--- title: Software Engineer: I'm Tired of Pretending | daily.dev description: A software engineer reflects candidly on burnout, imposter syndrome, and the exhausting pressure to constantly keep up with new technology and AI. The piece... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/csnrcuaoh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Software Engineer: I'm Tired of Pretending | daily.dev og:description: A software engineer reflects candidly on burnout, imposter syndrome, and the exhausting pressure to constantly keep up with new technology and AI. The piece... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/csnrcuaoh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/CsNrCuaOh.png og:image:alt: Post cover image og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Software Engineer: I'm Tired of Pretending **[Lonely Programmer](https://daily.dev/sources/lonely_programmer)** · [@tkouleris](https://daily.dev/tkouleris) · 175 upvotes · 44 comments ## Summary A software engineer reflects candidly on burnout, imposter syndrome, and the exhausting pressure to constantly keep up with new technology and AI. The piece describes the tech industry's obsession with chasing hype, the emotional toll of endless interviews and certifications, the isolating effect of AI-driven work, and the difficulty of admitting struggle in a culture that demands constant productivity and reinvention. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@khevlar** · 26 upvotes > Chasing every new trend isn’t the same as making progress. **@nevertry** · 22 upvotes > all we need is to disconnect ourselves from the internet instead make more connection with the nature and enjoy life **@devgenx** · 15 upvotes > Being a SWE has always required keeping up with the latest changes in the industry. This is nothing new and is how we weed out the weak. **@elmarchavez** · 4 upvotes > Sometimes we have to remind the people on top that we are not robots. If we do give in, we are just giving them more reasons to add more workload which is never a good thing. There is always a limit, there is always a limit. **@paulsethre** · 4 upvotes > The reason people are burning out more rapidly is that AI has taken over all the fun dopamine-rich parts like writing code, so all that's left for us to do are the non-dopamine tasks like attending meetings, writing specs, and QA. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#mental-health](https://daily.dev/tags/mental-health) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/csnrcuaoh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/csnrcuaoh","headline":"Software Engineer: I'm Tired of Pretending","text":"Shared: Software Engineer: I'm Tired of Pretending","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/csnrcuaoh","datePublished":"2026-09-13T07:30:07.664Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T07:30:56.454Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Thodoris Kouleris","url":"https://daily.dev/tkouleris","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--uIsOE4Yj--/f_auto/v1767330823/avatars/avatar_MCMbuJilInDUS9HqV2wPG?_a=BAMAK+ZW0","description":"The Lonely Programmer","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":12160}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0_ODbtD2--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2008","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":175},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":44}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/uL9dBfyUk"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Chasing every new trend isn’t the same as making progress.","datePublished":"2026-09-13T09:15:28.632Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/CsNrCuaOh#c-vOLNFy90P","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lesley Edinam","url":"https://daily.dev/khevlar","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--I4QFMNNF--/f_auto/v1753089440/avatars/avatar_xMSmIuOOXE5TqCI1OLs4c?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":26}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"all we need is to disconnect ourselves from the internet instead make more connection with the nature and enjoy life","datePublished":"2026-09-13T09:37:54.695Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/CsNrCuaOh#c-sUmxGdnGp","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Saitama","url":"https://daily.dev/nevertry","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocL-cR22YpXoCa7w6qfonHAUXithiLy7XICz7eZkj5v3=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":22}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Being a SWE has always required keeping up with the latest changes in the industry. 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