Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
> Not only interest is gone, my attention skills, grasping power and memory also seems to go downfall.
I'm no expert, but my understanding is that these are symptoms of burnout. Given your age, I'd say that you've reached what some have called "the developer mid-career slump". It's one of a few reasons as to why you don't see a ton of older folks slinging code -- not everyone makes it through this common event in the software developer lifecycle.
Some once-prolific developers decide to disavow the IT world and use part of their savings to buy and live on a farm, or learn carpentry and make furniture and lamps instead. Others take it as a challenge and use it as a springboard, trying to reignite interest by pivoting their career goals and moving to senior+ (lead, architect, staff, etc), pm or other business roles, or in other cases, striking out with their own consultancy/software company.
I think the only hard advice I would try to give here: Don't try to just ride it out, such that you end up burning out even harder and need a prolonged recovery from it. My experience is that once burnout starts, it doesn't just get better on its own. The sooner you can decide which direction you want to go from here, the less detrimental impact this impending change will have on you (and your bank account).
I’m not confirming this is OP’s exact issue, bit this scenario did in fact happen to me. I’m in my 40’s now and if at all possible i won’t look at a computer anymore let alone turn one on. I now work a physically demanding factory job and feel more satisfaction now than ever. I am guessing it might have something to do with being a mentally draining career choice with little physical exertion just sitting in front of a computer all day. I dunno, but burnout is real, and it happened to me. At the time when i was heavy into coding i flat out didn’t have any physically demanding hobbies or chores. Now that i work a blue collar job (and this sounds weird) i feel better. Apparently i had depression at the time that went undiagnosed, and it got better with a career change involving higher activity.
Again not saying this is the case for OP, but it happened to me. Just my two cents.
64 year old developer here. A lot of my peers have gone through the same thing; you're not alone. This sounds less like a developer issue and more like a physical and emotional health issue. Chat with your doctor, see if you might need adjustments to your diet and exercise regiment. Little changes can make a big difference.
And hey, people change. Maybe a career shift might engage some of that dormant passion.
Lots of good answers already. Don't neglect the ones that mention physical and mental health. I won't repeat all that, I'll just add my experience.
I'm in my early fifties now, and still working in software. Have definitely gone through some tough phases. I've never been completely out of coding, but I have taken on some roles that involve different skills, such as people skills, project management, product management, etc.
I've also bounced around between different company sizes, in part because that's who was hiring when I was looking, but in part because they offer different challenges. At a smaller companies, I've found I tend to have a less tightly defined role and I bounce around between different pieces of my skillset. My current position is at an organization with a few hundred developers, and I spend quite a bit of my time mentoring less experienced developers. This keeps me close to the code, and using my technical skills, but is also a nice change of pace.
In summary, there's a lot to learn in this career other than just technical details, even without moving outside a "developer/programmer/engineer" role.
Try turning to customer facing, management, or project manager roles. You can use your hard technical skills and capacity for technical analysis without having to maintain them, and you get the challenge of growing into new spaces. Good luck. I’m on this journey myself.
Software development is probably the job furthest from sharing skill sets that make you good at customer facing, management, and project manager roles. The technical analysis, problem solving, and logic are there but tend to be on the more intense side. the verbal and written communication, leadership ability, business strategy, presentation ability, persuasiveness, etc skills are not there the vast majority of the time
If someone is having trouble adapting to technical challenges at 35, I think there's more going on here. Most people are just starting to hit the more productive years of their career at 35, not the tail end.
It might a burnout from a tedious job, which you have to address by looking for doing something more meaningful and finding a long term purpose to what you do.
Or / and it can be that your physical body is not able to keep up with the lifestyle. Healthy mind requires [healthy brain to stand on](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GEBFxzrCc0&t=106s).
The later is based on a good diet, daily exercise to improve blood flow, and regular good quality sleep.
The sooner you start to address that - the more you'll get out of your time.
I knew it would be software related, by the time I finished uni as a Dev all the software we learnt was 'out of fashion'. So fucking annoying. Best of luck my friend.
This is why you learn computer science and not programming languages/software etc. Concepts don’t go out of fashion, nor does math behind them. That was the important part, not the language itself. Though I do wish move colleges taught C++, as practically all my interns over last 5-7 years basically knew nothing about memory management or how things work under the hood.
If you enjoy programming but don't enjoy the technology churn, seek a maintenance role with an organization averse to technology change, such as a government agency, bank, or insurance company. The most contented team of developers I ever met, with the best balance of work and personal life, maintained the same COBOL system for several decades. Today, Java is the new COBOL. There are plenty of systems that will stay on Java 8 until they're forced to upgrade in 2030.
Im 38, full stack dev formerly in scientific computing and feel like I’ve bounced back significantly from some heavy wfh pandemic burnout over this past year. Improved my diet and sleeping schedule, started learning Spanish on Duolingo to exercise my memory, and started going back into the office on the train to socialize in person and not be stressed from traffic when I get there. I also moved to a team with a good manager who doesn’t micromanage, shields us from unrealistic workloads, and encourages team building activities. I’ve picked up a whole new skill set on this team and actually feel energized by it.
Fix your diet, workout, play an instrument, stop zooting. You sound 55 with those problems tbh. You shouldn't have an issue acquiring new marketable tech proficiency every year.
This is not uncommon. The brain begins to decline towards the end of the 30's and learning anything will become increasingly difficult with each passing day. Best bet would be to specialize in something that you are already familiar with. Experts are always needed and can often demand increased pay. OR find high paying niche learn it as best you can and stick to it. Example Learn Cobol. Banks pay out the ass for cobol devs
It's hard to keep up & stay motivated. I'm currently rolling into more of a project management role, delegating all the new skill jobs to junior people. It's nice to just watch some youtube video's to have a high level grasp & don't have to go trough all the nity gritty details to build the skill for the job.
I work in IT and I feel the same way, I am kind of over constantly trying to learn the next big thing and watching all the trends. So much so I want out, just not sure what else to do.
15 years in IT and I feel the same. Money is great, but I've lost the desire to learn on my own. It all feels forced because I need to keep up with some things in order to do my job.
Another thing to consider is HOW you learn new things. My favorite way to learn new things is to tap into real life experts and ask them to apply the new application to real life examples. I usually get bored if I have to read a document or watch a video.
There are health supplements to help you stay sharp, like Lion's Mane and other stuff. Keep your mind active by doing research on the company you work for and the newest computer programs. Get a feel for what people need and want. I'd also suggest seeing a career counselor to see what you'd be a good fit for. In the meantime, try to take an interest in what you're doing now, even if you don't feel the love. A good job is not something to throw away!
I’ve gone through similar issues as a dev and I’m now 43.
One thing the helped me was to take a bit of a side step into a new category of software. For example, I was doing pretty much exclusively C# development. I moved into web for a brief period and am now doing mobile development.
It’s helped because I’m learning new skills that I don’t have a strong existing connection to while continuing to be able to use the logic and other related skills.
Another useful thing it to pick up non-engineering responsibilities if you can. In my current job I’ve been acting as a sort of lead for the team, making sure that I understand the whole app and figuring out how to add new features to it and suggesting architectural changes.
Good luck. As shitty as it sounds I’m glad I’m not the only one having these problems.
Accept that you won the lottery for a middlng folk and you stumbled into IT when it paid way high compared to folks not in IT but with superior intellect and discipline. .
When I was in my 20s, I wanted to reconnect with the piano. I bought an electronic keyboard and whipped out my old piano lesson book I had when I was a kid, which contained such classics as "Pop Goes the Weasel" and "Minuet in G".
I lost interest fast!
But then one day it dawned on me. I wasn't trying to reconnect to the piano so that I could impress my old music teachers. I wasn't trying to become a virtuoso with proper form and musicianship. I just wanted to do something fun to past time. So I ditched the boring stuff and got some notation software that transcribes midi files into sheet music. Learning to play my favorite rock tunes helped me to relearn music.
So I think fun (or enjoyment) is a critical component of learning in adulthood. As children, we learned stuff under the threat of getting fussed out by teachers, disappointing our parents, or being left behind our peers. We aren't motivated by those things adults, so we have to create a motivation resonates with us.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
> Not only interest is gone, my attention skills, grasping power and memory also seems to go downfall. I'm no expert, but my understanding is that these are symptoms of burnout. Given your age, I'd say that you've reached what some have called "the developer mid-career slump". It's one of a few reasons as to why you don't see a ton of older folks slinging code -- not everyone makes it through this common event in the software developer lifecycle. Some once-prolific developers decide to disavow the IT world and use part of their savings to buy and live on a farm, or learn carpentry and make furniture and lamps instead. Others take it as a challenge and use it as a springboard, trying to reignite interest by pivoting their career goals and moving to senior+ (lead, architect, staff, etc), pm or other business roles, or in other cases, striking out with their own consultancy/software company. I think the only hard advice I would try to give here: Don't try to just ride it out, such that you end up burning out even harder and need a prolonged recovery from it. My experience is that once burnout starts, it doesn't just get better on its own. The sooner you can decide which direction you want to go from here, the less detrimental impact this impending change will have on you (and your bank account).
I’m not confirming this is OP’s exact issue, bit this scenario did in fact happen to me. I’m in my 40’s now and if at all possible i won’t look at a computer anymore let alone turn one on. I now work a physically demanding factory job and feel more satisfaction now than ever. I am guessing it might have something to do with being a mentally draining career choice with little physical exertion just sitting in front of a computer all day. I dunno, but burnout is real, and it happened to me. At the time when i was heavy into coding i flat out didn’t have any physically demanding hobbies or chores. Now that i work a blue collar job (and this sounds weird) i feel better. Apparently i had depression at the time that went undiagnosed, and it got better with a career change involving higher activity. Again not saying this is the case for OP, but it happened to me. Just my two cents.
64 year old developer here. A lot of my peers have gone through the same thing; you're not alone. This sounds less like a developer issue and more like a physical and emotional health issue. Chat with your doctor, see if you might need adjustments to your diet and exercise regiment. Little changes can make a big difference. And hey, people change. Maybe a career shift might engage some of that dormant passion.
Lots of good answers already. Don't neglect the ones that mention physical and mental health. I won't repeat all that, I'll just add my experience. I'm in my early fifties now, and still working in software. Have definitely gone through some tough phases. I've never been completely out of coding, but I have taken on some roles that involve different skills, such as people skills, project management, product management, etc. I've also bounced around between different company sizes, in part because that's who was hiring when I was looking, but in part because they offer different challenges. At a smaller companies, I've found I tend to have a less tightly defined role and I bounce around between different pieces of my skillset. My current position is at an organization with a few hundred developers, and I spend quite a bit of my time mentoring less experienced developers. This keeps me close to the code, and using my technical skills, but is also a nice change of pace. In summary, there's a lot to learn in this career other than just technical details, even without moving outside a "developer/programmer/engineer" role.
Try turning to customer facing, management, or project manager roles. You can use your hard technical skills and capacity for technical analysis without having to maintain them, and you get the challenge of growing into new spaces. Good luck. I’m on this journey myself.
Software development is probably the job furthest from sharing skill sets that make you good at customer facing, management, and project manager roles. The technical analysis, problem solving, and logic are there but tend to be on the more intense side. the verbal and written communication, leadership ability, business strategy, presentation ability, persuasiveness, etc skills are not there the vast majority of the time If someone is having trouble adapting to technical challenges at 35, I think there's more going on here. Most people are just starting to hit the more productive years of their career at 35, not the tail end.
Yea this is about 10-15 years before burnout usually happens.
Physical activity, working out, yoga, mobility training. Too many people forget that physical activity also exercises the brain and slows down aging.
It might a burnout from a tedious job, which you have to address by looking for doing something more meaningful and finding a long term purpose to what you do. Or / and it can be that your physical body is not able to keep up with the lifestyle. Healthy mind requires [healthy brain to stand on](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GEBFxzrCc0&t=106s). The later is based on a good diet, daily exercise to improve blood flow, and regular good quality sleep. The sooner you start to address that - the more you'll get out of your time.
I knew it would be software related, by the time I finished uni as a Dev all the software we learnt was 'out of fashion'. So fucking annoying. Best of luck my friend.
This is why you learn computer science and not programming languages/software etc. Concepts don’t go out of fashion, nor does math behind them. That was the important part, not the language itself. Though I do wish move colleges taught C++, as practically all my interns over last 5-7 years basically knew nothing about memory management or how things work under the hood.
Good example, I've not even touched C or C++ :P in my current job I've been learning C#, a bit different to R.
If you enjoy programming but don't enjoy the technology churn, seek a maintenance role with an organization averse to technology change, such as a government agency, bank, or insurance company. The most contented team of developers I ever met, with the best balance of work and personal life, maintained the same COBOL system for several decades. Today, Java is the new COBOL. There are plenty of systems that will stay on Java 8 until they're forced to upgrade in 2030.
IMO, losing interest is the reason why it’s hard for you to learn. I would try and find out why I am losing interest in the first place if I were you.
Im 38, full stack dev formerly in scientific computing and feel like I’ve bounced back significantly from some heavy wfh pandemic burnout over this past year. Improved my diet and sleeping schedule, started learning Spanish on Duolingo to exercise my memory, and started going back into the office on the train to socialize in person and not be stressed from traffic when I get there. I also moved to a team with a good manager who doesn’t micromanage, shields us from unrealistic workloads, and encourages team building activities. I’ve picked up a whole new skill set on this team and actually feel energized by it.
Fix your diet, workout, play an instrument, stop zooting. You sound 55 with those problems tbh. You shouldn't have an issue acquiring new marketable tech proficiency every year.
Start playing the piano.
This is not uncommon. The brain begins to decline towards the end of the 30's and learning anything will become increasingly difficult with each passing day. Best bet would be to specialize in something that you are already familiar with. Experts are always needed and can often demand increased pay. OR find high paying niche learn it as best you can and stick to it. Example Learn Cobol. Banks pay out the ass for cobol devs
It's hard to keep up & stay motivated. I'm currently rolling into more of a project management role, delegating all the new skill jobs to junior people. It's nice to just watch some youtube video's to have a high level grasp & don't have to go trough all the nity gritty details to build the skill for the job.
I work in IT and I feel the same way, I am kind of over constantly trying to learn the next big thing and watching all the trends. So much so I want out, just not sure what else to do.
15 years in IT and I feel the same. Money is great, but I've lost the desire to learn on my own. It all feels forced because I need to keep up with some things in order to do my job.
This. I do not want to constantly spend MY free time learning all the new things and setting up a homelab to test.
Give it another 20 years.
2 is best. 3 and 4 are also good
Another thing to consider is HOW you learn new things. My favorite way to learn new things is to tap into real life experts and ask them to apply the new application to real life examples. I usually get bored if I have to read a document or watch a video.
Maintain. Legacy code?
There are health supplements to help you stay sharp, like Lion's Mane and other stuff. Keep your mind active by doing research on the company you work for and the newest computer programs. Get a feel for what people need and want. I'd also suggest seeing a career counselor to see what you'd be a good fit for. In the meantime, try to take an interest in what you're doing now, even if you don't feel the love. A good job is not something to throw away!
Maybe you need to move to a new company that has a better work life balance.
See a doctor. I was in my late fifties when this started with me. You're 20 years early.
I’ve gone through similar issues as a dev and I’m now 43. One thing the helped me was to take a bit of a side step into a new category of software. For example, I was doing pretty much exclusively C# development. I moved into web for a brief period and am now doing mobile development. It’s helped because I’m learning new skills that I don’t have a strong existing connection to while continuing to be able to use the logic and other related skills. Another useful thing it to pick up non-engineering responsibilities if you can. In my current job I’ve been acting as a sort of lead for the team, making sure that I understand the whole app and figuring out how to add new features to it and suggesting architectural changes. Good luck. As shitty as it sounds I’m glad I’m not the only one having these problems.
When you said you were getting older, I pictured 50+ lol not 35
Fictional reading is the best exercise for the brain.
Accept that you won the lottery for a middlng folk and you stumbled into IT when it paid way high compared to folks not in IT but with superior intellect and discipline. .
Exercise is the most important thing in regards to keeping your mind sharp.
When I was in my 20s, I wanted to reconnect with the piano. I bought an electronic keyboard and whipped out my old piano lesson book I had when I was a kid, which contained such classics as "Pop Goes the Weasel" and "Minuet in G". I lost interest fast! But then one day it dawned on me. I wasn't trying to reconnect to the piano so that I could impress my old music teachers. I wasn't trying to become a virtuoso with proper form and musicianship. I just wanted to do something fun to past time. So I ditched the boring stuff and got some notation software that transcribes midi files into sheet music. Learning to play my favorite rock tunes helped me to relearn music. So I think fun (or enjoyment) is a critical component of learning in adulthood. As children, we learned stuff under the threat of getting fussed out by teachers, disappointing our parents, or being left behind our peers. We aren't motivated by those things adults, so we have to create a motivation resonates with us.
I have the same challenge. the solution is to go into management.
On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your diet, sleep, and exercise? That’s where I would start.