I have a six year old who is interested in programming, so we learn together. We've been making projects in Scratch, scripting Minecraft with Python, and I'm getting into some Java so we can work on some Minecraft mods. I'm getting this for us to work on together as well: http://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
511–520 of 530 posts
Re: Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
#512I don't know what's harder - dealing some days with a teenager and a toddler & their age related issues, running engineering in a startup on a daily basis, counting days that we will run our of business, going through the highs of successful demos and dealing with the lows of almost-there sales calls, wondering if it's time to get the resume in shape, planning to implement crazy ideas in your favorite language and then getting bogged down fixing inane production bugs; oh, it's a constant struggle - believe me.
But you just have to move that stone, an inch every day despite everything else going on. Sounds like such a cliche, but it works if you just keep at it.
Re: Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
#513What are you willing to sacrifice? If you really want to make it a priority you will have to sacrifice something. Do you spend too much time watching netflix? playing video games? reading news? Start replacing these things for career improvement activities.
Be smart with the learning activities you choose. Side projects? probably not the best option since they require a lot of your time. Books, podcasts, video courses? That sounds more feasible since they are things you can squeeze in at any moment of the day.
Also keep in mind that learning is about quality and not quantity. It does not matter that you spend 5 hours coding on a side project if you are solving the same problem over and over.
Lastly, make sure you have a learning activities list ready so that you always have something to start working on and don't have to waste your time thinking about what's next.
Re: Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
#514I have six kids. It's definitely harder because, let's face it, you have only so many hours in the day. Basically, you just have to carve out times. So for me, if I need to, I can do some work/study after putting them to bed after dinner. But mostly I try to use Saturday afternoons--that tends to be an open area on my calendar, unless we have something special planned. If it's important, you make time for it.
It's not complicated, but it's also not black/white. You may do less, but that doesn't mean none.
Re: Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
#515I'm a little late to the thread here, but, I thought I'd share...
I do indie app development work (for myself) and then work with a few other guys to build an enterprise SaaS startup (just like everyone else... right...?).
In addition, I've been blogging every single day for 16 years (http://john.do) and I just added a daily vlog (http://john.show) where I talk about a few of these things...
But, I'm also married for 12 years and have 2 girls (ages 10 and 6). It's insanity trying to do all of these things... but, I manage... and here's how:
1. I've created a pretty strict boundary-line for when I work and when I don't. My wife and I agree on this boundary line and then... 2. I fucking work my ass off to get as much shit as I can done. 3. I forgive myself for not accomplishing everything I want to get done, and then, I get up the next day and try to do better. 4. I get support from partners and my friends. Building shit on the internet is tiring and can quickly become very lonely. Without help I lose, 100% of the time. 5. I take care of my body and mind and spirit through intentional self-care. I work out 7 days out of 7 a week. I have to or, I literally die.
By the way, it took years for me to figure all of this out, so, me dropping this might seem self-righteous and stuff, but I'm not trying to be like that.
I experimented my way through all of this and it took forever to find a pace and a rhythm that made sense for me and my family. It's hard as hell and every day I feel like I'm falling farther behind... but the reality is that most of that is in my head and the reality is that i'm moving faster and smarter than I ever have been.
I just, like everyone else, struggle to see the forest through the individual trees.
ping me if you want to chat more. i'm down for it: http://twitter.com/8bit
Re: Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
#516I have 2 kids - 4 year old & a 3 month old. I am writing this (comment), as I put my son to sleep. He is almost 4 & wants me to be in the room as he drifts to sleep. So i am sitting beside his bed (after an evening full of quality time with him), checking up on left over work for the day (& hackernews) We just had the second one - who is 3 months old now. So it's still adjusting phase for all of us at home. Sometimes…
We've got 3: 4,2, and 9 months. Thank goodness they all sleep (relatively) well. The baby goes down at 6 and the older ones go down at 7:30 (really, we start the process at like 7, targeting 7:30). We're also incredibly lucky that bedtime isn't much of a fight, it goes pretty smoothly so we're not all ragged for the rest of the night. I usually don't count on doing anything beyond trivial at all after they go to bed-…
How much sleep do you get?
Re: Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
#517Earlier quoted context omitted.
I occasionally have my 1 year old with me on calls. Besides the occasional burbling, the only issue is that she occasionally farts or burps and then cackles loudly to herself. I wouldn't have her with me on large calls, generally only on 1-on-1 calls.
I still laugh at my farts and burps. ...
Hahaha, occasionally I do too. It's amusing how much entertainment she seems to get out of it though.
Re: Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
#518I have 2 kids - 4 year old & a 3 month old. I am writing this (comment), as I put my son to sleep. He is almost 4 & wants me to be in the room as he drifts to sleep. So i am sitting beside his bed (after an evening full of quality time with him), checking up on left over work for the day (& hackernews) We just had the second one - who is 3 months old now. So it's still adjusting phase for all of us at home. Sometimes…
> What really would help me - and i struggle with this - if i have clear priorities in my head - what I want to achieve in the 'extra time' that I have got. The clearer the goal, better the results.
I suffered with the same thing. I started using dynalist (https://dynalist.io/) to list down whenever i felt like i wanted to do something. Later when i have free time, i just go to the list and see what i can finish in the time i've got. It offers a very intuitive interface to map/organise ideas. An alternative to it is Workflowy (https://workflowy.com/).
Re: Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
#519It's a great question. Get clear on the myths you develop after having kids. The biggest for me is: I only have ten minutes here, fifteen minutes there. I need focused hours of time to build something. That is just a story. When my first child was born, I used the time to write an app late at night while I was getting my wife some sleep. I called it the one handed blogging tool, because I needed a way to blog with on…
Side question to the main focus but I'm curious, have you found it to be profitable writing a book? Don't need to go into specific numbers but just roughly. It seems that for the amount of time it takes to write a book and the profit made it would work out less hourly than doing contract software work and the value in writing a book is more in self growth. I may be completely wrong though so just wondering from your point of view if you would recommend writing a book to someone else? thanks
Re: Ask HN: Developers with kids, how do you skill up?
#520All the responses here indicate the same "la dee da having kids is so wonderful that you don't even miss the other stuff." Fuck that. I have kids and I totally miss being able to stay up all night working on stuff and exploring new technologies, feeling like the world is going on without me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a passable dad, spend as much time with kids as possible, take them out to libraries and parks and try…
I have two daughters, 7 and 8. Both have clinically diagnosed ADHD and the eldest has ODD and was born with heart problems that required open heart surgery to fix. I love them both to death. On their good days they're amazing kids. On their bad days, I, like you just slog through it and keep my thoughts to myself wondering just how much longer I can keep going. It's hard. You don't want to ruin your kids by admitting…
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