Primeagen Answers the Webs Most Asked Questions for a Software Engineer

Key Takeaways

it's the evening of January 1st 2023 and I wanted to take a moment to just address a question I always get what do I build how do I become a great engineer how do I become a good engineer am I doing the right side projects now I know tons of you ask this question I know you're probably thinking it right now and I wanted to take this question apart and even more so I wanted to take a really steamy hot take saying that side projects can prevent and even cure burnout I know that's a little spicy I can guarantee you right now there's people already typing out a comment you don't even know the situation they're already upset okay they're already angry but just give me one minute and I'll explain my reasoning first let me address just how I choose to build something because I think this is really important I choose what I want to build based off three items one I want to pick something that at its core makes me excited it's something I don't understand it's something that drives my curiosity when I look at I'm like wow what is that all about or can just simply be a challenge right now I'm building Vim Royale the greatest battle royale ever created and it's all in rust from the front into the back because I'm curious about wasm I'm curious about can rust be full stack and so of course I'm gonna drive that Curiosity I'm gonna do it because it makes me excited which leads me to number two what's the benefit Define the benefit and here's the deal the benefit can be simple as I just need to build more because at the root of every senior engineer is the experience of seeing a problem from multiple angles and if you build project after project you're gonna see it from so many different angles and you're gonna just simply be a better engineer even just by share year accident and time you will become better and lastly the third one which I think is very very important it should be different from your day job too many people invest their side time into doing things for their day job and I do think that this drives or leads to extra burnout you're just constantly trying to build and innovate in an environment that maybe doesn't allow or really flourish with Innovation and I know it makes your life better but at the same time it can really be just a soul suck I think if you do those three things you're going to be able to define the project that's good for you but another thing I always see is that people just ask for permission should I learn go is go good enough should I learn rust is rust too hard stop asking for permission you just have to stop do it because you want to do it stop waiting for me or somebody else to tell you why you should do it it is a disaster to get all of your direction from someone who doesn't know you you know you you know what excites you so listen to that person because I can tell you one thing that if you build something that just makes you excited that brings you Joy that Joy spills over it spills over into multiple places in your life you're just simply a happier person you walk around a little lighter on your feet whereas if you're doing things all the time that you don't really enjoy guess what that spills over too you're not going to treat people nearly as well you're going to get in more fights you're going to be perceived as a grouchy person because that's just how it works focus on the joy the creativity The Passion of programming will not only make you a senior engineer faster but it's going to help prevent or remove burnout that you may be experiencing I know I know this is the hot take part I told you it'd only take me a minute to get here because often I hear the answer to burnout is less programming take a break take a month break do a sabbatical do something different go be a gardener every programmer thinks they're a farmer until they do farming for one day and they're like ah that ah there's a spider okay hey and I do understand that sometimes a break from programming is the answer but I think it is the exception it is not the rule I think what leads people to burnout is just the fact they've been grinding things they don't like you've lost the entire reason why programming went from a hobby to a full-time career the reason why you spent nine months two years being paid nothing to finally get a job you lost whatever that was and now you're getting paid now you're getting a salary that makes you happy and you're doing something that's killing your soul and so of course you just feel terrible it bleeds everywhere find that Joy again enjoy yourself doing something that you loved at one point and I just guarantee you life will somehow feel lighter now this is obviously not the ultimate answer to life this is not the meaning of life this is just a perspective and it's the perspective that I have because I was most certainly at this point in 2016 2017 even parts of 2018 were just like I felt like everything I did was such a burden it felt horrible and it just like happened for so long and it wasn't until I was like all right here I'm just gonna build something I just want to build something on the side that all sudden it was just like my curiosity everything just started flooding back to me and I just found that I enjoyed things more I enjoyed life more and my job didn't feel that heavy and also I liked what I was doing and all of a sudden I started asking more questions I started doing better at my job I started getting recognized for that because I simply reignited what made me passionate to begin with so it's 2023 take the time invest in your creativity invest in passion invest and desire because motivation or just this weird feeling like you're like I'm gonna program all day doesn't just happen you have to Foster it you have have to water it and it will die if you don't it can also get out of control if you do you know what I mean it'll just take over your whole life next thing you know you're an arch user and you don't want to be single okay you don't want to be single okay the name is the primagen