Burnt Out?

[mindless1]

Anyone else burnt out of IT?

There was a time, long long ago, when I could assemble some parts I bought online, build a system, and it was like magic. That was a very long time ago. I kept active in the field, but it's not the same.

More recently, experiencing burn out. I don't give a crap about newest windows, newest hardware, newest wifi, etc.

The magic is gone. I don't want to upgrade anything I have, which is very old tech already, nor do I have any interest in windows 12.

Why would I? I see people posting some SSD score or browser performance score and I'm like meh, if I blinked then I'd miss the few milliseconds difference.

Granted, I don't much get into modern 3D gaming these days. Too little time and can't justify the absurd prices for video cards that can do it well at 4K. Upgrading to a 4K monitor was the best computing move for me since Win95, so I've done that with several systems and still, burnt out. Even so, I have too many sub-4K monitors to count so it's not really about gaming.

AI is a little bit interesting, but still falls short.

What keeps you going, to keep excited to see the same old shit but just with higher benchmark numbers? Or just being some sort of maintenance guy that keeps things running despite the insistence of the new kids to try to change things for no good reason?

I'm very much starting to see a PC as an appliance that just needs to keep running to do it's job.

I suppose I went off on a tangent because I make my living as an IT contractor in other fields, but the whole magic-is-gone, thing, makes it feel more like a burden rather than a passion.

 

[BoomerD]

I've NEVER worked in IT in any capacity, but have been involved with computers since the mid-80s in one way or another. Like you, I just don't give a crap about the "latest and greatest" CPU, GPU, or whatever. Maybe every 4-5 or 10 years I'll look into upgrading/rebuilding...maybe.

 

[biostud]

One of the reasons is because the o/c potential is very low compared to the good old days. Why use hours of tinkering for single digits improvements and risk of instability?

I feel the same, but also because I now have a family and simply don't have the time to sink into it.

Personally my next adventure will be dual booting with Linux to see if I can move away from big tech, as I foresee a future where that might come in handy....

 

[IronWing]

Upgrading doesn’t get you as much anymore as the “old” hardware is pretty good. Bumping from an 8086 to a 286 was massive. 286 to 386 even more so. Going from Sandy Bridge to Lakelake, meh. When my 2011 laptop still provides acceptable performance, upgrading seems like money better spent elsewhere.

 

[lxskllr]

I haven't been *into* computers in a long time. The computer I'm running now is a refurb dell that was old when I bought it. It does everything I need it to do. I don't really game anymore, and that was the only place horsepower was required for me. Otherwise, speed was just a luxury I don't care about anymore.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I have the same luxury problem in the sense that my "old" system is enough to do everything i want. I have some nice games, but i hardly game anymore ever since i got sick. Not enough concentration and too much brainfog.
Now with a lot of rest i am feeling i am getting better but i am not there yet. And the TO-DO list i have has become too large to oversee.
I have had one or another sort of computer since 1980s and have been an enthusiast but doing my work and keeping up with everything PC = hardware + windows10 has become too much. Ever since windows 8 and windows 10 came out it is not so much fun anymore. I believe that at the time i was running Windows 2000, i had a feeling i had control over my pc.
Now since windows 10 and every 3 months another version where the UI is changed or programs have been exchanged for another . I felt burnt out indeed. Keeping windows perfectly running is no more fun for a enthusiast with a computer hobby.
I just go with the flow but that is not my nature.

I have a raspberry pi 400 as well and just no time and energy for it. Well, since i got sick and lost my job, i was not able to do anything. I have time enough but just no concentration or energy. And that is enormously frustrating. The only thing i could do was watching movies and i would the next day not be able to remember what scenes i watched !
I can sleep all day. And sometimes i just give in to the desire to sleep so much.
So, i listen to music and that is it. And watch movies. I am trying to get a job again. And i hope that then the energy comes back again as well.

I have smartphone, but the only thing i use is whatsapp, maps, waze, adobe reader and the internet browser and a comic reader. I kind of have developed a dislike for android driven devices because of all the ads in the programs. And UI changes when getting updates. That i hate so much.
And when i would want to write a program myself, i have to setup the phone in such a way that it is vulnerable to malware.
My smartphone is just a telephone for me.

 

[lxskllr]

I have the same luxury problem in the sense that my "old" system is enough to do everything i want. I have some nice games, but i hardly game anymore ever since i got sick. Not enough concentration and too much brainfog.
Now with a lot of rest i am feeling i am getting better but i am not there yet. And the TO-DO list i have has become too large to oversee.
I have had one or another sort of computer since 1980s and have been an enthusiast but doing my work and keeping up with everything PC = hardware + windows10 has become too much. Ever since windows 8 and windows 10 came out it is not so much fun anymore. I believe that at the time i was running Windows 2000, i had a feeling i had control over my pc.
Now since windows 10 and every 3 months another version where the UI is changed or programs have been exchanged for another . I felt burnt out indeed. Keeping windows perfectly running is no more fun for a enthusiast with a computer hobby.
I just go with the flow but that is not my nature.

I have a raspberry pi 400 as well and just no time and energy for it. Well, since i got sick and lost my job, i was not able to do anything. I have time enough but just no concentration or energy. And that is enormously frustrating. The only thing i could do was watching movies and i would the next day not be able to remember what scenes i watched !
I can sleep all day. And sometimes i just give in to the desire to sleep so much.
So, i listen to music and that is it. And watch movies. I am trying to get a job again. And i hope that then the energy comes back again as well.

I have smartphone, but the only thing i use is whatsapp, maps, waze, adobe reader and the internet browser and a comic reader. I kind of have developed a dislike for android driven devices because of all the ads in the programs. And UI changes when getting updates. That i hate so much.
And when i would want to write a program myself, i have to setup the phone in such a way that it is vulnerable to malware.
My smartphone is just a telephone for me.

Seems like a lot of your problems could be fixed by using libre software. GNU/Linux will restore control to your pc, and removing trashware, and switching to f-droid for software will make android... better anyway. I hate android, but it's currently the best of a bad situation. Both steps will give you control, remove ads, and increase security.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Seems like a lot of your problems could be fixed by using libre software. GNU/Linux will restore control to your pc, and removing trashware, and switching to f-droid for software will make android... better anyway. I hate android, but it's currently the best of a bad situation. Both steps will give you control, remove ads, and increase security.

That is the problem that, linux i cannot learn anymore without going to school. When i was a young lad, i would devour everything technical and be able to remember it. Now, not so much.
I am happy if i can hold a job. That is my primary concern now.

But...

To make windows 11 a bit more like windows 7 or windows 10... Stardock startmenu software is a great solution ! And the price is very low for a license, less than 17 dollars for 5 licenses. So no hassle and getting support even.
The only thing to worry about is to get windows 11 installed on my main pc before September 2025. Diving in deep with windows11 setup for my main pc and with windows + rufus later on for another pc.

I even have an old AMD DDR3 system that is pretty fast. I might install raspberry pi (DESKTOP) x86 on it.

Raspberry pi os is very nice. It gives good control over the system.
Of course i have a linux cookbook and a raspberry pi book to learn from.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/raspberry-pi-desktop/

 

[purbeast0]

I haven't upgraded a PC in like 15+ years. I think one of the main reasons though is because I don't game on PC at all anymore, and I've had a MacBook Pro for like 10+ years and it does everything that I need it to do on a PC. And I really dislike Windows at this point now. I strictly do console gaming and just don't do PC at all, aside from below.

Recently though I built a PC and am working on an emulator arcade cabinet. However, the PC I built is from like 10 year old parts or so. I'm running Windows 10 on there and remember how I don't like Windows for various reasons. But it is needed for what I am doing with the arcade cabinet so I'm stuck with it. And it's not awful, but there are just some things I dislike about it that isn't a problem on other OS's.

When my current MBP gets long in the tooth, which it is kind of close to, I will just buy a current MBP and have it for another 10+ years.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I kinda feel the same way sometimes. When I first got into computers I had so much more ambition to learn more stuff and upgrade etc. I would get excited at trying a new version of Windows or Linux distro or just learning something new in general. I also had way more disposable income so building a new machine almost every year and adding new hardware etc was in the realm of possibility financially and the upgrades also made a big difference.

Now I see my computer and servers more as just something I rely on. Most of my systems are over 10 years old now. I sometimes get the itch to upgrade but I have way less disposable income than I used to have due to all costs of living going up over the years, so I have to save up for much longer to upgrade anything then I end up prioritizing something more important. My latest upgrade was UPS related as I was really limping along with the old setup. The upgrade is still not 100% done either.

I did buy 2 SFF machines for cheap to do a Proxmox cluster though, so I kinda got excited at that for a bit. I feel like I will shift more towards focusing less on hardware and more on software now if I can get back into it more. A lot of stuff that I used to find fun feels more like a chore now though. Like I finally moved all my email over to a new OS. Before I would have been excited doing stuff like that, now it's more like, well it needs to be done. Same with coding projects, I keep wanting to get back into it then never actually feel like it. I took a Python bootcamp and normally I'd be so excited at learning a new language and coding stuff with it and now it's like meh.

Been meaning to try to find a way to make extra money on the side though so I can try to keep up with inflation and get to a point of having more disposable income again, so that might be a motivator to get into a project I can monetize. Just need to pick something and start it.

 

[nakedfrog]

The last PC I built myself was in 2017, I did upgrade it a couple times. I got a pre-built 2 years ago (but from a seller where I could specify some of the parts) because it was cheaper than doing it myself, between a sale and the option to skip sales tax by ordering it through an AAFES marketplace. First time I've had a legit high end GPU, likely to be quite some time before I upgrade again.
Just upgraded this laptop to Win11 over the weekend just to stay in the update loop. Win11 sucks, Win10 sucked, Win7 was peak. I expect my older machines that may not be compatible will finally get switched over to Linux.

 

[Train]

I bought my previous PC in 2014, and just gave it to my 14 year old son to play around on. It still worked fine. It works arguably better then the $1700 Dell I got to replace it. I would have kept it a few more years if it could take windows 11. If I didn't have various peices of software that I have to keep updated I would have happily stayed on windows 10 or just gone to Linux.

20+ years ago, going from a 500 mhz and to a 800 mhz CPU within a year was a big deal and made several tasks noticably faster. Going from a 10 year old 16 core @ 2.5 ghz to a brand new 48 core @ 4ghz has shown ZERO noticable improvements.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

We are varying degrees of old as fuck, so yeah of course interest in IT will fade. What got people interested doesn't exist any more. Not to say there aren't hobbies still, but it's not dip switches and BIOS settings.

 

[igor_kavinski]

My office PCs (I have two because reasons) are i5-2400 and i7-4770. Both Dell. The only time I hate them is when I have to do some Excel formula on close to a million rows. I tried to get my boss to pay for a refurbished Lenovo Threadripper Thinkstation with 128GB RAM that was selling for roughly $1150 but he's a complete n00b when it comes to tech plus he thinks he's very smart so of course that system got sold. I kept telling him that these systems sell for close to $2500 but he probably kept thinking why I need such a high powered system. Because he can't even type an Excel formula if his life depended on it.

Anyway, the only reason I'm in quasi-IT (IT is not my main job but being well versed in tech helps a LOT and gives me an edge) is because of my curiosity and passion to push things just a little bit more, to see if I luck out or not. That is what keeps me going. I wish I could make money from it. I was just thinking the other day, hey, all this stuff I learned on how to tune a Ryzen, maybe I should become a system builder, offer boring and tuned machine configurations, with the exception that the BIOS of the tuned ones would be password protected and the customer would've to pay me extra to remove the password (which I will but then he will also get a stock BIOS with default settings). I will show the customer what kind of extra performance he can expect from my tuned config and the only stipulation is that he has to pay more and give up the right to tinker with the BIOS (I'm saving his time that way too!). He just uses it like a normal machine but with the satisfaction that it runs much better than a stock one.

BUT, I'm deluding myself. People are either penny pinchers or waste too much on frivolous stuff they don't need (so yeah, Alienware/Omen etc). The "sensible" ones who see the value of saving time by paying extra and not having to bother about doing research to tweak their configuration are few and far between. I would be lucky to sell one system and then have to take it back because the customer consulted with some "expert" who told him that he paid too much.

My dream job would've been at some place like Gamers Nexus (not LTT though, what a cesspool). Being a REAL programmer would've been awesome too.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I'm burnt out in my engineering job (non-IT). I feel like I need to be savior of the day and yet i get very little resources to do my job. Many other departments are critically understaffed IMO as well

 

[Chaotic42]

Yeah, computers were fun when I didn't sit behind one all day. Now sitting at a desk to game feels like being at work. I'd rather be outside or moving around. The whole cloud concept is super boring to me too. Everything is way more complicated, slow, and expensive than it needs to be.

Fortunately I do still get to do some programming at work.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Fortunately I do still get to do some programming at work.

Which language(s)?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah, computers were fun when I didn't sit behind one all day. Now sitting at a desk to game feels like being at work. I'd rather be outside or moving around. The whole cloud concept is super boring to me too. Everything is way more complicated, slow, and expensive than it needs to be.

Fortunately I do still get to do some programming at work.

I really don't get the cloud thing, i feel like in 5-10 years from now we'll just go full circle and back to on prem. Ever since my company moved to cloud everything is so glitchy, and surely they must be paying more now too.

 

[MrSquished]

Happy to hear the OP is burnt out. The guy is full-blown MAGA and still supports the totally evil MAGA agenda. So much evil is happening in our country because of that agenda, so when evil people feel burnt out, that's a great thing.

 

[nakedfrog]

Yeah, computers were fun when I didn't sit behind one all day. Now sitting at a desk to game feels like being at work. I'd rather be outside or moving around. The whole cloud concept is super boring to me too. Everything is way more complicated, slow, and expensive than it needs to be.

Fortunately I do still get to do some programming at work.

I do much of my PC gaming from my couch with a controller, no reason you have to be stuck behind a desk for it. I can use a mouse on the arm of my couch for FPS games and stuff like Civilization.

 

[nakedfrog]

I really don't get the cloud thing, i feel like in 5-10 years from now we'll just go full circle and back to on prem. Ever since my company moved to cloud everything is so glitchy, and surely they must be paying more now too.

I definitely wouldn't count on it.

 

[Chaotic42]

Which language(s)?

Mostly Python and a little C

 

[Chaotic42]

I do much of my PC gaming from my couch with a controller, no reason you have to be stuck behind a desk for it. I can use a mouse on the arm of my couch for FPS games and stuff like Civilization.

I haven't really found a good setup for recliner gaming that I like, and it would mean moving a bunch of stuff around. I honestly kind of feel like I'm wasting my time if I'm in front of a screen unless I'm watching something semi-educational. I haven't gamed for more than a few minutes since October - it just lost its appeal for a while.

 

[lxskllr]

Last game I started to play was Star Trek Elite Force, and that was a couple years ago. I played about one level, then started digging into the asset files to pull sounds to use on my phone. I had way more fun with that than the game itself :^D

 

[igor_kavinski]

Last game I started to play was Star Trek Elite Force

Try Riddick Butcher Bay.