roundthecorner

Thats an unknown, unknown.

Not a therapist, but would probably switch my life with yours in a second. I am the same age as you, in tech in a third world country and working two jobs and eighty hours a week to afford a good future for my kids. I will have to probably keep doing so into my fifties to give them a good education. Bottom line, it might be a matter of perspective.

Wondrium/The Great Courses has a number of good quality courses on Anthropology taught by renowned professors from the US. I have a subscription and a passing interest in anthropology that has been satisfied by the above. YMMV.

The last time i checked India wasnt strictly an adjoining region of Afghanistan.

In my experience a better question would have been. "Have you worked hard on something that DID pay off???" Most of the things that we work hard on never pay off except in terms of learned lessons.

Draw.io/diagrams.net

I am working as an architect with about 17+ years of experience and i feel the same. However it would still be prudent to practice as mentioned in one of the comments. Things seem easier if tackled before. Your task should be to create the time and the motivation for regular practice.

If you want a broad overview of how RDBMS work under the hood, "Designing Data Intensive Applications", would be a good conceptual start.

This could be followed by database internals books like "Expert Oracle Database Architecture" and "Pro SQL Server Internals", irrespective of whether you use these databases or not, you will learn a ton of stuff about database internals and system design.

If you are interested in database schema design etc, then look up "The Database Model Resource Book" Volumes 1,2,3. None of the above are quick reads but they are solid foundations for becoming a well rounded DBMS professional.

I go for a short walk at the end of every hour. I have found my fitbit pretty useful in reminding me to do at least 250 steps every hour. The number might be small but i usually end up doing more than that once i get going.

What about time to learn? I am one of those older average devs stuck in small scale design and development tasks that start to feel like a burden when you are on the wrong side of 40s. Time or lack of it seems a bigger factor right now as compared to the points mentioned in the article. Finding time to learn something new while fulfilling one's responsibilities in life while trying to desperately hold on to the current job feels overwhelming. Time management in short might be more useful than all the other things combined. Or maybe i am just an old geezer.

Data Model Resource book by Len Silverstone. Would advise to read and understand all three volumes though.

Neat idea. Taking join requests?

Gerald Weinberg wrote a lot on this topic from various perspectives. Maybe you will find some of his books helpful.

Sane words. However sometimes life pressures like building a nest egg for a family while advancing in age and having to support them through a tough (non US) economy, with few jobs sharply reduces available options in similar situations, piling up the misery.

My mileage, with emphasis on the 'Handling'.

The practices that I am outlining have allowed me to function at an acceptable level however, they are not a cure for depression.

Meditation with a focus on getting in touch/accepting whatever is happening at the moment.

Working out, running/jogging in particular.

Resigning to the fact that living a mediocre life is not that bad.

Reaching out and finding kindred souls, friends etc. Family, especially kids and wife keep me moving even if they are not aware of my depression.

Resigning from the self-appointed position of CEO of the world.

Jerry was a gem. Every one of his books is worth its weight in gold.

For production code well, If (p then q) = (NOT p or q)

Consider acting as a complement to another already established vendor in the target market. Do they have a weakness in their offering that you can help patch? Are there features you can offer that will enhance their offering's value?

Having reached the stage where you are able to distinguish between opinion and fact, i would suggest reading a bit of philosophy. You might find it illuminating and interesting in a different way. Worked for me at a similar stage though your mileage might vary.

Look into books by Gerald Weinberg and Steve McConell. Both have served as great mentors for me in the mentioned areas.

Take a look at Apache Merton's architecture. They seem to have dealt with a number of inherent issues in the problem putting together data processing pipelines of open source components and ensuring they work together. The project is active but incubating right now.