I would _so_ disagree.

I've lost the flame a number of times, and it has always come back.

Matt, when working on computer projects (lately), do you have nice discreet tasks that 
are completed in a couple of days, or do you have a set of never-ending tasks that are 
almost but never quite finished?

When I get pushed into the feeling you describe, I have found that it is due to never 
FINISHING anything. Every day seems the same. No feeling of accomplishment.  Sisyphus 
never had it so bad.

A few times it has been due to working on a project I put my heart into, but then 
being told to stop before it was done. And told to throw it all away, but usually it 
is due to a project that never goes anywhere, due to interminable meetings that 
accomplish nothing.

If you are seeing anything in this, you need to get back into the habit of crisp 
finishes.

I can usually cure the ennui with some short term physical tasks. Do every shred of 
laundry and hang it all up. Completely clean every surface in the bathroom. The trick 
is the word "every". It also should be useful. No "busy work". Then I will move into a 
really short term computer task. Write a single good UDF, (and submit it to cflib.org 
- which I never do). Take no more than an hour. Create a new datasource and fill it in 
(christmas card list, friends' birthdays, top 1000 songs of the 1970s). Two hours or 
so here. Then drop it again, and go do something else. Watch a movie you've wanted to 
see. Cross it off your list.

It's all about short-term goals and a feeling of accomplishment.


Jerry Johnson


>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 09/15/03 11:18AM >>>
oi Matthew!!

you cannot go back. once the flame is out. it will not relight. time for career change.


-- 


------------------------------------
Monday, September 15, 2003, 11:10:22 AM, you wrote:

MS> Hi everyone,
MS>     What do you do when you're feeling burnt-out?  I have been feeling
MS> burnt-out for about the last two months.  I have no desire to program
MS> anymore, none of it interests me.  I feel like all I do is sit here day
MS> after day, stare at a computer screen, hoping to get into "the groove",
MS> looking forward to the weekend and trying everything I can do to get there
MS> faster.
MS> Ugh.

MS> - Matt Small



MS> 

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