Hello :), I am having a problem switching from software developer ( 32 years old, around 10 years worth of experience) to something else.
Reason why am I switching:
I am really curious person and I am interested in impactful ideas which can be applied all of life. Getting better at programming would be focusing even more to one topic—computer science. This doesn’t excite me as much as other ideas like economics, psychology, EA etc. These are also ideas which are not well known where I live (small baltic state)
programming isn’t my comparative advantage at least locally where I live so I can’t have much of impact (have little idea about AI so I can’t help there)
What I am trying now:
I was able to switch from programming to general role in our company so I can pick projects to work on. Now I am trying to move more to operations / manager role so I m looking across company to improve processes.
I also co founded SW company although issue there is that it’s not big enough for me to be there full at unless I want to do programming (which I don’t)
Issues:
feels like I am generalist and I have sort attention span. Even the company I founded once I had a feeling that I understand niche of the company(which is SW) I got bored
only thing which lasted me for a long time were personal development so finding new topics to learn and I try to be pragmatic about the learning so I don’t learn just to learn. This kind of helped me when starting a company and in the company I work now, but I am not sure where to push it more.
I have a bit of problem finding flow I had while programming, right now I am finding my self working with excel, sending emails, updating trello cards this have very little thrill compared to programming something
Some ideas
I could try consulting although I have no idea how that would look like
seems like perfect position for me would do some talks, but I don’t think I can make living from it. Podcasting / blogging seem to be really competitive but that might be possibility in few years ahead
I will focus on improving my project management skills, team leading and communication skills.
[Question] From programmer to generalist
Hello :), I am having a problem switching from software developer ( 32 years old, around 10 years worth of experience) to something else.
Reason why am I switching:
I am really curious person and I am interested in impactful ideas which can be applied all of life. Getting better at programming would be focusing even more to one topic—computer science. This doesn’t excite me as much as other ideas like economics, psychology, EA etc. These are also ideas which are not well known where I live (small baltic state)
programming isn’t my comparative advantage at least locally where I live so I can’t have much of impact (have little idea about AI so I can’t help there)
What I am trying now:
I was able to switch from programming to general role in our company so I can pick projects to work on. Now I am trying to move more to operations / manager role so I m looking across company to improve processes.
I also co founded SW company although issue there is that it’s not big enough for me to be there full at unless I want to do programming (which I don’t)
Issues:
feels like I am generalist and I have sort attention span. Even the company I founded once I had a feeling that I understand niche of the company(which is SW) I got bored
only thing which lasted me for a long time were personal development so finding new topics to learn and I try to be pragmatic about the learning so I don’t learn just to learn. This kind of helped me when starting a company and in the company I work now, but I am not sure where to push it more.
I have a bit of problem finding flow I had while programming, right now I am finding my self working with excel, sending emails, updating trello cards this have very little thrill compared to programming something
Some ideas
I could try consulting although I have no idea how that would look like
seems like perfect position for me would do some talks, but I don’t think I can make living from it. Podcasting / blogging seem to be really competitive but that might be possibility in few years ahead
I will focus on improving my project management skills, team leading and communication skills.
Any thoughts?