I left a large tech company with the dream of building a startup. I failed and am back doing consulting work and figuring out my next step. After realizing I'd failed, I fell in a deep rut.
You can get out of it.
Small steps is what worked for me. Just one win every day, or a working piece of code, or an admin task I'd been putting off before. It rebuilds your confidence that you can achieve things, and each little thing lifts your mood.
Also, the obvious things baked into our culture work. Being outdoors, especially in the sunshine, added to a healthy amount of exercise every day, even just a walk, helped me significantly. A healthier diet and taking supplements especialy B group vitamins had a big effect for me.
Also I cut out weed and smoking. For me, it sapped my motivation not just when I was high, but for days afterwards.
You can have way more impact as a teen software developer than almost any field in history. It is a force multiplier to the sort of talent and energy that earlier generations showed by doing paper runs.
I reckon open source projects and app/game development are great ways for kids to "reach" today. You can have a meaningful impact, learn a lot, and possibly set yourself up for live.
This Australian Ben Pasternak developed a hit game as a teenager, and at 21 he is being featured in the Wall Street Journal after raising $50m for a food-tech startup.
This is a great use of the OpenAI Codex. It's fast in VS Code. My early impression is that the more popular the language the better it does. So Javascript is almost magic and something like Rust still useful. I'm looking forward to using it more.
You can get out of it.
Small steps is what worked for me. Just one win every day, or a working piece of code, or an admin task I'd been putting off before. It rebuilds your confidence that you can achieve things, and each little thing lifts your mood.
Also, the obvious things baked into our culture work. Being outdoors, especially in the sunshine, added to a healthy amount of exercise every day, even just a walk, helped me significantly. A healthier diet and taking supplements especialy B group vitamins had a big effect for me.
Also I cut out weed and smoking. For me, it sapped my motivation not just when I was high, but for days afterwards.
Good luck friend!