What is it that you invested thousands of hours and now is pointless?

I know all the tricks to make a website look as good in Internet Explorer 6 as in Chrome, Safari or Opera.

I got a B.S. in biochemistry, then drove a forklift for 14 years. Now I’m an electrician.

This is the life of a geneticist.

The field moves quickly with the technology and techniques, but they are all very complex and difficult to learn. More than once in my life, I have poured myself into a specialized skill to be the best in the building, only to have that skill be obsolete the next year.

It never feels that bad, though, because the replacements are almost always faster, easier, and get you better results or else they don’t really take off.

Sorting and organizing my mp3 collection

I got an aviation degree because it used to be the only way you could qualify to become and air traffic controller. The age cut-off is 30 and I graduated when I was 29. Well, they decided to “restructure” the hiring process mere months after I graduated and cancelled all hiring panels for 2 years. I aged-out and now have a fucking useless degree that I still pay students loans on.

EDIT: First, thank you for the huge response. This happened about 11 years ago. I am making a lot of money doing something I love in another industry so don’t worry about me. It was devastating at the time but everything happens for a reason and I wouldn’t be living my best life if it hadn’t gone this way.

To answer the most common question on here:
Why is 30 the cutoff age?: This is a very high-stress job that requires you to have a sharp mind at all times. It’s like playing a mathematical puzzle that kills 300 people if you fuck up. They offer/encourage retirement with pension at 55, but you need 25 years of service to be eligible, hence the oldest you can be to start the job is 30 years old.

I took 2 years of French instead of Spanish in high school. I live in Texas.

MassimoL

WoW. I haven’t talked to any of my old guildmates in years. I got server first kills and worked my ass off to be the top of my game, and it means next to nothing.

I look back on the time I spent fondly and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. But it really does nothing for me.

I managed to accidentally wipe the drive that held all my work. I’m a semi-professional game dev, there was 10 years worth of meshes, materials and code.

It’s been 10 days, I’ve just been in a sort of state of shock, having tried and failed to recover the lost files.

Asian parent piano lessons. Didn’t make them happy, didn’t make myself happy, never got any good at it, gained no useful skills whatsoever for the several hundred hours per year for multiple years spent practicing

Runescape, but its been pointless since day 1

I have a bachelor’s degree in Astronomy from one of the world’s best universities.

I now work as a software engineer.

When I was 20 I got a job at an up and coming tech company. 6 months later they went IPO in a big way, and I was worth $2M on paper.

6 months later the market crashed and the stock tanked. Before I was legally allowed to touch the shares

I spent half my Army career in various schools learning to repair nuclear missiles. Now I’m doing desktop support and teaching the new guys how to install printers remotely.

Being a decent, hard working employee for a large multinational corporation

It took me 8 years to get my Chemical Engineering degree. I never worked a single day as a Chemical Engineer. I’m a Data Analyst now.

Minecraft. From 2011 to probably 2018-2019 it was like, my go-to depression game. When my depression got bad, some days I’d play for 12 hours. Built a whole huge city with districts, multiple tall buildings, rail system, a mob zoo, etc. I kinda miss it sometimes.

I spent over a decade learning how to draw, studying design techniques, etc. Tried to work as a professional designer and illustrator and it was terrible and made no money. Now I’m a software developer. Every once in a blue moon it’s useful for making graphics, but really just pointless.

I worked in high tech for 40ish years. Almost everything I learned became obsolete. It’s a treadmill.

My marriage.