Burnout, ADHD, and Web Dev: I hate "magic" frameworks, love Rust/Compilers, but have no CS degree. Feeling stuck.
Hey everyone,
I’ve been dealing with ADHD, depression, and anxiety for a long time, and I wanted to see if anyone here can relate to my current career crisis.
I’ve never felt truly "good" at programming because I’ve never been able to specialize. I’ve always jumped from one shiny object to another—a classic ADHD trap. I’ve been working since I was 15 (I'm 22 now), and unfortunately, I’ve had to deal with a lot of workplace mobbing and toxic environments along the way, which has really worn me down.
Lately, I’ve hit a wall. I realized I have absolutely zero desire to learn or write JS, TS, or PHP anymore. I’ve honestly grown to hate modern web frameworks. My brain simply refuses to engage if I don't understand the underlying mechanics. I hate "magic" code; if I can't see how things work under the hood, my brain rejects it and I can't get good at it.
For example, I know I need to keep up with web dev ecosystems to pay the bills, but the burnout is severe. I’ll install Laravel, take one look at all the boilerplate and hidden abstractions, feel completely overwhelmed by the complexity, and instantly delete it.
On the flip side, I recently picked up Rust, and it feels like a revelation. I started diving into low-level systems and compilers—which has always been my dream. I’ve been working through things like Crafting Interpreters and building parsers from scratch. The dopamine hit I get from successfully writing low-level code or implementing something like string literals in Rust is unmatched. I actually love reinventing the wheel just to understand how it turns.
The catch? I don't have a CS degree. Because of that, systems programming and compilers have always felt out of reach professionally, so it stays just a hobby. I feel trapped between a web dev career that drains my soul and a low-level passion that feels impossible to break into without the right academic background.
Has anyone else experienced this kind of framework burnout? How do you manage the ADHD need to understand everything under the hood before you can build anything? And is there any realistic path into lower-level/systems programming without a degree?
Would appreciate any advice or just knowing I'm not alone in this.