I'm sure this is true for many people, but I'm having the opposite experience, tbh. Coding (mostly) for myself, and taking a lot of care to make it long term maintainable, has been incredibly restorative for me. Keeping a code base tidy is so much more relaxing than constant tip toeing around a bunch of hazardous piles of legacy junk that you're not allowed to fix.
@jenniferplusplus I'm more like that too. I also really like the idea of solving problems for reasons other than profit motive.
I don't want to sell my code. I just want to make it and give it freely to anyone it might help.
@jenniferplusplus that. Was implementing a nicer and faster and more correct float to string algorithm in the depth of the erlang VM a fight? Yes. Is it also the thing that helped solve my burnout?
Yes too. Purposeful. Helping so many people. Knowing all the little ways I helped make the whole better from my own niche expertise that few people could.
Same with forking and cleaning up and making better the hyperloglog implementation. It feels so much more satisfying. Limited. Small. Impactful.
@jenniferplusplus doing something actually useful and that reduce the difficulties of building other things on top? That is too rare in software. Being able to do that helps a lot
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