you ever find time to program?

 

[monksnake]

While I'm not overly familiar with AlexCuse's posts on this board lie, I've read many of his posts on other boards, and they've told me much as well. [!]Things such as he is intelligent, considerate, clever, and at times funny.[/!]

You must be smoking crack my good friend.




<.

 

[chrissie1]

You must be smoking crack my good friend.

I was thinking the same thing. Scary.

Christiaan Baes
Belgium

"My old site" - Me

 

[SQLDenis]

well said KornGeek have a star

Denis The SQL Menace
--------------------
SQL Server Code,Tips and Tricks, Performance Tuning
SQLBlog.com, Google Interview Questions

 

[onpnt]

Yes, well said KornGeek. Another from me

[sub]____________ signature below ______________
You are a amateur developer until you realize all your code sucks.
Jeff Atwood[/sub]

 

[AlexCuse]

Come on guys, usually soft drugs are enough to get someone to say something nice about me.

Ignorance of certain subjects is a great part of wisdom

 

[AlexCuse]

ps - thanks for saying something nice about me. the check's in the mail ;-)

And the burger analogy is certainly at least a 3-star post

Ignorance of certain subjects is a great part of wisdom

 

[onpnt]

To be honest this thread is kind of out there. I thought about replying a few times but it seemed futile and just going to start into a flame fest because you have some of the brightest and most intelligent developers in the world all looking at this forum. They are going to see this line, "I'd go as far as to say that no one truly programs anymore." and just blow up inside. Programming in this day and age is far more advanced than it has ever been and I've been doing it for enough years (in .NET and all those other drag'n'drop IDE's) to know if you think you can develop a business critical application (or systems integration application/interface) by using wizards then you're on some good stuff.



[sub]____________ signature below ______________
You are a amateur developer until you realize all your code sucks.
Jeff Atwood[/sub]

 

[DeanConsulting]

Ok, now back to the question of my post....

I guess I have a bad case of burn-out and/or programmer's block.

Anyone out there got any suggestions for me to try to get past this ordeal? It has been hindering me for almost a year and a half.

---------------------------------------
Noble D. Bell

http://www.noblesoftware.com

http://www.noblebell.com

 

[monksnake]

I'd be burned-out by all the flames that have been thrown in this thread.

<.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Dean - I think at heart is the fact that you've been working on the same project for so long. I wonder if you're not burned out on programming, but burned out from that project, or maybe it's a little of both.

I think there are two approaches that you can consider. First, take a vacation. Take a week off, preferably two, and during that time, don't even turn on a machine. Don't look at a monitor, completely get away from technology.

The second approach is to find a project that you want to do; doing some programming that has absolutely nothing to do with any client, without deadlines, without any for lack of a better term, commercial pressures. It needs to be all about programming something for yourself, totally for fun - purely for fun.


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[onpnt]

I often get to your point Dean. I went so far as to start educating myself on database administration and even studied on my own to get a few certifications just for the fun of it. Several months ago I had enough of programming and wasn't thrilled any longer. I almost left completely but then I remembered a few years ago the passion I had and the reasoning of why I worked 9-10 hours a day and then the minute I got home jumped rate back on. So I started digging hard back into newer technologies. WPF, Web Services (not so new), XML, utilizing database servers with the power they really have from a programming stand point and on. This gave me that thrill in my day again and even knowing my daily walk through the same projects and same frustrating backwards processes they would not put effort into fixing I had the after hours thrill of programming in these newer technologies.

My point is work is work. Most of us I really think have our passion strengthened after hours in the new things we learn to make a machine do. You never know, those programs you write on your own may take you places you never dreamed of in development.

[sub]____________ signature below ______________
You are a amateur developer until you realize all your code sucks.
Jeff Atwood[/sub]

 

[Glenn9999]

Monksnake said:

Glenn, because that one person wasn't smart enough to find a value in an array doesn't mean that programmers as a whole don't know what they are doing.

I will admit that competence levels at work are probably at an all-time low, but I wouldn't blame that on education.

It's not just one example, but many like that where I'd have to ask of the person's boss "How did they get the job without even knowing the most rudimentary things?". Another example question that happened multiple times before my eyes in forums: "How do I send something to the printer?" For the particular language in question (COBOL), this is the most rudimentary thing in the language and is the first thing taught in any class. Now how is this person a working programmer anyplace? I'll get more at your comments in answering other people's comments below about educational level. But I definitely have encountered more than my fair share of "professionals" on forums and in the work place that definitely fit the category of incompetent in whatever category they are supposed to be professional in.

AlexCuse:

But it is important to remember not to let a few poorly trained programmers ruin the reputation of a whole field.

See comments above on this one. There are a few competent individuals out there, but in my experience the old 10-90 rule applies. 10% of the people seem to do 90% of the real work in any business enterprise. The other 90% seem to float by based on the work of the 10% and on those in forums that seem to see no problem in answering posts that are more "Do my work for me" than "Help get me through this snag I have in my work".

AlexCuse:

I have taken one programming class in my whole life

In reading and writing these posts I think back to two instances when I was in classes when it comes to describing general education level.

1. The VB class I took once upon a time. I think back (and glance through a few of the programs) and a super-majority (about 95% of it) involves little beyond things like "if BoldCheckBox.Checked then Label.Font.Bold := fsBold" in the way of logic and held maybe no more than 15 lines of actual programming code. The other 5% which required logical forethought happened to be deemed graduate work. Curious what passed for "education" there. Even more curious when I found out later (not in lecture but semi-publicly) that only one person in the entire course managed to do every program correctly.

2. A test question in another course asked to describe the best way to write something that would take a date and put it into words (08-01 = "August First"). It was announced in lecture that 98% of the class would have written 366 conditional statements. Definitely indicates a problem, IMO.

I think the example you cite though is a problem of someone who has never been taught anything, and is probably incredibly unqualified for their position.

There have been enough of those cases I've seen that I would definitely deem it as "scary". At least in my experience, more the norm than the exception.

 

[onpnt]

Let's stick with DeanConsulting getting back on the reason the thread was started.

If further discussion is required start your own thread

[sub]____________ signature below ______________
You are a amateur developer until you realize all your code sucks.
Jeff Atwood[/sub]

 

[AlexCuse]

Noble - The java class that I took got me out of a similar slump. Coding for business rules can get extremely kind of dull, so it was fun for me to work on the silly problems presented in class. So I guess learning new things is usually what I turn to to get myself back to feeling excited about work. Usually I learn something new, and then shortly thereafter find someplace that I can use it at work.

Answering questions on Tek-Tips helps me too, it gives me a break from thinking about whatever nonsense I am dealing with, and lets me think about someone else's nonsense.

Good Luck

Alex

Ignorance of certain subjects is a great part of wisdom

 

[Hap007]

Dear Noble,

Perhaps you just need to get the ‘Juices’ flowing again.

I too have had days, even weeks like you describe, but never a year.

I have found that we, as humans, can handle a certain number of tasks or problems at one time, but add one more to the total and you become overwhelmed, and distracted.

I suggest that you might take a little time, clear your desk, organize and file all your projects. Then step away from the computer for a couple of days, maybe even weeks if possible. No email, no internet, no programming. Perhaps go on vacation.

You might be surprised how quickly your batteries get recharged, and once the juices start back up, you will be anxious to get back. If the batteries never get charged back up, the perhaps you need a more permanent change in your life.

When you do come back, lighten the load a bit, and take on one or two fewer projects at the same time. Perhaps getting a new PC with less installed, or reformat the old one. Make life just a little less demanding.

Been there, done that, and came back.

Good Luck,
Hap…


Access Developer

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[weirdcpu]

Hello,

I post here very rarely as usually people discuss jobs and situations very different from my environnement in France.

But here i m able to connect ;-)

As a old analyst and actual system admin and an amateur game prog. for more than 20 years i would say that today professionnal programming and amateur programming are two very different fields.

In fact usually you have to build two sets of knowledge : one for professionnal activity and one for amateur activity.

Except in the most basic skills ( e.g. : C, SQL, organisation...) you very rarely can use the knowledge of one field in another situation. If professionnaly you learn to do Oracle forms or ssh connections management it will be of no use to be able to build programs for fun with OpenGL or SDL ( just two examples ).
Today if you want to have fun with amateur programming you must choose a specialized field ( exemple graphic programmin g in games ) and choose some very simple goals ( ex : 2D surface programming not quake or half life graphical engine ). From this you have to reserve room in your house to documentary library just for your hobby ( in this amazon is your friend ).
Today if you want to be reasonnably competent in your work as a professionnal computer specialist the first step is a deep knowledge of the tools and of the process in use in your work. In this RAD tools and in fact all tools are great helpers when you have deadlines to respect.

So the two fields are very separate and are further apart as time passing ...

As for the internet documentation ( google and friends ) well it's free so as say in french "vous en avez pour votre argent " . Nothing can replace hours of practice and reflexion with some books open , being for hobby fun or professionnal goal.

 

[mikepf]

Do more projects as an analyst not as a programmer. Be a consultant analyst to other companies rather than to just one. Cheers

 

[jr8rdt]

Just take a long vacation or sabbatical. Go somewhere far. somewhere different from your ordinary life.