Ask HN: Have you ever been boreout? If so, how did you cope/fix it?

28 points

5 years ago

Have you ever been at a job that has caused you boreout [0] and if so, how did you cope with it?

Context: I am currently working at a startup that I believe is causing me boreout.

The people are really nice, but I was hired to do a very specific type of work, which is not what I've been assigned to do for the last 12 months, even after bringing it up to my manager several times.

Instead I've been doing miscellaneous stuff that has nothing to do with the original project I was hired for (and the reason I was interested in this job in the first place), and although I did switch "projects", I feel like my work is not aligned with the whatever the Product team wants, so it feels pointless.

What worries me is that even studying interview problems to be able to switch jobs is becoming extremely hard, I feel zero creativity when trying to solve them and thus self-esteem problems are starting to appear. Same goes for side-projects and other things. It feels like my brain is rotten and can't produce anything of value.

I feel trapped and I am not sure how to get myself out of this rut.

Any advice is appreciated.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreout

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