u/No-Rush-Hour-2422

I'm new to being a senior dev, and I've been told by other devs that seniors aren't just supposed to do tasks that are assigned to them, they're supposed to be coming up with ideas to improve the product on their own.

I have come up with quite a few ideas that would improve our workflows or improve the quality of the product, but those have all been shot down. I'm told the only thing we can work on is things that we can sell.

The problem is that the user base is a specific blue collar workforce, and I'm not allowed to interact with them directly. And the feedback that we've gotten from them has just been "everything is fine how it is"

So how do I invent new features that the user base will actually want to buy?

I started working after college, when I was 20. It's been 20 years now, which means I have another 25 years until retirement, at least.

I work 5 days a week, 9 to 5. Which means the majority of my life is spent working. I get two days off, then I have to go back to it again. I know this is normal, but my question is how do people do it?

Maybe it's just my job, because it's so boring. I work in software development, and it honestly feels like I'm watching paint dry all day. I know I should be happy to have a job right now with everything going on, but I feel like my brain is slowly dieing from boredom.

I look forward to vacation once or twice a year, but that lasts a week, and then I'm right back at it again for another 6 months to a year.

Am I doing something wrong? How is this the normal, accepted life?

We go to Disneyland every other year. Last time we went for Star Wars Nite, and next time I was planning to go for Christmas for the first time.

But my kids are really into Star Wars right now and are asking to do Star Wars Nite again. If we do that though, they'll be teenagers by the time we go to Disneyland for Christmas.

Which would you do first? Can Christmas wait until they're older?

I'm a developer at a small software company with 10 YOE

I feel like my job is about as exciting as a data entry job. It's mind numbingly tedious. And it's not just because of AI, but that hasn't exactly improved things. I've felt this way for many years, over multiple companies.

Is it me? Do I have undiagnosed ADHD or something? Or have I just gotten unlucky with the kinds of places I've worked?

How do you make your job interesting? I find myself snacking or watching Netflix a lot to keep my mind occupied.

When we're going the Paint the Night parade will be at 8:45 (we have young kids so the 10:45 will be too late). We're hoping to watch that, then run over the Galaxy's Edge to see Fire of the Rising Moons. I know we likely won't get a great spot for the fireworks, but that's ok. I'm just wondering if we can actually make it before it starts or not.

Also, if we do try, where would you suggest standing to watch the parade, so that we have the best chance of exiting afterwards and being able to head the right direction?

Thanks in advance for your help!

We know that eventually Disney is going to expand into what is currently the Simba Lot. And they've said that this expansion will be part of DCA, which means there must be a way to get there from DCA. It wouldn't make a lot of sense to make DCA guests leave the park and walk through Downtown Disney to get there. So there has to be some sort of bridge over Disneyland Drive.

If that's the case, where would the bridge connect on the DCA side?

The reason I ask, is that it seems to me that the most logical place would be the gate that they're turning into an entrance to the Coco ride. Once you pass the gate, the ride will be to the left, so a bridge could be straight ahead. But the concept art clearly shows it being a Coco themed gate, so that wouldn't make much sense. Unless they decided to change the theming of the gate later.

What do you think?

We know that eventually Disney is going to expand into what is currently the Simba Lot. And they've said that this expansion will be part of DCA, which means there must be a way to get there from DCA. It wouldn't make a lot of sense to make DCA guests leave the park and walk through Downtown Disney to get there. So there has to be some sort of bridge over Disneyland Drive.

If that's the case, where would the bridge connect on the DCA side?

The reason I ask, is that it seems to me that the most logical place would be the gate that they're turning into an entrance to the Coco ride. Once you pass the gate, the ride will be to the left, so a bridge could be straight ahead. But the concept are clearly shows it being a Coco themed gate, so that wouldn't make much sense. Unless they decided to change the theming of the gate later.

What do you think?

We'll be staying in Anaheim until Wednesday morning, but our flight home from LAX isn't until 7:30pm. I'm picking up a rental car at 8am on the Wednesday, so we could be on the road by like 8:30am. I know there will be bad traffic, but I'm thinking we could be at Universal Hollywood by around 10am? That would give us until around 3:30pm before we should probably head towards the airport, because we'll hit traffic again.

We've been before, so we don't need to see everything. Mostly just want to walk around Super Nintendo World, do the Transformers ride, and watch the Waterworld show. If there's time we could try to squeeze in a Studio Tour and/or Secret Life of Pets.

Is this a bad idea? Does anyone have any suggestions to make it better?

We've never been to a Disney park for the holidays, so I'm starting to plan a trip for next year, since we already have our fall trip planned for this year (Tokyo).

We've only been to WDW once, but we've been to Disneyland 3 times, because it's a bit closer to us. I was planning to go to WDW for Christmas after Villains land opens, but I know that's a long way off. So it would be cool to do WDW again. Then again, I've heard that Disneyland feels a bit more storybook magical during the holidays, and it might be good to see our "home" park for the holidays.

The kids (7, 10) are starting to get into the Avengers, and I'm betting they'll be at max hype when Secret Wars comes out next December. Disneyland is opening the new Avengers ride, but I'm not sure if it'll be open by next Christmas. And even if it is, it's probably going to have really crazy lines for quite a while.

Which one would you go with?

We do a Disney park trip once a year. I've already got our trip planned for this year, but I loved planning so I'm starting to think about next year. So far we've been to Disneyland 3 times, Disney World, and are going to Tokyo Disney this year.

We do want to go back to Disney World, but we might wait until all the new lands open, including Villains land. We were also considering Disneyland Paris, but we might wait until Universal UK opens. Those things are both a long way off though, so we could add an in-between trip in the meantime.

The flights to Hong Kong and Shanghai are a bit too long for us (Tokyo is already pushing it to our limit). So I guess it's just down to Disney World or Disneyland Paris?

I'm specifically looking at park trips, not like cruises or Aulani or anything. We do a relaxing trip once a year too, but that's a separate consideration from this.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice? Anything I should consider like ride opening or maybe events that might make a certain place more busy next year? Thank you in advance for your help!

I finished all my tasks for this quarter, and let my manager know. He says he'll get me some more stuff to work on, but it's been two weeks and I've got nothing so far. So I've been working through my Jira backlog, but I'm done that too.

I know that this seems like a strange thing to complain about, but the problem is that my company does time tracking. So I'm supposed to put down what I worked on every day and how much time I put into it. Lately I've just said "testing"

But I'm new to being a senior dev, so I'm worried I'm missing something. Am I supposed to be inventing my own new feature ideas and adding them to the product?