<p>Just like the title, I am going to earn B.S. in Computer Science soon. I like computers. I like programming. The problem is that my eyes are very weak. Depending on their condition, I can only put in about 6 hours in front of computer a day. If I push myself, I have trouble even keeping my eyes open because of soreness/pain, consequently headaches. My eyes do not have medical conditions. I was just born with weak eyes. I tried many different approaches to work around this problem - better monitor, breaks every 10 minutes, supplements... I even memorized a lot of shortcuts to reduce my time on computers! But I am finally giving up. I do not think I can be a programmer for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>I was the top of my class in high school because all works were paper-based, I did average in college due to the nature of my eyes and the difficulty of the material. So what do you recommend I do? Or, Is there a career that is similar to programming but requires interacting with computers less?</p>
<p>Eh… this is most definitely a medical problem, even if you’ve had it all your life. You should go see an optometrist (specializes in vision) or ophthalmologist (an optometrist who has more extensive training and is qualified to be a surgeon). And if he/she tells you nothing can be done, get a second/third opinion.</p>
<p>One thing you should do is make the background of the code editor dark grey and have the text be white (white text on a dark background).</p>
<p>@Yuppie: They are not too bad -3.5 and -4.5. @Terenc: I will try that out. I have seen optometrists a couple of times, but I am going to request that I can referred to a ophthalmologist this Friday. Thanks.</p>
<p>I had a problem driving at night, even with new glasses. It took me a long time to ask my eye doctor about it. I was considering sharply decreasing my nighttime driving because I thought that it was getting too unsafe. He explained the problem to me (it was very simple), and wrote me a prescription for night-driving glasses and the problem is gone.</p>
<p>So yeah, see an expert about your problem. I like to fix my own problems if I can but it’s nice to know that you can see an expert if you can’t figure it out.</p>
<p>I used to have the same issue. A high quality monitor, better resolution and good work environment will do wonders. Make sure you stay hydrated too. A lot of my headaches were from dehydration.</p>
<p>Let me start off by saying … I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night …</p>
<p>Why can’t you look at a monitor all day? What about it fatigues your eyes? Can you watch TV all day long?</p>
<p>I presumed you have tried everything, but just in case …</p>
<p>Have you tried larger fonts (on a larger monitor if you have to)?
Reading glasses with larger magnification?
Have you tried an in-desk monitor, like newscaster have, so you are looking down at the monitor, like you are working at your desk.
Turn down the brightness of the monitor.</p>
<p>I believe Systems Analysts might spend less time staring at a monitor, but you need to put in your dues as a programmer. Maybe a project management position. With a programming background, you would have more skills to handle those types of projects.</p>