Ask HN: How to deal with losing interest in your passion?

Take a break.<p>I had the same thing when I was 25. I ended up quitting my job and buying a one-way ticket to Europe. I didn't think I would ever write code again. I spent about three months backpacking Europe, then came back and spent a few more hanging around and doing odd jobs around town. Eventually, I started code in my free time again, and about a year later, came back into the profession refreshed.<p>Now I know what I need to do to prevent burnout again, and it's primarily that I keep other hobbies, and I have friends that aren't work-related. It lets me get away when I need to and still stay interested in what I do the rest of the time.<p>But that's more maintenance, sometimes you need to shotgun into that stage by cutting out everything for a lengthened period of time. If you really are a hacker at heart, and it sounds like you are, you'll start writing code again soon enough, and you'll know you're back.<p>You'll also have stories and other life experiences as well, which make you a better, more rounded person.

Find a hobby. Something that is completely mindless, and won't use any of the centers of your brain that you use for programming. If you do love programming, you may just be burnt out; if you are like me, you spend long stretches coding for most waking hours. Eventually you'll run risk of burning out.<p>Me, I build plastic robot models. It's no brain power at all, just precise physical motions. It's mindless and enjoyable, and at the end of the day you have something to show for it.<p>There's a lot of posts here saying take a break, but you <i>really</i> have to make sure that you are truly taking a break, and not just substituting programming with something else that uses the same parts of your brain.<p>edit: Here's one of the first models I built. Unpainted just to see what it looks like. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37553996@N07/sets/72157622985354189/" rel="nofollow">http://www.flickr.com/photos/37553996@N07/sets/7215762298535...</a>

Passion can be rekindled, but doubling down on the subject is not the right way to do it. You are probably a little burnt out and a little jaded. Pickup a hobby far away from programming and use that as your fun time for a few years. When you get back to programming as a fun thing, you will enjoy it far more.<p>Snowboarding has been my passion for about 10 years. I snowboard 50+ days a year, I moved out to Colorado for a time just to snowboard absolutely as much as possible. I race, I go into the park a lot, I jump off cliffs, I go into the backcountry, I worked at a ski shop, I read all the magazines, buy the DVDs, and I watch the weather forecast incessantly.<p>But I'm burnt out on it. I moved back to the east coast, the mountains and weather aren't as good, and I'm totally jaded. If its not fresh snow, steep trails, perfect weather I feel like I'm wasting time and money. Unless I live at the mountain, I can't get any better than I am now (whereas before I enjoyed the challenge of getting up the learning curve). So I just decided to stop.<p>I picked up surfing instead. I'm terrible at it, but the challenge is thrilling. Now I can enjoy the learning curve again and I don't need 'perfect' conditions. It's fun just to get out there and do something.<p>And I'm sure when I do go back to snowboarding in a few years, it will be far more interesting.<p>So for you, I would say make programming your job, and something else your passion/hobby. Take a couple years off from programming outside of work, and come back to it with renewed purpose.

I went through the same thing you're describing, and I came to a very simple conclusion (in hindsite) that the other commenters haven't touched upon. I quietly suspect that I'm right, and it makes me sad that it feels like such a dirty secret.<p>When I was a kid, I loved coding. From the ages of 6-19 I didn't really want to do anything as much as hack on cool projects. The only thing that would make my life perfect — obviously — would be to get paid to code, so that I could do it all of the time and pay bills, too. I'd be the luckiest guy on earth.<p>So, why was I horribly sad (not depressed, btw - that's a disease which you don't bring upon yourself) as a professional developer at 25? I used to be so engaged, but then I could hardly concentrate on what I was doing, and it was very difficult to get started each day.<p>One day it hit me like a lightning bolt: the reason you do something impacts whether you can enjoy doing it or not. That's why being a prostitute is not generally considered the best job ever; I found that coding other people's ideas was like not getting to choose who, when or how to have sex.<p>For me, the solution was to gradually move out of coding day-to-day into a more pure consulting role while reintroducing lots of fun personal coding projects, which are mostly just as fun as I remembered from when I was a teenager. 8-9 years later, I simply don't take on paid coding projects.<p>As a corollary, I'm really into film photography and I flat out refuse to get paid to shoot, because I have no interest in difficult brides or screaming babies. I figure that I deserve a passion that isn't corrupted by my need to pay a mortgage. It's like an endless chain of discoveries and happy accidents that brings me mental calm and occasionally professional (consulting) opportunity.<p>I recently went to the Luminance photography conference in NYC, and during breaks I met as many people as I could. Every working photographer seemed stoic and anxious, and all of the aspiring photographers verbally differentiated between their "arty" work and the stuff they had to shoot in order to pay the bills. Not one of them thought that there was any hope of them having fans that would appreciate them the way a painter would. [Granted, painters often have patrons... but I digress.] I found it all quite sad.<p>Needless to say, I suggested that they all learn to code as a career so that they could take photos out of love. I said that if they needed to pay their bills with their camera, they would develop an increasingly abusive relationship with photography.<p>Don't worry about "coming back with a bang". You only live once, so stop hitting yourself.

Having worked in software engineering for 17+ years, I've learned a few things (and gone through at least two-bouts of serious burnout). One was at the end of the first dot-com boom when getting engineering jobs was nearly impossible, so it was a forced long-term vacation. I went to Europe for a bit.<p>1) In my 20s, I worked all the time. Didn't live a very balanced life, this lead to burnout, especially if you're working in a startup environment where you think you'll retire at 30.<p>2) I quit engineering twice (but after 6+ months off, new developments in technology that stimulated my imagination eventually brought me back)<p>3) I've learned to manage not working the burn-out dream, that likely in the long run, your 80 hours weeks aren't going to pay out. It's proven to me that there's plenty of successful people and companies who work realistic hours.<p>4) Hobbies. I prefer those where I get excercise (like cylcing). Gives me time to clear my mind and keep my body fit and invigorated. I also enjoy gourmet cooking.<p>5) Managing workload, prioritizing things that are important and recognizing things that you think are work but really procrastinating.<p>6) Learn other professional skills than typing text into your favorite editor/ide. Speaking at conferences/local user groups, managing project budget, managing teams, managing bigger teams. Doing these other things makes you appreciate the few hours of coding you have left in the week.

There is a misconception, extremely prevalent on HN and in the startup community, that you're dead at 35. Really, if you are 25 and not certain about what you want to do, the real 'risk' you should be taking is trying something completely different.<p>Don't set yourself up for a miserable life. Become a well rounded person. Try something else and see if it clicks for a while.

I'm a programmer, 15+ years, and I took up beekeeping. It's nice to do something so completely the opposite of what I do at work. Bees are captivating because they are such complex creatures, but they are almost completely driven by instinct, so they are somewhat predictable. They drive what I need to do to help them succeed, but I still need to use my brain to figure out what help they need. It's a nice balance from writing code and being completely in my head all day.

TL;DR - Aging is weird, but it beats the alternative.<p>Other commenters are giving you excellent advice about burnout. I agree with what they say, but want to toss in a different perspective.<p>When I was in Grade 9, there was a hip hop group called Kris Kross. At the time, I thought they were great. So great, that I went out and bought their CD, put it on repeat and listened to it for weekend long BBS marathon.<p>Today, I'm a little embarrassed to admit I was that passionate about the wack emcees who wore their clothes backwards. I haven't listened to them in years. Yet other bands that I worshipped in Grade 9 (ie - Bad Religion, NOFX and the Dead Kennedys) are still extremely important to me.<p>I'm 35 now and my passions have ebbed and flowed through the years. They are more fixed now, but they went a little wild between my teens and mid 20s. Heck, in high school, I was a straight edge post punk who wouldn't be friends with people who dared to smoke pot near me. By my third year of university, I was conducting pharmaceutical experiments on myself at raves.<p>We ebb and we flow. We change just as constantly as the landscapes that surround us. We fall in and out of love with new ideas, people, sounds and pursuits.<p>Take a deep hard look at whether or not you may be burned out. Try new things, immerse yourself in whatever seems exciting, and read new books. Learn to climb. Scare yourself half to death. Write a book. Get tattooed. Your passion for programming will likely come back. Or, it may be gone forever. Embrace the changes, my friend, you're going to learn an awful lot about yourself over the next few months!<p>Best of luck and remember that smooth seas never made a skilled skipper.

I think every developer faces the same problem at one point. What helped me personally was actually working less and find new hobbies (that don't involve computers), and one thing in particular: running. It's hard to keep your enthusiasm at a high level if all you see is work - despite the fact that you might enjoy it. Go out, meet your friends, eat well and excersize.<p>EDIT: Recently I was attending a startup meeting and there was this video, where one developer said <i>Sleeping and eating are overrated.</i> What a load of crap - following this advice is the best way to burn out. We are not robots.

Currently in the same position. I am only 22 and still studying in university about computers, but I have not touched to vim now for 3 months even though I used to write few hundred lines of code everyday as a hobby since i was 15 or something like that.<p>Most likely my dilemma is that I seem not to be able to decide where to specialize and programming alone has become quite boring. I kinda want to do everything and can not decide which is the most fun of games, web, mobile, desktop or security.

It gets everyone who's really passionate from time to time. I'd recommend Richard Feynman, who (as a Nobel Laureate) also completely lost interest in physics at a time - here's an abstract about the subject, but the whole book is gold and funny as hell on top: <a href="http://loooongway.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/my-english-is-very-good/" rel="nofollow">http://loooongway.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/my-english-is-ver...</a><p>For me, it's about composing and IT. When I studied musicology, I couldn't compose anymore and just wasn't creative. Then I changed to studying physics and soon burned my interest in the same way. Both of them definitely came back, and by now, I try to keep my interests more balanced!

I wanted to quit computers several times but always gravitate back to them eventually. I even did a whole masters program in economics to find something different. I personally am just the type to cycle between workaholism and hedonism. After putting too much into work I get really appalled by it and need to spend time travelling and just generally living life. Every time I spend 6 weeks not working I have a burning desire to do and learn again. Maybe you just did too much. The hardships of travelling are vital for me because at first everything is so great and you really need to do it until it isn't anymore. Eventually you will long to get back to your passion.

Another angle unfortunately without a solid solution.<p>If I told people to associate me with one word (a subject), pretty much anyone who knows me would say the same word. I've spent over 10 years learning about it but I've become jaded because just like any subject, you can study about it and you can do it. It's the doing it that has made me jaded and that has effected my will to study it as well.<p>My best theory is that I simply never defined it for what it is and has been: a goal. In effect, I summited and now I just feel like I'm at the top looking at the view. The solution, it seems, will inevitably be to search out another mountain to summit.

I went through this a lot later in life, and what worked for me was "going academic". I hit Lambda the Ultimate and started challenging myself to learn a lot of really advanced stuff. I'd pick out papers that were hard to understand and go through them step by step, as many times as necessary.<p>I'd also recommend learning to do something complicated in your personal life, like flying, or diving, or fixing cars. Complexity doesn't exist just in software; it's all around us. Embrace it in your personal life and it will balance what's in your professional life.

I'm no psychologist, but is it possible that you are suffering from a bout of depression? I have found that my depression caused me to lose interest in most things. It came back, but it took a while...

TL:DR - Stop, be ok with taking a break. Give yourself chance to discover what's left.<p>The thing to remember is that it's ok to have changes in interests. If our interests never changed we wouldn't make progress.<p>It sounds like you've got to a point where you are super comfortable with what you know.<p>Personally after I finished my CS degree I took a big break (2 years) from technology, building things and fixing things. Actually I felt like I hated all of it and that worried me a lot. I wanted to let all the learning settle &#38; see what interest in the field I was left with - if at all.<p>After two years I made the decison to go into the applications support side of things as I realised I still loved the people part of it. Being the bridge between customers &#38; developers, fixing things &#38; I'm still doing that now. Even my interest in development has come back and I'm building things in my spare time again.<p>Also my partner &#38; I have transitioned from taking photographs as a hobby, to professionally. I find that each time we get a photography job there's a little 2 month cycle where it goes from being great fun to just being 'done' with it. At that point we take fewer personal photos.<p>After a little time, the interest comes back we start photographing for fun again and then we get another job and it goes full circle.<p>I think you can only force creativity so long before it becomes work with obligations etc - that's when the interest fades.

After graduating from college, I completely immersed myself in computers, programming, networking, system administration, etc. I taught myself how to program, got a job programming, learned just about everything I needed to learn. I would work, and then when I came home, I would sit in front of the computer learning. It got to the point where if I didn't spend time learning, I would feel guilty.<p>This helped me immensely, because I accelerated in my career and knowledge really quickly. But then, after about 10 years, I had gained about 50 lbs, and suffered through some personal issues. I was completely and utterly burnt out. I stopped being curious about technology, and couldn't bring myself to even turn on a computer after work, except to play games or online poker. This period lasted for about 5 years.<p>What rekindled everything for me was that I found something new to be passionate about, namely algorithmic trading. The entire topic absolutely fascinated me and continues to fascinate me, and that's where I regained my passion. I've been spending a lot of time on this topic over the last few years.<p>My advice to you is just take a break. You're probably burnt out. Give it some time, and you'll probably go back to doing it, or you'll find something new to be passionate about.

Similar story but unlike the brave travellers in this thread, I switched to a related profession instead.<p>I was a Search Engine Optimser and worked for several large companies and agencies, leading teams and getting results. Over the course of about 12 months, I felt my passion fade, wither and then die.<p>I (wrongly) decided to keep focused on the money and was able to extend my career by about 18months. 18 miserable, unsatisying months.<p>Knowing that I like the web and feel like I know what works, over the course of several months I developed a sideline in WordPress development. I then slowly built this sideline into an income that would help me ditch SEO for good. It's now what I do full time.<p>So my advice is this: Be truthful to yourself, if you don't have the passion, don't stick it out hoping it'll come back. Change track, take a break, do something unexpected to give you a refresh/restart If you have responsibilities, try to develop a side project, or several, to give yourself a new direction

Make programming a mean, not the end.<p>There are countless fields where what you have learned over the last 5 years can be of use, and feel fresh again.<p>Let's say you have spent the last years learning programming for web applications. Find a job (or star a personal project) where programming is applied to embedded systems, or medical devices, or videogames, or finance, or whatever.<p>And do not think that because you have been learning about "programming" you have to be a "programmer" if you don't want to. Try to have an experience in sales, management, design. You might lack specific knowledge in the role, but will have much more knowledge in the technical details than other people with specific experience in the role.<p>If you have been working just on private projects (say, a start-up), find a job as an employee in a good-sized company. Or the other way around, if you have some savings.<p>You are so young there is plenty of time for finding where you want to set, do not feel constrained by what is expected of you.

Short answer: Take time off (a few months) and then work on your project.<p>Long answer: I worked for 4 years at Apple as a software engineer and I exactly felt like you. When I quit to find my passion again, I could not touch a computer for more than 3 months. It was really hard. I loved engineering and design so much. It felt like I lost the most important thing in life.<p>I was seriously burned out. I spent time with family, travelled and started appreciating life again. After 5 months off, I was eager to get back in technology. I am now working on my own thing (<a href="http://beta.shoeboxify.com" rel="nofollow">http://beta.shoeboxify.com</a>) and love my life again.

It could be temporary. As others have commented already, this could be burnout.<p>There are other angles that you should consider. Is it only affecting your job, or are you apathetic on other things too ? If it is the latter (specially since you said 'everything'), it could indicate depression.<p>In my particular case, a mild form of depression always sets in whenever I am sleep deprived. This can go on for months if left unchecked. Go out, have some fun, sleep a lot and see if it helps. Have your health checked (physical and mental).<p>If everything checks out, you might just need a change of scenery. Another city, another job, a slightly different area, etc.

I found a break and then working on what I only found interesting (playing around with weird languages, open sourcing things etc) was the trick, it got me really excited again about what will always be my life

Grad school is a popular choice, and many would favor candidates with 3-5 years of work/project experience. The application process also helps you reflect on what your goals are, why you did what you previously did, and so forth. Taking an exam like the GRE/GMAT/LSAT/etc can also be good mental exercise and give you something mindless to do in between introspection for essays/apps.<p>Alternatively, it can also be cathartic to do some volunteer work. It certainly would put a smile on someone's face and perhaps provide some different perspective on life.

The "take a break" is spot on but I think a lot of burnout/loss of passion is related to what sort of work you are doing. If you are "paying your dues" in job that doesn't interest or challenge you it's going to be hard to stay excited. I look forward to going to work (almost) every day and I've been a software developer as long as you've been alive. At one point I was getting burnt out doing C++ and then C#/.NET came along and all the "newness" reinvigorated me. Maybe you need to change jobs or technologies?

There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding exactly how passion works and what causes people to enjoy their work. Cal Newport wrote a very good book that dispels many of the myths surrounding the idea of passion and loving your work that might help you diagnose what's bringing you down and how to get past it: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/1455509124/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/145550912...</a>

Been through the same too, it was about your age at the time too - wonder if that's a common theme.<p>I fixed it with a change of direction. I'd been tackling a bunch of stuff that my heart wasn't in, figured out what i did still like (turns out i wasnt doing <i>any</i> of it day to day), engineered a change of circumstances at work and popped out the other end feeling happy again.<p>End to end about 4 months. Did involve a fair amount of persuasion - what i wanted to do didn't fit with the organisation at the time.

In my early twenties I got tired of programming and started studying history at the university instead. I lasted about two years, at which time I had so much freelance programming work that I couldn't focus on the studies enough to pass tests. So I dropped out and got back into programming.<p>Not only did I regain my passion for programming, but I actually like to believe that the skills I learned there made me a better programmer to boot.<p>TLDR; You're young - Try something different for a while.

Last time I felt like that I had a serious vitamin B12 deficiency. Not that I agree with all the responses here but you could also get you annual medical checkup

I lost interested in everything for.. a while, right around when I was diagnosed with depression. After eventually getting on the right brain medicine, I found my desire to work on the things I enjoy came back with a vengeance. Now I just need to make sure it doesn't happen again :)

I dated a Biochemist for a while to get out of my burn out. The effects were chemically soothing.

Change is as good as a rest. I've certainly found that to be the case when these sorts of feelings manifest. Working on a different team, a different project, a different boss or company down the street often completely refreshes your outlook.

Youthful enthusiasms subside, tastes evolve, you mature. Programming is cool as an unpressured activity, less so with bosses and customers demanding results. Do something else, you may not come back to it.

You need to take a vacation/sabbatical where you don't touch anything electronic. Get your head out of the game, your passion may return.

Take a vacation from it.

I started Scuba diving, now I got two passions..

Read Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson.