The Reality of Developer Burnout

Burnout is, unfortunately, a very real phenomenon in software development — especially when creating and maintaining open source projects with large numbers of users. I've experienced it, and I wanted to share my personal experience with the subject.

https://www.kennethreitz.org/essays/the-reality-of-developer-burnout

Transcript

1. The Reality of Developer Burnout Kenneth Reitz
2. Hi.
3. @kennethreitz
4. Requests humans http for
5. Requests HTTP for Humans
6. github.com/kennethreitz • ~20 serious projects. • 100+ experiments. • OSX-GCC-Installer: 56TB of downloads. • Requests: 11+ million downloads / month.
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10. Burnout.
11. Internal & External
12. Depression
13. You suddenly realize that you've been eating ice cream for three meals every day for years on end. You're tired of it; you don't want to see ice cream any more. People who eat ice cream occasionally won't understand this; how could you possibly want less ice cream?! — Gary Bernhardt
14. Entropy of Goals Success in Open Source? Requests humans http for
15. github.com/kennethreitz • Requests • OSX-GCC-Installer • Maya • Records • Tablib • httpbin.org • SayThanks.io • Python-Guide.org • 'Import This' Podcast • Em Keyboard • Certifi • Autoev
16. Burnout is sneaky. It doesn’t usually announce itself. It slowly grinds at you until these feelings become the new normal, and at that point it’s not easy to dig yourself out of the hole. — Zach Holman
17. 410 GONE
18. _why Mark Pilgrim &
19. Quit my job?
20. Soul Searching
21. Key Takeaways
22. Be Gentle with Yourself.
23. Publish-only Mode. • Unfollowed everyone. • Kept my ability to influence my community. • Stopped over-engaging with the community.
24. Delegation.
25. @lukasaoz @sigmavirus24 Meet My Minions These guys are amazing.
26. Teamwork!
27. Have other hobbies!
28. Other Interests... • Street Photography • Synthesizers and Music Production • Drawing / Arts & Crafts • Classic Video Games!
29. Pay close attention to who you're following. Be selective.
30. Take a break if you need one.
31. Thank you! kennethreitz.org/values