The software world

The Developer’s Midlife Crisis; You Are Not Alone

I’m not sure if I’m over it yet, but I’ve been through the journey.

Photo by Dev Asangbam on Unsplash

It’s Christmas Day, a day off for everyone. I’m staying home to be with my wife, who just had surgery. So, I open my laptop and check my post on Reddit.

I wrote a post about a new topic I learned in Android development. It was well-received, as it explained some new behavior in a relatively new method of data sharing. Someone responded, complaining about why the technology keeps changing.

As someone who got their start in mobile development. I find it a little annoying that the ‘best way to do things’ keeps changing…

Trying to console the person, I responded by explaining that mobile development is still relatively new and evolving.

• The downside is that things keep changing, requiring us to continually learn.
• The upside is that we have the opportunity to influence what becomes better.

Someone else asked a fair question.

I’m not sure I understand why people see this (keep learning) as a negative thing. Learning new things is one of the positives about this debacle, in my opinion.

This made me rethink my statement. Why did I view ‘learning’ as a negative? Isn’t it great to learn?

Everyone loves learning

When we think people hate it, we’re completely mistaken, myself included. Learning is a natural human instinct — we thrive on it. Babies learn even without being taught.

So, why did I initially say, ‘The downside is that things keep changing, requiring us to continually learn’?

I remember those moments… The moments when I started questioning my career direction, wondering where I wanted to be next.

The midlife crisis…

If one has a lifespan of 70 years, 35 years is its middle. That’s the age I started questioning my next step.

Don’t get me wrong. The first 15 years of my career are not a stagnated one.