I'm a 43 year old, black, late-diagnosed Autistic male in Software Engineering. I started professionally in 2010. I'm an autodidact with no formal education in the field and no degrees to my name. I learned by reading and building in Python, then PHP for the first few years of my career. The remaining years have been full-stack JavaScript/TypeScript, with sprinkles of Java and recent dabbling in C# (Unity) and Lua (Roblox).
I've worked in both obscure and well-known organisations such as Time Inc, Penguin Random House and the UK Home Office. The longest I've been at a company is 4 years, but burnout has on occasion limited my time at a company to ~6 months.
My most recent role was at a small e-commerce start-up and it ended about a month ago. I was relieved because, although my manager and team mate was a great guy, I didn't get much satisfaction from the work or the company. I generally need at least one of these things to feel satisfied: - a satisfying "why" for what I'm doing - opportunity for creativity and discovery
Beyond work, I've had numerous side projects: - email platform - location based messaging platform - companion mobile app for Binance - "indestructible" CMS (Git-integrated SSG for simple blogging) - crypto arbitrage mobile app
I'm obsessive. If I imagine it I have to build it. Unfortunately, marketing and sales don't trigger me, or I'd probably have built a business by now... I love investigation, formulating a solution, and then hacking away to a working product. I saw this post[0] a few weeks back and it really resonated.
Most jobs don't trigger my obsession. They typically feel like a bunch of chores. I find myself dragging my feet and frequently consider if I'm just lazy. I can't buy into that idea, though, because I put in tremendous effort when I'm truly interested and inspired! Hours of the day and days of the week become irrelevant; code flows until the gremlins in my mind are satisfied.
Too often it's the case that my job interest is dim, while my side-project interest burns bright. I end up coding 16 hours per day until I burn out. That, or I get so drained by the work I'm doing in the day job that it sends me into depression.
--- What do I want from you?
Whatever you've got. Advice. Suggestions. Recommendations. Inpsiration, maybe. Perhaps even just a conversation with someone who can relate. I've seen how many insightful individuals there are in this community - I'd like to tap into that.
When I got into Software Engineering I was sure I was going to code my way to independence (working for myself). All these years later I still don't think I have all the components to create a sustainable business (be it skills, experience or the right people), so I'll no doubt be looking for another job. But I don't want just _any_ job. I can't just build UIs all day, or write another REST (or GraphQL) API.
I've strongly considered if I should do something else entirely and save code for pleasure and side-projects, but I've got no idea what that "something else" might be. I have savings that can sustain me for a few months (I save pretty aggressively) so I can take my time a bit to explore, but not for too long. Plus, I'd rather not burn through all my savings.
I want the sense of discovery - learning something new and applying it. I also want the variety so things don't get too repetitive. And, of course, the creativity - having an open ended question before me and being left to come up with an answer.
I suppose I could just ask ChatGPT[1], or even AskHN[2] but, there's no subtitute for the real thing (for now, at least).
If you read to the end, thank you for giving your time to it. I wanted to provide enough context without oversharing/overexplaining (which I'm prone to).
[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34366610 [1]https://chat.openai.com/chat [2]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34897773
I suggest looking at visas for working remotely somewhere you can do something on the side like learning how to surf or whatever sounds interesting and fulfilling to you. It's honestly not even close to as expensive compared to being stuck in some expensive city paying expensive rent for expensive car use.
Tons of volunteer positions abroad too which you can do alongside remote work. One I recently considered was at a jaguar rescue centre in the jungle, and another I was invited for in Japan for some long distance radio transmission project for some group of people who are trying to live on less than a dollar a day (I have ideas) - And that's just a small idea of what's available. A lot of these volunteer positions are looking for someone to fulfill technical work alongside something you may have never done before.