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How to Prevent or Recover from Developer Burnout

Anastasia πŸ„πŸ»β€β™€οΈ on June 20, 2021

Most ambitious developers follow the same pattern: they do 9-to-5 jobs, participate in hackathons and events, build their personal brands on social...
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creativezoller profile image
Zoller

As someone who already had a burnout 5 years ago and because of that almost ended the software engineer carreer path... Well I can relate easily and agree most of the listed points. Just a sidenote, my cure was based on not working for some months, having a lot of sun on my skin, going out to parties for some weeks and read a lot of science fiction. Also playing some of my favourite games and going abroad to visit some cities helped a lot :)

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dastasoft

Wow, what a great article, congratulations! Reading the article I was thinking about an additional issue.

I have seen that in some cases, some developers try to build their personal brand by exposing themselves on Twitter, Facebook or a personal website. This all works on numbers of likes, views, traffic, etc. Those numbers can be really influential in our lives and throw us faster into the symptoms you mention.

For example if you have high view/likes numbers for weeks or a tweet is doing really well, etc. and suddenly it goes down, if you are worried about those numbers your brain will send less dopamine and you will experience symptoms very similar to the ones you explain, for example your job, your personal project or whatever you are working on will seem less important in that situation with less dopamine.

So the point I would add is to watch your social exposure and don't overestimate what those numbers are, because it will lend itself to burnout faster even if you follow the recommendations of a good lifestyle.

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Tawaliou

Nice article. Currently I'm facing this problem. I don't already fall in burnoutπŸ˜„ but I think i'm near to it. I ask myself many questions, about my next careers (i'm currenlty a student at internship) and so ... I notice many points in my life when reading your article. Thank.

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Ross • Edited

Very thorough article and really good advice! Some of this stuff is easy to 'put off' or 'de-prioritise' but it is so important to look after your self.

I found the article you linked to under cnbc.com/2020/07/28/remote-work-bu... really interesting also - it helped frame my view on remote working in a way that I previously hadn't considered.

Thank you for taking the time to write this 😊

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coffeestasia profile image
Anastasia πŸ„πŸ»β€β™€οΈ

Thank you Ross πŸ™

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Oscar Ortiz

Such a well put article! I honestly see every point you’ve made on your post happen to me throughout my time as a developer. I’m so glad I’m not the only one that goes through this and it’s a Norma thing.

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coffeestasia profile image
Anastasia πŸ„πŸ»β€β™€οΈ

Thank you Oscar πŸ™

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DeChamp

You really nailed this. I was able to totally relate to this and not only relate when hot confirmation on some of my own thoughts on this topic. Some of the things I am experiencing now, are probably due to burnout and I didn’t connect that two. Thanks again!

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Daragh Byrne

Brilliant writeup. I say that as someone who spends a lot of time writing and speaking about developer burnout. This is very comprehensive.

It tallies with the results of a survey I ran last year about developer burnout.

One thing I've found useful is reconstructing my inner dialogue with myself. I give some advice here.

If you want to try the advice about learning how to meditate, there's always my course here, specifically for programmers.

gumroad.com/products/KYjxv

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kethmars

Such an important topic and a well-written article to give an overview. Thank you!

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Anastasia πŸ„πŸ»β€β™€οΈ

Thank you 😊

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Yorley Reyes Garcia

cool article my friend, we should some of these advices for have un job and life more productivity.

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AyobamiMichael

Well articulated, thank you for sharing.

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Tyler Hawkins

This was incredibly thorough and helpful, thank you.

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