This is a scarily similar story of how I ended up in F#. I'd reached the peak of C#. Every possible best pattern and practice (including the ones that were still a few years away) I'd already done them and perfected them. I was so high up on the peak of the C# mountain that recruiters could no longer understand me, employers could no longer understand me, co-workers could no longer understand me. I could no longer function on projects and teams this way. I ended up doing almost nothing except "R&D" for the teams I worked. None of my R&D ended up in the product. I wrote specs, whitepapers, all sorts, something to try to contribute. Nothing seemed worth the hassle. Toward the end probably a couple months had passed where I'd made no commits, and had barely typed a single letter into Visual Studio. I became an imposter and a pretender - my self confidence took a huge knock. I quit and went back to what I knew best. Building my own businesses with a trusted old business partner. Some of the R&D I did in that last team was in F# and I chose to use F# in my new venture. I directly attribute F# as having had literally pulled me out and saved me from that year of burnout. And made me completely unlearn everything that was wrong about software development and relearn it the right way. The transformation took about 4 months and I'm now 5 years since that time and I never look back. The thought of going back to C# and all that crap ... I think I would rather earn money smuggling drugs or something.
I think the lesson is: If you get burnt out, try changing your tooling for something more modern. If it ever happens to me again - I will try to have the clarity of mind to do it again.
I think the lesson is: If you get burnt out, try changing your tooling for something more modern. If it ever happens to me again - I will try to have the clarity of mind to do it again.