Some of you may have noticed I disappeared a bit from the community over the last couple of weeks. Well, first of all, I've been on holiday. I was ...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
Klaudia...
I guess this half year is the year of burn out.
I made promises to a good amount of people on my post about being behind and I will honor that in this comment.
I am so sorry that you are feeling this way. To be honest, I am feeling that as well mentioning "low-effort content around me. Most of what I read now feels generated at the lowest possible cost, barely reviewed, and nowhere near the quality I used to expect.". It's a sad reality, but rest asure @jess and @ben will release a solution for us. For right now, I am trying my best to reduce the amount of AI-Generated Articles, so that everyone is conformable to share their work with other people that feels human.
This is a reason I am taking initiative to use my Moderation to the fullest extent for the common good. We have hundreds of moderators on DEV and it feels like there is no work being done. Sure, makes sense they are busy and all, but I feel like having this kind of responsibility makes me feel like I need to take action. I am a type of person who would want to see something change. If I want to see change, I need to speak up, which I believe what you are doing right now is courageous of you to share your experience. We need more people speaking up about genuine experiences.
Keep doing what you do best. The only thing is that we have to adapt. Instead of using AI to replace, use AI as a hybrid. Find out ways that AI can help you speed up instead of relying. It might help.
Technical documentation, in my view, is based on if you can see what AI cannot. In fact, I believe we still need you. It's something I learn when contributing to Forem. AI only understands how to improve based on what is given, not what it can expand upon. For example, there was an article I read where it states "If you give AI a candle and you tell it to improve it. It will improve the lighting and the candle itself. However, it won't invent the light bulb". Outside the box thinking is CRITICAL and AI currently can't do that because it is trained on EXISTING knowledge. Otherwise, we would be at Mars by now lol.
I hope this makes sense. I am sorry that you felt burnt out and I will try my best to make DEV a great place for you. I would never let anyone feeling down like this and I am glad you shared your thoughts.
Also, for the disclaimer, feel free to remove it. I will make an exception to you. Besides, I don't send Sloan messages based on if the cover image is AI or not. It is more of content itself, which it doesn't seem to be the case. Either way, feel free to remove the disclaimer. I, as a Mod, pardon you :)
Hope you feel better. I am here if you want to speak to me about anything. You are chosen as a DEVenger for a reason. The great mind we ever know. Continue to show that :)
Aaaaaw, thank you, Francis! Your comments are always so supportive and wholesome 💛 I really appreciate that!
I am actually pretty satisfied with the quality on DEV. Sure, it's visible that people use AI to structure their thoughts and proofread; however, I always feel there is a human with an original thought behind it. I also think you are doing a great job moderating and guarding the quality on DEV – it for sure takes some courage! ⚔️
As for technical writing, I do not think that all writers will be replaced by AI now. I am not afraid of losing my job to this. I'm rather disappointed with what my job is evolving into. Not sure if it's only in the company I work for, or in the industry in general.
Anyway, thank you very much for your kind words and support; much appreciated 🙏🏻
Wow,your blog is fantastic.Your reply is also useful for me. Thank you very much.
This post is relatable in so many ways. I can't believe it.
My last month was almost completely passive. I barely managed to put an article together. It wasn't because of burnout, it was mostly because I got promoted, and I had to adapt to a completely new reality in the shortest amount of time possible.
Then, when the dust finally settled, I was excited to get back to writing on DEV. I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. I opened my editor and...
Blank.
I had no idea how to structure my article. Something I used to do almost naturally suddenly felt unfamiliar. I hadn't felt that rusty in a long while. And to make things worse, my first two articles after that break didn't perform particularly well, which added a few more tons to my self-doubt. It was rough, I really thought I was done at some point.
I love Iceland, but I ain't gonna become a herd sheep anytime soon. I'd probably be terrible at it. 😄 So instead, I decided to get back into my rhythm again.
And I did. My last article received more than a hundred reactions.
Now, why am I boring you with a story you probably don't care about?
Because sometimes the things we love and the things we're good at can become boring, exhausting, and frustrating. At some point, it happens to everyone.
Ask people who herd sheep in Iceland. I'm pretty sure even they get tired of it sometimes. And some of them wish they had skills to write just like us. But just like us, they have good days and bad days. And those bad days shouldn't make us give up on the good ones.
Now, about the low-quality, AI-generated content...
I know. I hate it too!
Every other article sometimes feels synthetic. The same structure, the same phrases, the same empty information. We've all seen those articles where you finish reading and think: "Okay... but what did I actually learn?"
I love craftsmanship. I love puzzles. I love an organic writing style where you can recognize the person behind the words.
When someone reads my article, I want them to understand what kind of person I am, well at least on some level. My way of thinking, my personality, my perspective. If that disappears, I'd rather not write at all.
But...
This is actually an incredible opportunity for people who truly care about the craft.
Why?
Because if there are 200 articles that all look and sound the same, and then there's yours, an article saturated with your personality, your fingerprints visible in every paragraph, your way of thinking shining through, you'll stand out. BIG TIME!!!
And the best part? You'll actually enjoy creating it.
You'll be crafting something beautiful instead of just producing another piece of content.
Compare "November Rain" by Axl Rose (he took 10 years to write that song) with some random crappy hip-hop with no soul. I'd pick "November Rain" 10 out of 10 times.
So no, don't give up on writing.
You're doing just fine.
You're not falling behind.
You're just getting started! And that's the best part.
Thank you, Giorgi, for your comment. It really resonates with me on so many levels that it makes me feel understood; it also gave me a lot to think about. Thank you very much for that.
The part that especially hit me was:
You know, I haven't been thinking about it like this. I rather felt like a loser standing for something nobody gives a crap about anymore. But as you stated above:
I feel this way, too! I'd rather be called a "dinosaur" and be blamed for not using brand-new technologies and AI models, but I want the content I create to feel mine and make sure it's good before I publish it. Maybe I'm not even tired of AI itself, but of proving that using it everywhere possible is not the most clever idea.
BTW, I'd probably be terrible as a shepherd, too. Probably it's better for the sheep if I don't pursue this career 🐑
PS: I appreciate the "November Rain" reference!
"Probably it's better for the sheep if I don't pursue this career 🐑" - that cracked me up, good one 😄
I'm glad it resonated with you. I've had that same feeling too, like I'm somehow falling behind and can't keep up, but it isn't actually true.
If anything, you're being more authentic and original than the people who rely entirely on AI and wirte five articles a day.
And trust me, the vast majority of readers would rather read something that's thoughtful, original, and genuinely valuable than another article that just repeats the obvious and adds nothing new, nothing valuable.
And lastly, I'm one of your regular readers, so please keep doing what you're doing. 😁 You're way too good at that to stop writing.
Thank you for taking the time to write these words, Giorgi. I think it's easy to doubt yourself and lose direction, especially now in the times of AI, but your comment lifted my spirit. I appreciate it a lot! 💛
Let's rock on like in "November Rain" 🤘
That's awesome! Then I consider my job done. 😄
BTW, I was just listening to "Nightrain".
Great comment - the one about even sheep herders in Iceland sometimes becoming tired of their job, that gave me a chuckle :-)
Should I quit or just live through it? people who are fine don't ask this question I don't have the answer. But living through it usually means surviving and surviving isn't the same as living.
One thing helped: asking what do I need right now? instead of should I quit? The answer is different for everyone. But you're not alone. ❤️
Thank you, Harsh; that is very comforting 💛
This question will stay with me for a while. Lately, I feel like I’ve been doing many things that go against myself and don’t really align with my values. This could be a big part of why I feel so drained recently.
Since I know you’ve also been struggling lately, let me say this again: I hope you find your way back to a job that feels right for you, too.
Klaudia doing things that go against myself that's the real drain. Not the work. The misalignment I hope you find what feels right. And I hope I do too.
One day at a time. 💛
I have been extremely burnt out in the past. I still get a bit burned out from time to time, but I've worked through it. A combination of habits to mitigate burnout and avoiding situations which clearly and unabashedly lead to burnout.
I'm not trying to describe it as easy, but it is possible to get to a new place with this stuff.
Thank you for the comment, Ben.
Yeah, this is what I'm trying to do now. Any advice on what, in particular, worked for you?
Dev.to is such a great community - also for discussing this kind of topic, not just "tech" topics ...
honestly the 'live through it' option is worse than it sounds - most people who push past burnout come back smaller. took me two burnout cycles to stop treating rest as productivity debt. quitting the role isn't quitting IT
So, have you changed your role? Was it your way out of burnout?
didn't change the role but shifted what i was doing. less reactive PM, more building. that helped.
Hmm, so didn't you actually come back to what you enjoyed the most – building things? I've noticed the same pattern with some developer colleagues: after being promoted to PM, lead, or head roles, they started feeling burned out. Sooner or later, many of them wanted to go back to building things again.
I feel it's the same in my case, with the difference that I was forced to work on AI tooling, and I am simply missing creating docs, which gave me joy from the very beginning.
yeah, sort of - but building without any PM framing gets hollow fast for me. the real drain was reactive mode: status meetings, stakeholder chasing. swapped that for actual building work and the energy came back. the PM side stayed, just the mix changed
So maybe a proper balance is the key. I will think about it and try to bring it to my team – that maybe instead of devoting 100% capacity to AI enablement, we should actually use it to improve the existing documentation.
Thank you a lot for your comments!
I join to burn out feelings. I keep try to ride a AI waves, even earn some victory in copilot cli vibe code championship. So I spend that money into a real equipment a 1993 Mazda pickup which is give me a chanche for a second life to renovate a old adobe house next to the mountain but close enough to a big city where I am working. Work also have a lot of fustration: need to give back my macbookpro to replaced a old ( 6 years ) del window laptop with very worn out keyboard ... but I can live with that by
wls install ubuntuand using that machine as linux one. Now the new company idea is do not use copilot cli so I back to the good old solve by hand method. Maybe that is help my burning out process, maybe not.Iceland is beautifull!
Lucky you! I wish the AI bubble would crash soon and more companies would follow this trend 🤞🏻Hope you find your way out of burnout. Good luck!
This was such an honest read, Klaudia.
The Iceland part immediately caught my attention because it's actually one of the places I really want to travel someday. 😄 But what resonated even more was the feeling behind it, that moment where you realize you don't actually want to open your laptop again just yet. I've started looking forward to those moments myself. Not because I dislike building things, but because stepping away for a while reminds me there's a whole world outside our screens that's worth experiencing too.
I also found myself thinking about your point on craftsmanship. I don't think you're burned out because of AI, I think you're burned out because you care deeply about the quality of what you create. Those are two very different things. Wanting to solve problems thoughtfully instead of just generating something "good enough" has always come through in your writing.
One thing your article made me reflect on is how easy it is to confuse losing passion for a profession with losing passion for the way we're currently doing it. Reading this, it feels less like you've fallen out of love with technical writing and more like you've been pushed away from the parts of it that originally gave you joy, structuring information, making things clearer, and helping people understand.
Reading this also made me think about something I've been missing lately. A year ago I used to spend evenings making tiny, fun little tools just because an idea sounded exciting. Somewhere along the way I became so focused on work, responsibilities, and "useful" projects that I stopped making those things. Your post reminded me that sometimes burnout isn't just about working too much, it's about slowly drifting away from the kind of work that made you excited to open your laptop in the first place.
I really hope it's the environment that's changed rather than the passion itself, because the latter is much harder to replace.
And selfishly... I'd much rather keep reading your articles on DEV than hear you've become the world's happiest shepherd in Iceland hahaha... I'm sure the sheep will be happy with you as their shepherd too though
Thank you for the valuable comment, Aryan! You lifted my spirit and, as always, you found the perfect words 💛
I can totally recommend Iceland as a travel destination! The nature is simply amazing, changing gradually as you travel along road no. 1. You will see mountains, ocean, lava fields, volcanoes, beaches with black sand, glaciers, and vast grasslands where sheep and horses feed. I'm sure you will love it! It's insanely expensive, though 🥲
As for the burnout itself... yes, it's just as you wrote. Could be that the current place does not align with my values anymore (especially regarding the attitude towards "thoughtful vs. good enough"). Hopefully, this is way easier to change than the passion for the profession itself 🙂 I hope you come back to the little projects that give you joy as well 🌻
BTW, the sheep at the end are hilarious 😂
Thank you so much, Klaudia! 💛
You're making Iceland sound even more tempting now. 😭 I've wanted to visit for a long time, and honestly what you described is exactly why. I love places where the scenery changes every few hours instead of looking the same the whole trip. I'll definitely have to start saving though... "insanely expensive" seems to be the one thing everyone agrees on.... Ehehe.
Also... yes!! 😂 The sheep are from The Sheep Detective Movie, I watched it a few days ago and absolutely loved it. If you haven't seen it yet, I'd definitely recommend it.
yes.If you're not lazy. You just need to try something new. What's technical writting like? idk I think you could try disassembling computers, writing a program, or creating a game, write the shader. In short, change activity. Maybe burnout is just a sign that it's become routine? gg
Hi Ember! I was actually thinking that trying something new could be a solution. I’ve been looking into different job opportunities and found that there are now some new specialisations in technical writing, with AI tooling being only one of them.
Personally, I would be more interested in something closer to coding, such as documentation engineering: handling documentation end-to-end, from maintaining documentation portals to building and maintaining pipelines. Moving in this direction would be a nice challenge.
However, my team seems to be moving more towards AI tooling, which is something I don’t really see myself fitting into. Hopefully, I’ll be able to resolve this mismatch in my current role or find a new opportunity soon.
You always know you can join open source. We're waiting for you, and I think you'll find a project that interests you
Interesting, I was actually thinking of some contributions to Forem 😄 Maybe it;s not such a bad idea after all.
Klaudia, I kept coming back to what you said about craftsmanship. I think that's what I've always admired about your writing and your posts here. You care about creating something that's genuinely useful, and that always comes through.
I don't know what the right answer is, and it's easy for me to say this from the outside because I'm not in your shoes. I can only imagine how heavy all of this must feel.
I just hope you give yourself the time and space before making any big decisions. Sometimes burnout has a way of making us question things we normally love. Maybe it's the work, maybe it's the environment, or maybe it's something else entirely. I hope things become a little clearer with time.
One thing I realized while writing my own recent article is just how important it is to have people around us when we're going through difficult periods. So if you ever need someone to talk to, even if it's just to vent or talk things through, please remember you're not alone. I'm always happy to listen, and you can always reach out to me on LinkedIn.
I hope you're feeling a little better soon. This community wouldn't be the same without you 🧡
Awwww, thank you so much, Hema! 💛🥹
To be honest, I am shocked by the amount of support I got from the DEV community since writing this article. I wrote this post mostly as a kind of rant, to let go of something that had been uncomfortable for a long time, but I never imagined so many people could relate and simply care about other community members.
Thank you for simply being here, for understanding, and for making me feel seen 💛 This means a lot, especially in such times of doubt.
Due to the very nature of how generative AI works, technical writing becomes that first low hanging fruit when it comes to automation areas; especially in a world that is rapidly losing interest in story-telling and epiphanies, and becoming more 'pragmatic' to say the least. As you rightly said, 'good enough' has become the new normal, folks no longer seem to have that thirst for inner insight or contemplation.
It's probably wise to quit this field if it's your sole earning source and you professionally depend on it. Would you keep writing even when discouraged at each step with 'AI can do better' and similar remarks? Would you keep writing stuff even when there is no appreciation or encouragement - just like the Sun who keeps rising each morning on the Eastern horizon even as everyone is asleep and nobody is there to appreciate its grace? Probably not, unless you live for the craft itself rather than craft being just a means to an end.
Hi, thank you for the comment 👋🏻
You're asking some interesting questions...
TBH, being a technical writer has taught me not to count on any of these 😅 Of course, a lot depends on the environment, but documentation never gets as much glory as code. That never was the problem for me. I was just there doing my job and making sure the documentation was there – complete and clear – in case anyone needed it. And I want to keep it this way.
With that approach, you're bound to achieve success 🙌.
The trick is to rise above the level that gets saturated due to AI automation. AI is good at generating reference docs from code, but code only tells you what happened. It rarely tells you:
Another great opportunity area is interviewing engineers and converting them to stories. They will tell you about all the important decisions that never make it to the code. For example - Why do we use UUIDv7 instead of autoincrement IDs, why we chose sqlite-wasm instead of IndexedDb, etc.
Yes, and this is exactly the most interesting part of the job! 🙂 I hope we will not lose it to "I don't know why it's like that; AI did it".
At some point, I think that "I don't know why it's like that; AI did it" is bound to happen, especially in Enterprise IT projects where time to deliver is the only metric considered.
Among the top tech influencers today, almost everyone is on the "Let's vibe code everything" bandwagon at varying degrees and choices of their favorite LLMs. I'm yet to see one that says 'Let's use LLMs to just prototype some boilerplate code, not depend on them too much' (unless I missed someone).
So unless something drastically changes in future, the vibe coding trajectory is mostly set. Those using LLMs as mere 'boilerplate assistants' while keeping core workflows with themselves will probably form their small niche spaces - like there are COBOL programmers today!.
The world has moved into a completely different direction since the ChatGPT was first released to the public on November 30, 2022. I believe that the AI has completely altered the way how things are working. Sorry, it's not just the documentation aspects, the whole of software design & development has fully transformed.
This isn't about whether or not someone adapting to the changes that are happening with the AI; however, we all need to rethink and go with the flow. Sorry if the AI has disappointed and made things worse, however nobody can foresee the further of AI. But one thing is sure, we need to adapt to the changes and work with the AI no matter what it is.
Here are my thoughts on your questions 🙂
Your domain expertise matters a lot for the industry. Hence, you need to stick to the job. However, things happening with the AI will not change for sure.
I believe, it's a matter of perception. If you consider "AI" as your co-worker, then it's fine and it will help or make you better. I don't think it has to do with the current environment because that is the way it is with every other company and industry.
I don't think that will help or solve your problem. However, my advice is to change the perspective and go with the flow and make things different as you got enough domain expertise.
Yes, I believe. However, nobody can anticipate the AI situation for sure. If you think about the cost of the AI, currently it's subsidized but it won't remain the same. You never know the future; the companies will get rid of the AI and again restart with the human hiring. It's already happening.
BWT, I really love your blog post cover image 😍. There is nothing like an AI that can replace the true nature of you.
Thank you, Ranjan, for your comment. Just as you said – hard to say which direction the industry will take in the age of AI. We are now in the transition period; everyone is experimenting, including the hiring companies.
Among the job offers on LinkedIn I saw new roles related to AI: "AI engineer", "AI tooling specialist", "AI enablement expert". I think this is rather the direction we are evolving – there will be a new specialization related to AI. My pain point is that it's definitely not something I am interested in, but I was forced to work on 😅
Oh, Sorry to hear that you are being forced on work. May be, you could think differently and take some of the below mentioned roles like
I believe, you are kind of working as an unofficial (DevRel) Technical Writer for dev.to :)
Exactly, I would rather go into documentation engineering or devrel, as you mentioned. I hope that soon I can find some tasks related to these specialties.
Thank you for sharing your honest experience. It takes courage to talk about these feelings. I hope you find the path that is best and most suitable for you, whatever you decide. Wishing you continued progress and success!
🧊🌊🗻☺️
Thank you. Best wishes to you as well 💛
I might be the strangest person to answer this, because I walked the opposite direction: I'm a physical therapist who wandered INTO tech because of AI. So take this with that grain of salt.
But your line about accepting "good enough" instead of craftsmanship — I don't think that's a sign you should leave. I think it's a sign of what you actually are. The people who feel that ache are the ones who care about the thing itself, not the industry around it. For me, what made the AI era energizing instead of draining was that I could point every tool I built at a person I could see — a nurse who stopped doing double entry, a colleague who stopped copying plates in the heat. The craft didn't disappear; it moved from the artifact to the outcome.
So maybe the question isn't "IT or not IT," but: where in your work can you still see a specific human being helped by something you made carefully? If your current role has moved you too far from that view, changing the seat might fix what quitting the whole building wouldn't. Either way — the fact that you want someone to "really care about the content before publishing" means the burnout hasn't taken the part of you that matters.
What a shift in career, from physical therapist to tech! Happy to hear that AI opened up new opportunities for you.
Yes, I think this is exactly the point. It feels like I've recently been playing in an AI sandbox that nobody needs, and I myself do not even enjoy this game. It could be that the change of seat could solve the issue. Thank you for the comment; it gave me some food for thought!
"An AI sandbox that nobody needs" — that phrase is doing a lot of diagnostic work, and I'd gently point out what it reveals: your exhaustion isn't from AI, it's from unneededness. Those are very different illnesses with very different cures.
Before making any big call, maybe run the cheapest possible experiment: find one person near you with one real, boring friction — a colleague drowning in some repetitive task — and use your skills (writing, structure, information architecture are superpowers for this) to remove it. Just once, for one human. If that feels alive again, you have your answer, and it isn't "leave IT." It's "point the craft at someone who needs it."
That was my entire accidental career change in one sentence, honestly. Wishing you clarity — and I'd genuinely love to read the post you write six months from now about what you decided.
Fatigue from ai slop and the share amount of articles is warranted at this day and age.
However as long as you love storytelling, there will be no AI to match it.
Burnout however is a different kind of beast. That snuffs out of the joy from the things that you loved to do and it makes them mundane.
What I saw working the best so far is reorganizing the thing you love into things that actually matters to you and keeping the focus on that. The rest is work. Mundane, grey, boring work.
Hi, Gabor. Thank you for the comment! I appreciate it a lot.
The real pain point is that I stopped doing what I loved to do, and now I'm forced into an AI-tooling team, which drains me of all motivation and is not aligned with my values. I try coming back to documentation-related tasks, which in turn is not welcomed by my teammates. Could be I just ended up in the wrong team. Or maybe the whole IT world is now changing into "AI-first", which my team lead seems to imply?
yeah ... devs don't like to read/maintain documentation ... because the experience is that nobody reads it. However it's invaluable when its missing. In my opinion, documentations now are written (or maybe I should say *should be written) for AIs. After all, those tools are the main consumers nowadays.
It's actually an interesting challenge, now thinking about it. How to write documentation for agents for complying progressive disclosure?
... and for the team ... well ... that does not sound a healthy environment for recovering from burnout ...
Actually, many tech writers are now writing content for a double audience: a regular human reader and AI. The assumption is that the content should be easily consumable for AIs, but we also need to consider people who use it old-style. And it's not as difficult as it may seem, as many common guidelines overlap. For example, all popular style guides assume that paragraphs should be concise and semantically cover one piece of information. The same goes for AI chunks. So even though the audience is extended, the docs often need only small adjustments 🙂
The 'passion trap' is real. I've been there—loving the craft doesn't protect us from burnout, it can actually make us ignore the signs until it's too late. What helped me wasn't working less (which felt impossible), but redefining what 'productive' means: shifting from 'how much code I wrote' to 'how many problems I truly solved'.
Wow, that's actually a super interesting mindset shift! 😲 It will stay with me for a while.
I do miss the old, good writing, though 😣
Glad it resonated! And I hear you on the old-school writing—there was something meditative about it. I think AI is forcing us to redefine what we value as 'craft'. Maybe the new craft is in how we think, not just how we type.
Klaudia, first thanks for the honest open post.
Interestingly I have just finished two weeks of not working on my personal projects and only focusing on 'the day job'. And have found myself with the same results as you.
Going back to question of the daily grind, I think we found that AI does fix the low hanging fruit quicker for us, and that has just made us less inclined to put in the effort for sure.
This compounded by the fact that users just assume everything is AI these days and companies pushing to use it as a way to reduce cost and increase speed to market just makes things worse for those expected to make it happen.
I've have been through burnout many times, and arguably am going through one now for the same kind of reasons as you and many others. I wish I could say there was an answer other than hoping to survive it. But that's where I find myself most of the time.
I'd love to do something totally different as a career as my love and appreciation for where tech has taken us as a society is not a happy place. But after 30+ years of coding it's truly all I know how to do at the level that pays the bills.
I watch all these videos of folks that went for a simpler life and am envious but I also know the adjustment would be far to difficult for me to manage these days.
Hang in there is the best I can offer, knowing that there are communities like dev.to helps greatly when these times come along.
Hi, Peter. Thank you for your comment.
I am actually shocked by the DEV community's reaction to this post. I thought I wrote just a small rant that maybe a few regular readers would see, but the reaction totally exceeded my imagination 🤯 Two conclusions:
Technical Writing is also the only thing I can do well, and that allows me to pay the bills. And this still gives me a lot of anxiety, especially now in the times of AI. This makes me question myself and my life choices. "Why haven't I become a nurse? Or a police officer? They are always needed". And travelling through Iceland made me appreciate such a "simple" life more.
But is it really simple, though? You know they say the grass is always greener on the other side. I still caught myself daydreaming about throwing away everything and moving there to herd sheep or work in the kitchen in some fish restaurant, idk. Probably just a defense mechanism – just like a child daydreaming of being a pirate to escape boredom 😅
Let's just hope both of us will survive this burnout cycle 🤞🏻
Best wishes!
Great post, thoughtful and relatable ...
"... after 30+ years of coding it's truly all I know how to do at the level that pays the bills"
Yeah I'm in the same boat - for many of us it's simply the only thing we know how to do well - we don't really have any other 'marketable skills' that pay the $$$ in the same way ...
The whole AI thing is just something we all need to battle through, some like it more than others, but it's the new reality and we need to try and make the best of it ...
Couldn't agree more. I'm in the burn out stage right now. and at the same time i feel like if I'm not keep updated to the latest tech / news, I'm gonna be out of the loop, because of how fast things change right now.
And sometimes I think "What if i quit being developer and just go be a farmer (or a job that doesn't require tech skills)" and then i remember i don't know anything about being a farmer. I don't even know how to take care of plants 😅
And.. here I am.. still don't know what to do. I feel behind about all of this new AI changes and i need to catch up many things, but i got overwhelmed cuz too many things that i need to learn and end up burnout
Exactly! This fear of being out of the loop adds anxiety that definitely doesn't help with handling burnout 😖 Unfortunately, I do not know the way out, but one thing I can say is that you're not alone with this (and the comments under this post are proof!). Wishing you all the best! 💛
i'm like you too :))
sometimes i want to quit it and find another job like farmer or mechanic
but after a time i rest, i can continue in it again :)
Yes, maybe unplugging yourself for a while is a good way to rest and get perspective. Worse if you simply do not want to come back to your work after taking a break.
The part that resonates is treating burnout as a signal, not a character flaw. Sometimes the right move is not quitting the field, but changing the environment that made every task feel like proof of survival. A small diagnostic I like: which parts drain you because they are hard, and which drain you because they feel pointless or politically impossible?
Yes, I think this is the perfect summary. The most draining part is being forced to do tasks that are not related to my profession. Imagine you, as a software engineer, are given the role of, idk, security engineer out of the blue. Could be a nice opportunity for development if you're interested in it, but on the contrary, could be a curse if you do not find it interesting.
That example is exactly the distinction. A stretch assignment can be energizing when it matches curiosity and support; it becomes draining when it is just role drift with accountability attached. Burnout often starts when “growth opportunity” becomes a label for misfit work.
The same, looks like my sole speech you catched & rewritten here...
BTW now maybe we should more focus yo engineering learn i sted of low level code...
I know in future its also can be AI (already AI doing)....
Hard to foresee the future... anyway, I started learning web development, which maybe will give me more possibilities to specialize in documentation engineering rather than AI tooling that I've been forced to do. Wish you find your way! 🌻
_Wah! That's nice.....
_Yeah, I am already employed as a Software Engineer ...
This resonated with me because I think many people in tech are quietly experiencing a similar shift. The tools are changing faster than our sense of purpose around the work.
One thing I've been thinking about is that craftsmanship may not disappear with AI. It may just move to a different layer. Instead of only creating the artifact, we may spend more time shaping the systems, evaluating outcomes, and making sure the work still serves humans.
Thank you for sharing your post.
I think me deep-diving here into depression wouldn't be helpful.
So:
Hi!
My primary job here on dev.to is challenge people into puzzles to bring out their creative side.
I challenge devs into programming puzzles.
You are a techincal writer, so I'll challenge you into a writing adventure.
So, as a writer, you probaly know that this platform uses markdown.
You can add padding between sections.
2-3 Screen long sections.
So long sections that, for a reader, it'd be futile to scroll.
Now given that...
Imagine that - instead of writing a linear article like you just did - you'd write a 'Choose Your Adventure' style non-linear article.
A deterministic finite state machine / graph.
Each section is heavily padded around.
Each section contains a link to 1, 2 or more other sections in the same article.
A literal game made out of markdown.
This is my challenge: Can you make this idea rock, Jon?
Btw, nobody said you should use words only.
You could do rhymes.
I'm personally not a writer, so I'm horrible at anapestic tetrameter.
But I tried it anyways
Is my stuff good? NO.
Did creating my stuff feel fun? Hell yeah.
I think you are a bit too carried away by your - rightful - pessimism.
I'm saying that there's another side of the story:
If you quit IT, you kind of rob people from the potential value of your work, and you also rob yourself of fun.
I'm not saying you should become optimistic.
There's the The Enchiridion By Epictetus.
It is insanely, funnily short, yet it kind of summarizes a stance pretty well, which isn't naively optimistic, but not cynical inactive either.
Epictetus is just one way. There are other schools of philosophy which attempt to answer what to do in a society which is rapidly decaying.
The real question is:
Do you want to dwell on the state of the world a little more...
Or do you want to at least try rescuing yourself?
P.S.: You wrote
I personally lack that skill, so I think it is a great value.
I'm good at proofs, lacing things into narratives, but I lack the abilities of a person who knows who to cut fat, how to present only the exactly needed information at the exact right time, without overwhelming the viewer.
Here's an example where I failed to deliver the core messages (because I had to balance it with being fun to read, and a stupid pixelshooter):
1) You can use Calculus like rules to derive more efficient algorithms.
2) You can use the power of geometry to gamify for your brain constraint based problems (aka how to not access outside of an array by simply doing a sketch 🙂).
3) You can use declarative programming to arrive at an elegant 'above naive average' solution, then you can use dirty imperative tricks to make it really fast.
It is more easier to dirty hack an elegant declarative algo, than to dirty hack an already messy whack-a-mole algo.
TL;DR Your skills are more valuable than you think.
Thank you for your comment; it really means a lot, especially since I thought nobody would react to my rant.
The Markdown game sounds like such a fun idea! 😄 I already have several ideas about how I could take this further, what I would like to try out, and so on. See? This is exactly what I’m missing in my current work. I want to work on tasks that require some thinking, logic, and playing around with text, not just copy-pasting prompts into AI.
BTW, I think your book-style animations are charming. You should keep going!
I hope you'll have some fun thinking about it.
It is not even necessary to make it... simply a little hamburger for the brain.
To chew on quirky funny ideas, rather than on a sadness sandwich.
i think burnout is now part of our job in tech after the ai vibes that never end and the continues improve of ai the job became more hard to follow up and i think we need to learn more and improve more and most of all being updated with the docs , tools, in my opinion don't change the career change the habit from traditional work to creative and learn more, and most of all things will return to normal after the vibes of ai end 😃
Oh, how I wish this would come true! The sooner the better! 🤞
[Fair warning: I don't use AI but I've always used em-dashes.]
Make a minor change to the requirement -- work on an agent that makes it easier for YOU to write documentation for your team. You needn't inform the dumbass who gave you that assignment; think of it as protecting them from themselves.
Don't. AI makes it much harder to ignore stupid people because they can generate more garbage in a minute than you can get through in a month. They've always been around -- ignorance can be temporary but stupidity is eternal. AI is just a force-multiplier.
First, get outside and get moving if you're not already. This is coming from someone who thinks reaching for the remote is (almost) exercise. I bought a 20lb weight-vest and I walk outside for about an hour per day (~2.5 miles or so). HUGE difference.
Second, anything that shifts your mindset might help. When I find myself thinking "May they all die in a fire", I press my tongue against the roof of my mouth for a few seconds to make a minor change to my physical state.
Then I think about the doctors and nurses who were first on scene at the 1985 Mexico earthquake. They didn't say "Screw it, I can't save everyone so take me home." They said "Set up the triage tents like you were taught, figure out who's first and how bad."
Then I write a paragraph about some tech stuff I want to bloviate about. I leave it in my "tomorrow" folder and when I look at it, I'll think of something to add. Lather, rinse, repeat.
--
Karl Vogel
Hi, Karl! Thank you for the thoughtful comment and advice – it gave me a lot to think about. I've actually been dissociating quite a lot recently – writing tech posts, learning web development, building my own site, journaling. It all helps until I need to sit back and work on tasks that I don't want to work on so much that I feel it physically. Following the doctors and nurses' example you provided, some medics are good in the field; I am the one waiting in the ER. Simply not my specialty. The good part is that it's probably not the profession itself I am tired of, but the environment.
You're literally the first person I know who uses em-dashes! Most of the people I know didn't even realise the difference between em dashes, en dashes, and regular dashes before AI started using em dashes everywhere 😅 I've always been more keen on en dashes, though!
Yeah I feel you, definitely ...
I suspect that a LOT of people start feeling alienated from their job in IT, because of the insane speed at which AI has taken over the content of our work ...
AI is here to stay, but how do we use it without losing our sanity?
I think the level of hype and the rush to push AI into every aspect of our work is causing burnout and wearing people out - companies/organizations should be mindful of that, and try to preserve a better balance - stop pushing it too much and too fast ...
But I would say, don't take your decision too hastily or in a state of 'distress' - even when the work isn't what it used to be, economic security is still a thing - maybe try to sit it out for a while, and see where it goes?
P.S. I'm seconding what others have said in comments here - dev.to is such a great community, also for discussing these kind of topics, not purely the tech topics ...
P.S. this article genuinely gave me pause for thought, but the point I keep coming back to is this:
It shouldn't be for individuals (employees, etc) only to grapple with these matters - companies and organizations (think about educational institutes) need to accept and embrace their role in managing the whole AI transition in a responsible way, with an eye to the mental wellbeing of their employees (or students, etc) - I think in many cases things are being pushed too hard and too fast ...
But yeah that's just the drum I keep banging, no idea if anyone else sees it that way :-)
Thank you, @leob, for taking the time to comment. At the same time, sorry for replying so late – to be honest, I got a little overwhelmed by the number of comments, even though I am grateful for every single one 🙏🏻
Agree 💯 And I love what you wrote about the responsibility of companies to handle the AI transition with proper care for their employees. In the ideal world, it would work exactly like this. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that everyone is now drawn into this AI rush, including managers. Nobody wants to stay behind, so we all add up to this rush and run a marathon everyone else is running.
Yes, this is reasonable advice, thank you 🙏🏻 It's crazy how frustration can make us blind to such basic needs as economic security. So I started some side projects where I could be more creative. Started learning what I was always postponing. And I even started experimenting with watercolors 🎨 As you said – we'll see where it goes.
Thank you again, wishing you all the best 🌻
Thanks, take care and keep going! AI is here to stay and is not going away, we all know that, and we need to make the best of it somehow - I just hope that companies and institutions (and that includes education) also take their responsibility and do their part, and that it's not just down to individuals to struggle through it ... all the best and I know you'll be fine!
Hey @klaudiagrz,
I really enjoyed reading this article. I have developed enough intuition now which content is AI generated.
When I read your article I can really get the idea clearly. It is really well communicated.
I don’t understand your situation but how about training the AI with your content so it writes better, adjusting to your style, adds guidelines to not use so many — (double hyphens).
You write so well. Apart from technical are there other options. Idk.
But I understand the frustration AI written docs have caused me so much drain.
Hi @aabhassao ! Thank you for your comment! I also developed this intuition for AI-generated content. Or rather, I have it somehow programmed in me, since my brain goes off when reading generated text. And since more and more people seem to be frustrated with AI slop, I hope we'll see the end of it soon 🤞🏻
Training AI to follow the style seems like an interesting idea 🤔 I need to give it a try at work, since in my private writing I prefer to keep writing manually. It doesn't change the fact that I just hate working on AI tooling – simply not interesting to me 😅
Glad I'm not the only one thinking this way. After more than 25 years in IT, I just don't have the same passion I used to when I stepped into IT. I miss the days when a group of us would sit together trying to track down a bug or brainstorm, spending hours hunting for that one stubborn line of code. We'd take coffee breaks, clear our heads, and come back with fresh ideas and not to forget the sleepless nights that used to bother on that one bug. Those were good times!!
These days, it feels like technology is just going in circles. There doesn't seem to be much real innovation anymore, just the same concepts rebranded with different names and syntax. And with AI, it's changed even more. We barely write code now, AI does everything from writing code, debugging, fixing and publishing. it feels like we spend more time writing prompts than actually building things.
I have only got a few years left before retirement, but honestly, with how quickly AI is changing the industry, I'm not even sure I'll stick till my retirement. What I really love to do is start a greenhouse vegetable business. I've always enjoyed growing veggies in my backyard and I love it because it gets me closer to nature, and there's something incredibly satisfying about watching plants grow and produce food. Hopefully, I can make that transition sooner rather than later and finally say goodbye to the IT world for good.
Hi, thank you for taking the time to comment and for sharing your thoughts 🙏🏻
Yes, this is exactly what makes me feel like I do not fit anymore. Writing prompts to get fast but low-quality results seems to be the new expectation in the AI era, and seriously, I cannot get over it.
Growing veggies really sounds like a fulfilling job and hobby at the same time! Interesting how many of us feel the need to run away to nature, either to grow veggies or herd sheep. Wish you all the best and good luck with your greenhouse 🥦
I completely resonate with what you are feeling here, Klaudia.
The exhaustion you described from the flood of "good enough" AI content is incredibly real.
On the development side, I'm seeing the exact same shift. The joy of this field has always been the craftsmanship—collaborating with a team, untangling a messy problem, and building something that actually makes sense for the end user. Now, there is so much pressure to just generate solutions quickly and move on, bypassing the thoughtful problem-solving that made the work rewarding in the first place.
It really does feel like we're prioritizing speed over soul right now. But I have to believe that in a sea of disposable, automated output, authentic human craftsmanship is only going to become more valuable and recognized😊.
Don't head to Iceland to herd sheep just yet😅! Your perspective and dedication to quality are exactly what we need to keep things grounded while all this hype settles👍🏻.
Thank you for taking the time to comment; it really means a lot 🙏🏻
I really appreciate your enthusiasm; let me steal some from you! 😅 But actually, I followed your advice – just doing my job so that people who are now hyped about AI will have something real to feed to LLMs; not just another pile of generated content. Maybe this will help me survive until this boom is over 😅
Thank you and take care!
Klaudia, that's a heavy thing to sit down and write publicly. Hope you find whatever answer actually settles it for you — quit or stay, either way, you deserve to feel like yourself again in the work.
Thank you, Daniel! Much appreciated 🥹🙏🏻
Hi Klaudia,
your article feels very familiar with my current situation. We are currently straying further away from craftmansship and management is supporting it. "No you don't need to unerstand the code, the task needs to be done" is my favorite point made up by management which haven't coded a single line of code. I understand that AI-Client can do a lot of programming for us and that some of the result are not even bad but I don't like the feeling of just creating and pushing code and not really thinking about the problem. For me finding easy solutions for complicated problems was always the best part of the job - now it is a grill-session with an AI-session. Something is truly missing.
For me I'm trying to do the next steps away from programming and creating and find my way in a more social way to start forging my career further in leadership to get new problems which needs to be solved. Maybe AI will solve human-to-human problems in the future too but till then I will. Programming and creating will be something I can practice and live outside of my job as the hobby I once made to my job.
Thank you for this beautiful article I loved to read this.
Hi, Maurice! Thank you for taking the time to comment. I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed the article.
I actually started to do the same... being creative and doing craftsmanship outside of my job. It brings some joy in this "let's generate everything" world. And I seriously cannot understand how we ended up with the approach "you don't need to understand the code, the task needs to be done". Good luck with debugging when the product reaches production (if it even will) 🙄
Hopefully, this AI bubble will crash sooner or later, and people will wake up from this psychosis 🤞🏻
This career def causes burn out. I've looked into creating my business in the trades and feel much more purpose driven.
I will continue to write code (especially around this venture), but I've taken a step back in working specifically with companies saying WRITE MORE CODE with a crack of the whip style.
Be well everyone :)
Hopefully, the AI bubble will crash, and all companies will take a step back soon 🤞🏻 Thank you for the comment; be well as well :)
This resonates deeply. I feel the same tension.
I still love creating with technology, yet routine corporate tech work stopped feeling meaningful.
More and more, I find myself pulled toward indie development — building full products on my own terms. It’s where I can focus on genuine craftsmanship instead of rushing through hollow, AI-augmented tasks.
Exactly! I also started developing my own projects. They give me much more satisfaction, as I am the one deciding about the quality and nature of the things to do. Still need to sit at work and do these AI-augmented tasks 8 hours per day, though 🥲
Hi Klaudia,
I really connected with what you wrote. I’ve had a similar feeling at some point in my own journey — that moment when you start wondering if the path you’re on still feels right, if the work that once excited you has slowly become something that takes more energy than it gives back.
But I decided not to give up. I realized that sometimes the problem is not the passion itself, but the environment, the way we are working, or the distance we’ve created from the things that originally made us love what we do.
What you said about missing craftsmanship really stood out to me. In a world where everything is becoming faster and more automated, caring about quality, meaning, and the human side of work feels more important than ever. AI can help us create things faster, but it cannot replace the curiosity, empathy, and genuine care that make something truly valuable.
I also think your Iceland experience says a lot. Sometimes stepping away from our normal routine helps us see what we’ve been feeling for a long time. Maybe it’s not just about leaving everything behind and herding sheep in Iceland (although that honestly sounds amazing 🐑), but about finding a way to bring more of that peace, creativity, and authenticity back into everyday life.
I hope you don’t lose the part of yourself that cares so much about doing meaningful work. People who value craftsmanship are exactly the ones we need as technology continues to evolve.
Wishing you clarity and hoping you find a path that feels fulfilling again.
Thank you, Oscar, for taking the time to comment. It really means a lot 🙏🏻
Exactly! Recently I talked to my team lead about the problem, and I got more documentation-related tasks. And guess what? The energy for work is back! I again feel the engagement I lost when working on AI-related tasks.
That's what I'm focusing on now. Thank you again for the thoughtful comment, and I wish you all the best 🍀
Take it easy, enjoy your day with lemond juice.
I think that herd sheep isn't a bad ideia. 🤔
There is some beauty in it 🐑
I can relate to this. AI is powerful, but real value still comes from thoughtful work and human judgment.
Exactly, and thoughtful work seems to be missing among easily generated content, which is probably my biggest pain point 😥
Prioritizing time for a break helps heal the burnout rest assure.
Find what you love, grow, learn, and savor everything beautiful in life.
I am so sorry you feel that way! The truth is that I feel the same the past six months. Everything feels...grey? It is not only the content though, it is everything. Sometimes i feel my brain works overtime to separate what is real and what is generated. Many friends and family that also work in tech feel completely burnout, everyone accepts mediocrity and everything feels blah.
I try to reduce the amount of screen time, I try to do hobbies that are in the real world and force me to interact with other people, I try to travel and experience things. But at the moment I open my laptop a chatbot appears and i get more and more disappointed.
To be honest, sometimes i feel that i no longer belong in this tech world; [Like it wasnt bad enough being woman in tech, now you have to be x100 woman in tech (because x10 engineer is too low for us).] But i also don't know what i could do except being an engineer.
Lately, i romanticise the idea to open a small cafe. Or volunteer to a cafe farm. Who knows, maybe herding sheep is the answer after-all.
This post really resonated with me Klaudia.
I have also caught myself questionning the nature of my role as a Software Engineer. Especially since I am currently interviewing for jobs at the moment. It feels that the requirements for the job are changing a lot and the variance between companies is high. It therefore becomes tricky to prepare for each interview and the mental load feels higher.
What helps me overcome these feelings is to take it day by day and build myself a system that helps me build resilience. I start ticking off fundamentals for mental health: exercising 3-4 times a week, reading daily before sleep, sleep 7-8h on average, keep a tidy environment, check in weekly with family and friends. On top of this I try and do something that brings me joy such as writing a blog post, exploring a new neighborhood, watching a new show.
The way I see it, our jobs are changing and we have to adapt. This creates opportunities even though it is scary at times. Not overthinking it too much and building resilience are definitely things I try to focus on during these times.
By the way, I also had the chance to explore Iceland and definitely plan to go back one day, the landscapes and atmosphere are so unique and enchanting.
Sadly, Klaudia, I do believe you need to get out of the technical-writer game while you still have your sanity. You are clearly a thoughtful, adaptable individual, and I'm sure you'll easily find a rewarding niche elsewhere.
Here's my (controversial, I'm sure) reasoning.
My view is that there are now better ways of gaining understanding on a subject than by reading conventional "documentation". Information needs can now be met by "question and answer sessions" controlled by the likes of ChatGPT and Claude. In my experience, this creates a genuinely exciting student-tutor arrangement that quickly leads to a sound understanding of issues.
While more work is needed here to develop an efficient way to record and index this approach, I believe this arrangement has significant implications for the entire education industry. As an experiment, I intend to select a subject at random, give myself 3 months to work with an AI on past examination papers, and see if I can earn myself a qualification.
Klaudia. - First, you are not alone in this burnout race. So take a deep breath and calm down in this AI era.
As you are a technical writer, I believe that if your job has not been impacted yet, then it will be soon.
Do not get me wrong, but I'm talking about facts. Before AI era I hired 2 of technical writer who plan, strategize, write blogs, docs etc. content. But currently i don't need them. AI do well than what they write.
Yes, the planning and the prompting things are here to perform key roles in AI and for that Human hand required.
I suggest to you to upskill your experience in content field. Like you can make Video content for brands, orgs, docs, etc...
Thank you for your comment, Rakesh. Actually, I am not worried that AI will take away my job. Call me naive, but I think tech writers are still needed, just the same as devs are needed, even though AI can easily generate code itself.
I agree that pure writing may no longer be enough, and tech writers may need to specialize. My problem is that I am forced to work on AI tools. Instead, I'd choose a different specialization if I could, such as documentation engineering, doc architecture, or devex. This totally drains me, since I do something that is totally not interesting to me and doesn't align with my values 😔
If you're asking this question, you probably need to quit IT for a while, but don't burn bridges. Creative people need a reset from time to time. Even gardening can help you reset. It all depends on what you love to do besides IT. Gardening is just an example.
Hi Klaudia,
A couple of year ago I experienced a burn out. First I thought it has to do with health in general. Went to the hostpital for a complete check. After 2 days they daignosed me as complete cured while I could not work at all. During that time I could not do even the simplest things. Normally I worked on my laptop days after days. I could not do anything.
After 6 months I was able to start working. During my burn out I had need to rethink if I want to work the same job. Decided to continue my job. 4 Years later I got medical situation - heart failure.
Just want to share this.
Wishing alll the best,
Ben.
Hi Ben,
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope both your physical and mental health are much better now 🌻 I know very well how emotions can accumulate in the body and affect physical health. Sometimes pushing through frustration every day can be more damaging than we can imagine. Are you still in tech? Did you change the environment to a less toxic?
Best wishes to you!
I don't think you're burned out by AI itself. It sounds like you're exhausted by the loss of craftsmanship and meaningful work. Iceland simply gave you the space to notice it. Maybe you don't need a new career, just an environment that still values thoughtful, human-centered work.
Cryptera Chain Signals is a trusted crypto recovery specialist offering advanced blockchain forensics, asset tracing, and scam recovery services. With years of expertise and hundreds of successful cases, they help victims recover stolen digital assets ethically and efficiently.
Yep. I foresaw my 'AI layoff' when my company rushed the development of an AI tool that did exactly what my colleagues and I used to do. I started saving money and just waited for it to happen.
I'm taking my time to heal from the mental wounds of working in toxic banking environments, dealing with stupid POs and tech leads who could only check whether there was a ';' at the end of each line, along with countless other kinds of bullshit.
Now I'm taking my time, learning things I genuinely enjoy as well as new technologies that have emerged recently. I'm also deepening my knowledge in areas I used to think I'd never use, and I'm finding practical applications for them within my specialization.
You should take your time as well. Heal your mental wounds. The only things you should NOT let happen is letting those corpos take your health from you and your ability to appreciate how good life can be. Don't let them taint the things you do simply because you love doing them.
I am not a technical writer. But I would say an AI writer is just another kind of writer. So instead maybe pretend you are managing a team of writers. Use different models for each writer. Hire them. Compare them with your own work and see if they match up. Fire them if they don't. "Working on an AI agent" is just working on the skill files, another kind of writing. You can still go to end users to test and rank the writing.
One thing I appreciated about this post is that you didn't blame AI. You pointed at something much deeper: the feeling that care and craftsmanship are slowly being replaced by "just ship it."
The Iceland part also hit me. I don't think it's really about wanting to herd sheep. I think it's about wanting to wake up and feel connected to what you do again. A change of scenery has a way of making that disconnect impossible to ignore.
For what it's worth, I hope you don't walk away from technical writing because of an environment that no longer reflects why you fell in love with it in the first place. The way you described organizing information and helping people understand complex systems reminded me that good documentation is a craft, and there are still people who value that.
Thank you for writing this. Posts like this are far more valuable than another "Top 10 AI tools" article because they start conversations we actually need to have.
Thank you @klaudiagrz. I love this kind of post, where humanity prevails over technology. This, in my opinion, is what we need to better understand ourselves. I'm currently at a point in my life where burnout is perhaps a distant problem. But as you can see in some of my posts, I've found my own solutions, such as "Dead Man's Float" Approach To Surviving the Wave, in my career, I've always tried to find moments of respite. When I notice my "temperature" rising, I've always stepped away from problems for a few days, only to return to them after a cooldown. I think the most important thing is to learn to know ourselves deeply to understand when it's time to "stop" and catch your breath. I've always loved my job, even though it was tiring at times. I agree with you that AI, in some cases, accelerates not only productivity but also burnout, pushing you to do things even when you should be resting. It's in its nature to "What do we do now?" and in ours as problem solvers who want to get halfway there as quickly as possible. Thank you for sharing your feelings with us, they help us understand ourselves better.
Sometimes stepping away gives you the clarity that everyday routines don't. Travel has a way of showing us what we truly enjoy and what no longer feels right. I hope you can hold onto that perspective and find a path that brings back the creativity and purpose you were missing.
Klaudia...
I can understand your frustration with the current state of IT. However, this is basically how it has always been, in one form or another in our profession.
I was professionally employed both as an employee and as a consultant throughout a 43+ year career as a senior developer, technical development specialist, and finally a senior software engineer.
What you are dealing with is the largest problem in IT both in the past and presently, incompetent and arrogant IT technical management, who are all under the thumbs of the even more incompetent business management.
That being said, this current phase in the IT profession, AI, will, like all the past ones, burn itself out and take its rightful place as just another tool in your skill-set.
That being said, it is undoubtedly a very difficult time for technical writers, developers, and engineers in the IT profession, especially for employees. Every major company in the US appears to be falling for the current AI hype in which it can do everything a corporate manager wants, including getting coffee.
This will end since the current AI cannot and never could sustain the hype surrounding it. Companies are already beginning to find that firing employees thinking AI could replace them are having serious buyer's remorse.
Technical professionals are in many cases finding the current spate of AI tools nearly useless, except for the smallest of tasks. This is mostly because such tools have no understanding of the context they are tasked working with. So requesting a small snippet of code will usually result in some level of quality output. Anything larger and the I begins to produce low-quality or inaccurate results.
Technical writing has been hit from another angle whereby the AI outputs bland and\or inaccurate documentation that simply has to be reviewed and corrected by the technical writer in charge of the task, most often at the expense of valuable time and cost.
The massive data centers that AI companies are investing in are beginning to collapse against both the uproar from local communities and the cost, which appear never ending and appear to demonstrate that any profit from such endeavors will be too small to make a difference. One wonders then, what the real motives are for building such giant server warehouses given that the 4000+ number in the US appears to be massive overkill for what we are seeing AI used for.
In any event, my own advice for current professionals is to seek out employment as consultants or as employees with smaller companies, who don't have the deep pockets for such frivolous expenses . The current hoopla over AI is a demonstration that the larger companies are entering a period of decline and complete disintegration given the levels of stupidity that appear to run such entities.
I would of course, recommend that you learn how to incorporate AI into your own work, not as a crutch as many younger professionals appear to have attempted, but instead just another useful tool to your own workbench.
I would also stay away from the US AI systems since so many of them are filled with junk data making them erratic and inaccurate. Instead, use the freely available Chinese software, DeepSeek AI, which I find to be extremely helpful and in most cases very accurate. It will also self-correct if you know how to dispute its findings.
I wish you all the best...
I don't think you should quit IT because of the current AI hype. Every major technology wave (cloud, containers, DevOps, mobile, etc.) changed how we work, but the fundamentals always remained valuable.
If you're curious about any area of IT (software engineering, DevOps, cloud, system administration, AI, data science, or machine learning, etc.) keep learning, keep building, and keep strengthening the fundamentals: Linux, networking, containers, algorithms, data structures, distributed systems, and software engineering principles.
Use AI as a learning partner rather than as a replacement for thinking. Ask it questions, challenge its answers, practice active learning, and discuss new architectures and ideas with both AI and your colleagues. AI is excellent for brainstorming, accelerating implementation, and helping you understand unfamiliar concepts, but it shouldn't replace craftsmanship or critical thinking, high cognitive skills.
Most importantly, don't let FOMO drive your career. Technology moves fast, but your career is a marathon, not a sprint. The people who continue learning deeply, building real experience, and understanding first principles will still be valuable long after today's AI trends have changed. AI is a powerful lever, but only in the hands of someone who keeps learning.
One more thing: if we want thoughtful, high-quality writing to survive, we need to support the people who create it. Follow authors who consistently publish valuable content, read their work, leave meaningful comments, and engage with their posts. That feedback lets creators know their work is being read and appreciated, giving them the motivation to keep producing quality content instead of chasing low-effort AI-generated posts.
Let's build a community where we support one another. As creators who care about quality, let's follow each other, share constructive feedback, and encourage thoughtful discussions. That's one of the best ways to keep craftsmanship alive in the AI era.
I really resonated with what you wrote. I don't think AI itself is the problem, but rather the way we're being pushed to use it and the constant pressure to know everything.
I've dealt with anxiety and periods of mental overload myself, especially at work where it often feels like you have to perform all the time. That's actually one of the reasons I built a small breathing app called ZenCoach. If you ever feel like giving it a try, I hope it can help.
In any case, thank you for sharing where you're at right now. 🙏
Thanks for sharing this honestly. Burnout in tech is often not just about workload — it can come from losing the connection between the work we do and the impact it creates. When everything becomes tickets, deadlines, and maintenance, it’s easy to forget the creativity and craftsmanship that brought many of us into IT in the first place.
I think the answer is not always to leave the industry, but sometimes to redesign the relationship with it: changing environments, finding meaningful projects, setting healthier boundaries, or reconnecting with the parts of engineering that still feel rewarding.
Taking a step back and questioning what you actually want is not failure — it’s a valuable part of building a sustainable career. Wishing you clarity and a path that brings back that sense of curiosity and fulfillment.
It is funny to me that your name is Klaudia, and the Claude in our office is called Klaudia; ironically, that one never burns out.
But overall, I agree with you. I miss those days when every project was a kind of magnum opus, when we really ground on it; but now, everything needs to be fast-shipped. The one setting the standard is not the company, you, myself, or the QA team—it is the AI.
The thing is: speed. Something that fast cannot become "normal" in any part of the world, let alone become slow. So, if you are burned out today, you will be even more burned out later. We indeed cannot keep chasing; therefore, I agree with the idea of herding sheep—that is the kind of "normal" or "slow" pace we need.
I really resonated with your point about missing the authenticity and tangibility of work, especially in technical writing. I've also noticed the shift towards accepting "good enough" content, and it's disheartening to see the focus on efficiency over craftsmanship. I'm curious, have you considered exploring other areas within the tech industry where problem-solving and thoughtful work are still valued, such as UX writing or content strategy?
I don’t think you should make a permanent decision while you’re still exhausted. Burnout can make the entire profession feel wrong, even when the real problem is the current environment, responsibilities, or loss of meaningful work.
From what you wrote, it doesn’t sound like you hate technical writing or technology. You still care deeply about information architecture, problem-solving, quality, and creating useful content for real people. What seems to be hurting you is being pushed away from those values and toward low-effort output that feels disposable.
Give yourself time to recover, then consider testing smaller changes before leaving IT completely—another company, a documentation architecture role, developer education, content design, or a team that treats AI as a tool rather than a replacement for thoughtful work. And if Iceland and sheep still sound perfect after you’ve properly rested, perhaps that dream deserves serious consideration too. 🐑
Klaudia,
A lot of comments here, and good to know that your article resonates with a lot of readers. The following are my thoughts.
"Most of what I read now feels generated at the lowest possible cost, barely reviewed, and nowhere near the quality I used to expect."
I am wondering if there is a hidden message in the above quote. A "low cost" item is usually low quality, a "barely reviewed" work by AI may need your review. The often quoted line is one's job won't be taken over by AI - it will be taken over by someone who knows AI. So, you are in a good spot knowing about AI and have a chance to improve it's output. As you master this skill, you could end up 10X improving your productivity by taking on other clients or other tasks at your same employer.
"I'm tired of how quickly we've started accepting "good enough" instead of craftsmanship."
Again, there's an opportunity to improve "good enough" with your craftmanship. Overhaul the ENTIRE good-enough content generated by AI with your craftmanship if that is required. To be fair to AI, in many (not all) cases GenAI seems to have passed the Turing test in that it seems that we are communicating with an intelligent being/person.
"...putting AI everywhere, while forgetting that we are creating products for humans, not just generating work for the sake of working."
Putting AI everywhere hoping that it would do a majority of our work. Think of AI as your new employee. and benefit from what it generates. In other words, now you are not the sole creator - AI creates the initial draft - thank AI and tell him/her/other that from this juncture, you would take it's work ahead. In practice, you would make it palatable to humans.
"...when work was something authentic and tangible; when I had to go to an engineer colleague and work together on documentation, to grasp the point of how the feature works and explain it in plain language to the audience."
Ma'am seems you have an advantage over AI by being able to go to an engineer colleague to have a better understanding of the feature. Perhaps, you could take support from that Engineer with your management when he believes that AI generated content was not at par.
"I want to feel that someone still really cares about the content before publishing it, not just generates it to tick off the Definition of Done."
Unfortunately, that the sad state of affairs - some managers just want to tick off that the work was DONE. If things blow-up and the work was of low quality, the blame comes to the employee, as it was the employee who did the work. I have no answer. I can feel your pain. Going solo may not pay the bills. The best hope is that the manager cares and appreciates your contribution.
About redefining yourself, "Lately, I've been asking myself whether I still enjoy technical writing, or whether I just miss a version of it that no longer exists."
Hopefully, work for a manger who appreciates your work, either with your current company or another one, or since your strengths are in technical writing, you could for example, go herd sheep for survival, and during the evening, work on writing something technical (like a book for example) or even fictional or non-fictional writing.
I grew up by reading the f-ing manual - as advised by many senior engineers, but along came MS-Windows/Word, and they slowly practically dispensed off with the manual. Nowadays, if I have an issue with using MS-Word, the go to resource is not the help icon (?) in MS-Word, but posting the question to Google-search, who to my experience provides relevant answers in an instant.
In the AI age, hope things work out for us. I watched a youtube video which seemed to mention that at present 70+% content on the web was AI generated - and AI is given the web content to train itself. With AI being trained on its own content, can you imagine the quality of content generated by AI in the future?😊
As someone who dropped out in 2008 cos of burn out (software development), I kept my hand in a bit until 2016 with some contract work, but bummed about and tried to make pots for a living. Then my sister died, and I decided to just go the ceramics route. I'm now nearly 60, the pots never really made money, I'm broke and the software dev industry has moved on without me. I know nothing of the AI tools or modern s/w engineering. I'm screwed. So this is my warning. Drop out by all means, but keep a route back in, in case you need it. Or, keep going but make the work/life balance more life oriented.
Thank you Klaudia for your thoughtful and utterly realistic post.
Every single intellectual worker is now facing the similar sheep or shape problem.
How should I change into if I could survive in this AI-dominating world?
After the robots and combination lines replaced 90% of physical workers, they had to change themselves into engineers who can read the metrics and push on buttons.
Then what will be the next shape of us, the DEVs?
Unfortunately, AI doesn't have a dashboard with meters and buttons on it. It is a totally black box that seems impossible to control and own.
I think the very problem we have to solve in the nearest future is to find out the shape of us before we get shipped to the sheeps.
Thank you.
Good day! ☺️🌞☕🤟👊😁👍
I'm 56 1/2 and still reinventing, myself
Keep up, the great work. I'm a stubborn Gen X'er. I never give up.
As long as I'm learning from the younger generation, I'll keep rocking my entrepreneurial spirit. Peace, love n blessings, from South Florida .
I'm completely burned out right now. Honestly, with how fast AI is taking over everything, I’m working my ass off every single day and feel like a literal zombie just going through the motions. But I’ve got a mortgage hanging over my head, kids to feed, and their education to pay for, so I just have to suck it up and keep grinding. Plus, I'm 34 now—basically hitting that early mid-life crisis phase. With real-life bills to pay, I can't exactly just up and quit.
Thank you for sharing such an excellent post. I really enjoyed reading it.
I’m a Python Full-Stack Engineer with over 10 years of experience designing and building scalable software solutions for clients across a variety of industries. Along the way, I’ve learned that successful projects depend not only on strong technical execution but also on creating real business value.
With my recent contract completed, I’m exploring new opportunities to collaborate with professionals who value innovation, practical problem-solving, and long-term partnerships. I enjoy discussing ideas that combine technical excellence with sound business strategy, creating outcomes that benefit everyone involved.
I believe every connection has the potential to become something meaningful. If you're interested in exchanging ideas, exploring opportunities, or simply connecting with someone who enjoys building impactful technology, I'd be happy to hear from you.
Wishing you success in your future endeavors, and I look forward to connecting.
Hi. I believe that once an idea that others haven't thought of takes root, it is bound to lead to success. I would like to discuss in detail cooperation to generate more revenue in the future.
Please reply if you are interested.
I don't think you're describing a burnout from technology itself. It sounds more like a burnout from losing the sense of craftsmanship.
AI can definitely remove repetitive work, but when it starts replacing the parts we actually enjoy—thinking, organizing, refining, collaborating—it changes how meaningful the work feels.
I don't think the industry has to become "AI-generated everything." There will always be value in people who care about quality and trust. The challenge is finding environments that still reward those values.
Burnout isn't quitting; it's a signal. I set boundaries, took a hobby break. What small change would help you survive IT?
已经撑了好多年了，每次想要放弃，但都不得不回去，至于原因嘛。。。
Thank you very much.