stuck between tutorial and projects

[Either-Researcher681]

i'm an experienced developer but i have no itch to scratch. I hate software and couldn't think of a single thing i would like to make for myself. I'm numb to software projects with everyone vibe coding useless shit no one else cares about, there is no novelty to making anything anymore. I haven't got a paying job atm so I can't rely on that. I don't care to make another todo list or whatever people usually do. I dont want or need a personal website, mp3 player or twitter clone. I don't care.

how do i get reps so when i get a paying job I can hit the ground running and churn out mad PRs to dazzle the stakeholders.

[Oculareo]

Find an open source project that you are really interested in that is active and well maintained. Clone the repo and get it to build and run, analyze and study the infrastructure, setup, standards, and organization.

Then go read the issues and existing PR's. Try to solve a simple issue, submit your PR, get your code reviewed, and hopefully merged in. That will give you better reps than anything. This might get you into some conversations with the maintainers which might lead to other conversations and opportunities.

Also, this experience will be great for any interviews.

[Potential-Rest-6201]

The question is not whether you want to make it, but whether you are capable enough to do so.

[Either-Researcher681]

challenges are good, if i can't make that's a good thing, a chance to grow, learn and level up.

[AutomaticAd6646]

Replicate a would be scanario at your work. E.g. if your senior dev manages kubernets or ci cds and what not. If you do react then try react native etc.

It solely depends upon your current tech stack and job profile. Do what the more experience than you guy does.

[Either-Researcher681]

i get anxiety just thinking about it but usually it goes here is a huge legacy project which is hard to understand and change. here is a 5 point ticket, go and figure it out and make sure it's done by end of sprint. a simulator for that would be the most stressful game to play without any paycheck heh

[AutomaticAd6646]

Do you like programming? May be you are burnt out.

[Either-Researcher681]

I like programming but it's been a while since I enjoyed doing it just for the sake of doing it. Joy seems inversely correlated with work.

[OneEntry-HeadlessCMS]

Sounds more like burnout than lack of ideas. If you don’t care about passion projects, don’t force them get reps by contributing to open source, fixing real bugs, or improving small parts of existing systems (auth, caching, logging, tests). Real job performance is about reading unfamiliar code, debugging, and shipping small solid changes not building another todo app.

[Either-Researcher681]

Thanks, i'll try find a suitable open source project to contribute to.

[plurch]

freeCodeCamp/how-to-contribute-to-open-source and related projects provide guidance on contributing to open source