Ask HN: Burnt out developer trying to move out of Iran, advices?
Not sure if this makes you feel any better, but: people around the world are waking up to the understanding that countries like the US vilified countries like Iran to make vast fortunes in oil and other resources, while keeping wages artificially low through the threat of violence. I&#x27;m burned out from knowing that a large share of my income comes from exploitation of other countries.<p>In a very real sense, an increase in your income depends on us working to heal the racist&#x2F;sexist&#x2F;classist wounds of our own cultures to de-escalate the violence which props up income inequality.<p>But since that doesn&#x27;t seem to be happening anytime soon.. the best bet is probably stoicism. What helped me was to drop expectation and focus on the current moment. So for example, when the boss is demanding, do you know why? Is it to save the business, or to increase profit for the owner? Those sorts of details inform us as to when we should go the extra mile or set a boundary and take care of our own body&#x2F;mind&#x2F;soul. I don&#x27;t do much for money anymore, but I throw myself on my sword all the time for the greater good.<p>We can direct our attention towards virtuous paths by listening to our instincts. I&#x27;ve found that following my intuition towards service to others causes me to shift into realities that are more meaningful spiritually. Basically, the universe provides for us regardless of our economic circumstance, as long as we believe. But if we deny our inner child and soul contract, life crushes down on us harder and harder every day until we finally burn out (like I did in 2019).<p>So: yes there are a multitude of developer jobs, and working for a client directly is often far less stressful than working for an agency which seeks to maximize billable hours. The tradeoff being that money really does buy happiness, but idle time gets siphoned away so life goals sometimes slip out of reach. You mentioned moonlighting with remote work and the difficulties around bank accounts. But I suspect that the real difficulty is that if the boss finds out, you might lose your job. That&#x27;s why you&#x27;re kept so busy. Which creates cognitive dissonance, because a job that rules your life like that isn&#x27;t worth having.. but it pays the bills. So I&#x27;d recommend ignoring the details like choice of programming language, and instead focus on just exactly what it is that you&#x27;d like to do with your life, and begin making small choices every day that will lead you there. You may lose your job and end up homeless, but half the people on this site are a month away from that anyway. Letting go of that fear and embracing love and gratitude for all things is where miracles begin IMHO. Just give the universe some time to manifest what you ask for. The bigger the ask, the longer it can take. I&#x27;m seeing changes in the world that I dreamed of over 20 years ago! I&#x27;m also receiving small blessings daily that I didn&#x27;t even ask for or know I wanted. Basically the manual work I was doing through ego has largely been replaced with co-creation. Which is another way of saying that I rediscovered faith in something greater than myself, and that saved me from the wretched state I was in.