I'm finding tech very boring lately. Nothing seems that exciting or innovative. Just the same stuff with different flavours or efficiency levels.
So, is this a me thing or do you feel the same way?
And if you don't, what excites you?
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Top comments (37)
a few things are interesting to me.
Hopefully the WebAsembly Systems Interface will become a common thing.
Container like structures within WASI are pretty cool and you get separated environment for each layer/module.
I am hopeful for the WebAssembly Server side. It will work as a nano-container / micro-container. I see it as progressing of virtualization i.e. virtual machine -> container -> micro/nano container -> WebAssembly server side.
I'll take a look!
V might be the one I was searching for π€
Thanks for sharing π
V looks simple and it has almost everything but the problem is language is sill under development so you can use it for learning / POC / experiment with it but I don't think it's ready for production.
Vlang is very interesting
No. That's not interesting anymore.
I'm not bored of technology.
The other day I was telling someone that I wanted to get into knitting and he started telling me all about what different yarns are good for, and things like it's easier to crochet a sock than knit one, and how his grandmother taught him the Portuguese style of knitting which is relatively rare (to be honest I didn't realise there was more than one way to knit, so I was flabbergasted).
I've learned how to make paper, so I'm going to learn how to do book binding.
Both very exciting things to me, although centuries old, so you can't call them innovative.
On the other hand, where I work we produce physical devices. (I don't want to give much away about who I work for, because I don't want to accidentally get in trouble if I say something untoward, not because it's secret or anything.) So we have to innovate to stay in the market. It's an exciting place to be.
Are you in a rut creativity-wise?
Interesting! I guess I am in some ways, I'm struggling to find things that excite me after a decade as a professional dev. After a while it all feels very similar, with different goals and objectives , but very similar.
It's interesting to feel that way with all the AI stuff going on β not saying it's not valid, but it is interesting.
Yup, AI is one of the only things I could say I'm excited about. But even then.
Let me reformulate question: Is tech boring or projects boring?
It does not matter if your hammer has black or yellow handle, more important is what you are building using it.
For example I'm a Perl developer. Perl is very stagnant, with stale ecosystem. It is paired with MySQL/PostgreSQL. So the most boring tech you can imagine. But everyday challenges in product I develop are mind-bending and keep me excited.
So maybe it is time for you to find new challenges? Instead of doing web application that duplicates functionality of 1000s applications already on the market try for example software for cars or robotics (just the example, I have no Idea what you are doing on daily basis).
Hammers are rarely exciting.
Yeah, I'm starting to believe you might be right. Thing is I've done many many (many) different types of projects over the last 10 years.
I've always loved to learn new things, but I've been struggling to find challenges lately.
Maybe I'm just exhausted of coding tbh.
Coding is a golden cage. Sometimes when I'm overworked I think about switching to a simple physical job for a while. Something so dumb and repetitive that I could switch my brain to idle mode instead of crunching next coding problem every day. But this will inevitably result in huge salary drop. This may be the main reason why so many programmers experience burnout but they keep going despite exhaustion and lack of excitement
I understand that feeling very well. But in my case the salary was never the main motivator, it was that it gave me free time and allowed me to do what I loved: coding. But I could see how a bigger salary might help π
If you find tech boring (all due respect) it's because you're not pushing yourself enough. Seriously, learn a new programming language. Even better learn a new paradigm. Done OOP? Learn functional! Done OOP and Functional? Learn stack based languages. Ever tried learning prolog or other such logic-based languages? That's something that will turn your head inside out--in the best sort of way.
Beyond software development there's formal methods and formal modeling. Look at TLA+ and/or Alloy. They're both free and they're great ways to expand your thinking as a dev. They enable you to describe a system in a pretty rigorous way without code and hence you can check assumptions and constraints before one line of code is written.
Another thing to consider--look at formal proof systems. Coq, Agda, Isabelle HOL etc. again are some very cool ways to greatly enhance your understanding of what can be done in software.
There's so much to learn in software development and tech that you could easily spend the rest of your life learning and not make even a tiny scratch. I think boring is the last adjective I'd use for tech. But if you're just playing with one language and looking at the latest incarnation of their libraries and you're just working on one type of project then yes it can get very boring indeed.
Fair point. Thing is I've tried almost every paradigm and many languages. After a while it all feels repetitive. Unless the language is a completely new paradigm, but even then.
So yeah, it's not that I just use one language or work on just one project. I will take a look at the suggestions you've given π
Tried almost every paradigm?
All due respect, there's a large difference between dabbling in an idea (or a paradigm) and doing serious, non-trivial work with it. If you've tried paradigms but not written anything serious in them then you haven't really given yourself enough of a chance to let the paradigm change your approach to problem solving.
The very smart Bruce Tate in Seven Languages in Seven Weeks set himself the task of writing a Sudoko solver in each of those languages. I think if a developer sets his- (or her-) self a non-trivial task to do in a language then it's worth the time. Something that requires debugging seems to meet the definition of non-trivial at least for me.
Truly digging in and learning new approaches and ideas really keeps me from being bored but YMMV.
I've been fortunate that my job allowed me to work on very different types of projects and that I did more of that on the side. Of course not all paradigms, and I don't know all of them to perfection. But enough to be able to get stuff done, or enough to pick up another one fairly fast.
At first it was motivating and very interesting and made me learn a lot. But after a while i feel like it's redundant to learn yet another language or paradigm... unless the project I want to build would benefit greatly from it.
It's because everything has the 'AI' label on it, it's boring, it's not just you.
But not all tech is boring, only what is popular right now, it will die down eventually (hopefully quickly).
In the meantime you should find promising technologies of interest that are not related to anything too hyped (or 'AI' related).
If you're a webdev - WASM is amazing, check it out.
Yeah, I've been playing with wasm for many years, but never really found any use (for the things I do). I might take a look again
I would agree
Reaching the limits of mental abilities: I'm not about to invent a new sorting algorithm, a cutting-edge compression algorithm, breakthrough self-driving car software, or a revolutionary graphical rendering engine. The upper bounds of my technical creativity are probably already in sight.
Reaching the limit of interests: Not every tech area is going to light a spark for everyone. For instance, coding games holds zero appeal to me. I recently dived into Kubernetes, and honestly, it's a snooze fest. It's basically just installing and configuring stuff - nothing groundbreaking.
The industry repeating itself: This is so true in web development. First, everything was server-rendered, then we moved to SPAs, and now we're back to server rendering. It's like a never-ending loop, lacking in real innovation.
The boredom of learning irrelevant things: Sure, I could spend time mastering every programming language out there. But why bother if I'm never going to use most of them again? It's pointless memorization without practical application.
No real new tech: 'Silicon Valley' nails it. The show perfectly satirizes our industry. The only thing that seems to qualify as new tech these days would be a groundbreaking compression algorithm. Everything else is just rehashed apps - a reiteration of what's already out there.
And then there's Elon Musk, launching rockets and designing self-driving cars, making our web dev projects feel incredibly mundane. We're over here coding yet another redundant app - like making an 'Uber for lawn mowers.' It's underwhelming, to say the least.
Thanks, that's exactly what I'm feeling but could not word it at the time of publishing the OG post.
@nombrekeff IF you love programming languages then I can suggest to check
Interesting, mojo seems cool, but not planning on doing any AI at the moment. I'll remember it though π
yes thats why i moved from software domain to hardware domain, in hardware everything is interesting
I'm starting to think about that, any suggestions on where to start? or some cool projects to get going?
start with robotics, register yourself in robotics competition, learn arduino and try matlab, its really cool and amazing
Checkout typedb.com -- a polymorphic database powered by types ;)
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