Now I'm 28 years old, working at a FAANG as a software engineer. It's been a couple of years that I don't have the same curiosity and passion to learn new technical things, outside of work, as I did before.
Why should you? Outside of work, specifically? You probably work eight to ten hour days and have a commute on top of that.
When you were 13 - 20 years old, did you work on programming for eight to ten hours a day, five days a week, 50ish weeks of the year? Probably not.
You've learned so much about programming in your 28 years. There's arguably infinitely more to learn, but it's far less valuable than what you've already learned.
There's also so much more to learn in life. Hobbies, interests outside of technology, travel, language, relationships.
Personally, my passion for programming was killed almost instantly by my first job. I naively looked forward to a future of cooperative work in a team of skilled peers, building great products. Turns out real work is constantly fighting against the apathy and incompetence of others, and management's goal is to force you into submission rather than enable you.
I've always been baffled by this Silicon Valley attitude that everyone is supposed to have some passion project outside of work. I've never heard of another profession where people work full-time and then go home to do more of the same work. How many lawyers go home and then walk around their neighborhood offering free legal advice? How many CPAs go home and crank out some 'fun' tax returns?
This whole "passionate" thing drives me crazy now.
It kind of made sense in the earlier days of the industry, before the web and software eating the world.
There was little training or certifications. The people who were available were genuinely passionate about it. It was all new and exciting for those who cared, and very niche as far as most people were concerned.
So passionate became the quality that marked you as someone employable.
These days I don't bother looking at jobs that demand passion. I now see it as a synonym for exploitable.
Comments
Now I'm 28 years old, working at a FAANG as a software engineer. It's been a couple of years that I don't have the same curiosity and passion to learn new technical things, outside of work, as I did before.
Why should you? Outside of work, specifically? You probably work eight to ten hour days and have a commute on top of that.
When you were 13 - 20 years old, did you work on programming for eight to ten hours a day, five days a week, 50ish weeks of the year? Probably not.
You've learned so much about programming in your 28 years. There's arguably infinitely more to learn, but it's far less valuable than what you've already learned.
There's also so much more to learn in life. Hobbies, interests outside of technology, travel, language, relationships.
Personally, my passion for programming was killed almost instantly by my first job. I naively looked forward to a future of cooperative work in a team of skilled peers, building great products. Turns out real work is constantly fighting against the apathy and incompetence of others, and management's goal is to force you into submission rather than enable you.
I've always been baffled by this Silicon Valley attitude that everyone is supposed to have some passion project outside of work. I've never heard of another profession where people work full-time and then go home to do more of the same work. How many lawyers go home and then walk around their neighborhood offering free legal advice? How many CPAs go home and crank out some 'fun' tax returns?
This whole "passionate" thing drives me crazy now.
It kind of made sense in the earlier days of the industry, before the web and software eating the world.
There was little training or certifications. The people who were available were genuinely passionate about it. It was all new and exciting for those who cared, and very niche as far as most people were concerned.
So passionate became the quality that marked you as someone employable.
These days I don't bother looking at jobs that demand passion. I now see it as a synonym for exploitable.