I feel very similar so probably don't have great advice, but as someone else mentioned it depends on your particular scenario. For me I have a day job at a company then my own company on the side I do a few hours of work a week for too. After dealing with all that work (much of it involves programming or related efforts), I have nearly zero energy to think about programming outside of that.
I used to have various side projects and programming passions but as soon as I think about them now my mind just numbs out. All the creative programming energy is going into other things.
So I kinda gave up on trying to hobby program or think of it as something I like to do but as work, and when not working try to do anything that is not involved with it basically. I still wonder if sometimes I could find another small business or job that wouldn't involve programming so I could do it as a hobby again but the money is too good to pass up so not sure what I'll end up doing. I feel like if I could retire I'd soon go back to hobby projects and enjoy it more again. Who knows.
My sentiments, precisely, and I’ve found the explanation at least for myself. Picking up a programming project sporadically involves re-learning for rapid proficiency — like context switching but from a hard disk.
Programming in our youth required one language/framework such as C/UNIX or even Visual BASIC. In contrast, to develop something useful today, you need to learn a different language or framework for the UI, services, DB, security, deployment, and others. Each offers its own universe of packages, tools, procedures for debugging, troubleshooting, and building.
One can certainly persevere and complete a full-stack application with the aid of StackOverflow, Dash, and Google searches, but there is no pleasure in it. The drudgery replaces any sense of gathering speed you feel when you’re proficient and rushing with satisfaction toward your next stopping point — before you realize it’s 5:00am.
My guess is that you keep returning to Hacker News in search of that one-stop language which will offer a hobbyist the old-fashioned combo of proficiency and completeness.
I used to have various side projects and programming passions but as soon as I think about them now my mind just numbs out. All the creative programming energy is going into other things.
So I kinda gave up on trying to hobby program or think of it as something I like to do but as work, and when not working try to do anything that is not involved with it basically. I still wonder if sometimes I could find another small business or job that wouldn't involve programming so I could do it as a hobby again but the money is too good to pass up so not sure what I'll end up doing. I feel like if I could retire I'd soon go back to hobby projects and enjoy it more again. Who knows.
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