Two years ago, in August 2023, I tried to end my life. There were so many motivations. I was stuck in a job earning the same amount for almost 2 years. I couldn’t find any other job (I sent my resume to over 500 job applications), I was working overtime, and my daily life was chaotic. 2 years later, not much had improved. And that’s why I almost tried again.

I don’t know if my boss was aware of this (but I did speak to him about it). The thing is, while the amount of work is enough and not the reason someone has a burnout or something like this, the overall thing can affect your mental health. It’s the conversation, the autosabotage, the “I need to provide for my home, to my cats, and for the people living with me. If I fail, I’ll affect not only me but also a lot of people“. And the only way out for me, two years ago, was to end my life. So yeah, I had a burnout. The marks on my right arm can prove that.

Work and life balance

I get the idea of being a workaholic. I thought I was. Until it became clear that if I work more than 40 hours per week, I’ll probably have a heart attack. Which is funny, because people in America are now pushing for a 70+ hour workweek kind of job. Today I’ve (almost) applied to a job that requires ideally 40 hours per week, but preferably it’s 70 hours. I was like: nope.

People will probably say that “I’m not trying enough” or “That’s why Brazil has cheap labor compared to the US”. Well, it can’t be more wrong. By the way, in Australia, the maximum work schedule is 38 hours per week. However, aside from this discussion that I don’t really want to include in this blog post, let’s focus on working 14 hours per day (5 days) or 10 hours per day (7 days). It may have an economic boost, but your life will be entirely based on working. Are you really going to do that with your life? While the C-Levels are probably relaxing or working the normal 40-hour per week schedule?

At the same time, if you see any news related to Europe or even Latin America, you will see that people are moving not to a 70-hour per week schedule but rather to a 32-hour per week or even less. By the way, even in China, where the 996 (9 am to 9 pm, 6 days per week) comes from, they repealed it because of the number of deaths related to working so many hours.

But yeah, your manager is probably right. It’s for the country! It’s for the economy! (It isn’t). 

Exercise your mind. Exercise your body.

One of the things that I’m starting next month is the gym. I’m going with a friend to help me avoid the thought of “well, I’m too tired for going today“. You know exercises can improve your mood, decrease your anxiety and depression, and increase your overall health, right? Oh, by the way, there are a lot of Brazilian companies that now offer Wellhub for their employees. Wellhub it’s like Netflix but for gym membership. Sadly, the gym that is close to me does not work with Wellhub.

But please do not forget to exercise your mind as well. How? Well… there are a lot of ways. I’m not telling you to buy a Sudoku or something like that. What I’m saying it’s for you to do a hobby. Something that you like. For example, I’ll try to do photography again (first with my phone and then I’ll probably buy a mirrorless camera). I’ll also learn to cook.

Use AI to help you

Unless I really need to, I’m not doing custom development anymore. While the money is good, living is better. So I’m leaving my weekends to live, not to work. As a matter of fact, I’m considering using AI to improve my productivity and decrease the amount of work while doing more tickets per day. How? Probably using agent mode or Claude code.

I’m also exploring creating a new agent or a bot on AI that can improve communication with the clients and on the internal chat. While I use ChatGPT and Gemini in my daily life, especially for improving the way I write (I also use Grammarly to proofread my text), I’ll try to go next level. AI is not your enemy. I fear more people who create AIs for a bad purpose than the AI itself. The problem will not be the AGI. The problem will be people who use AGI for war or vile things.

Have friends

The biggest problem with remote work is the lack of socialization. I miss the chit-chat, I miss hanging out with my worker colleagues, and going on a happy hour on a Friday. At the same time, I’m mature enough to know not everyone likes this. So I’ll not force my future employees to work in the office just because I like to hang out.

Instead, I’m starting to search for friends with common interests or going to places to meet new people. These studies were very common during the COVID-19 time; however, they are still valid. But in general, social isolation can lead to several problems, both mental and physical.

Switching areas

I decided to move from the Web Development area to Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. I’ve been doing websites since I was eight years old. My first website was yeltsin.com (I lost the domain). I’ve created multiple websites, like the DicasWP (the biggest blog in Brazilian Portuguese about WordPress). I’ve been working with WordPress for over 14 years now. And I’m freaking tired.

And while my salary is good, I just found out that a Junior in Data Science earns the same amount as me. I was like: what the fuck? Basically, I’ll need to learn Python (not very hard) and R. I’ll probably do a college degree in math or computer science (this time in a federal college rather than a private college). While it’s not the time for the ENEM (the national exam to join a college) next month, I’ll start specialization in Data Science.

Teaching AI for everyone

Another thing that I’ll start next month is creating a course for “everyone” (especially old people). My goal is to make it easier for everyone to use AI in their daily lives, not only in their jobs. Since I’m also learning Python/R and probably Claude Code, I’ll also make the code available on GitHub. To be honest, that’s not for social good but rather to have some coding to show for HRs.

I’ll not quit.

While I thought a lot about it, I need money. At least until I get a new job opportunity, especially in the Data Science field. I work about 6-8 hours per day, so it’s a normal hour. I need to better manage the way I do my job so I can do more in less time, but it’s getting better – kind of.