[sh4na]

All the time. Negative thoughts are normal and increase as you learn more and can see where the flaws in your work are. The more you learn, the worse it gets, until at some point you'll be confident enough to look at your work and defend your choices (to you and to others).

This doesn't really have much to do with working alone, but it is harder to grow if you can't get feedback and aren't forced to explain your code to others.

If (like me) you are physically unable to get together with your peers IRL to discuss your work (for instance, because you're about 1000km away from the nearest person you can conceivable discuss things with), you should find other ways to do this. IRC is good, putting code up in github for feedback, blogging about it, these all help kickstart the next round of learning.

You may feel worse about your code once you get some external eyeballs on it, but it's likely you'll get positive feedback, which is always comforting.

There's no aboiding negative thoughts, it's a sign that you are striving to do better. Start worrying when you don't think you can do better.

[zantax]

I'll add to that by saying being alone for long stretches of time is fertile ground for negativity. The mind craves narratives and drama, especially when grinding away on what can seem like monotonous work.

My advice: cut yourself some slack Andrew. Understand that your mind is just creating stories (again) and dismiss them. Sometimes I will even smile at how infantile my thoughts can be.

But yes, I get cabin fever bigtime (I work alone a lot) and sometimes I have to get out, even if there are a thousand excuses not to.

Take care.