Ask HN: What do you do while waiting for builds to complete?

#1

Post by Nabati » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 11:01 AM UTC

Out of curiosity, what do you do while waiting for builds to complete/compiling? I find it difficult to make good use of the time when the time it takes is long enough that it doesn't feel natural to stare blankly into the screen, but short enough that it doesn't make sense to switch to a new task.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do while waiting for builds to complete?

#2

Post by novia » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 1:47 PM UTC

I use that time to check my emails and respond to people. I'm in a sort of hybrid role where I am responsible for writing middleware and also acting in a tech support to other employees, so there's usually something waiting in my queue.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do while waiting for builds to complete?

#3

Post by avinassh » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

I check out HN / Lobste.rs

Re: Ask HN: What do you do while waiting for builds to complete?

#4

Post by randomopining » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 2:47 PM UTC

If I'm in Efficiency Mode after my first coffee of the morning, I try to line up productive coding or investigation tasks.

If it's later in the day and i'm basically clocked out, I might go for a run or chill or nap or something.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do while waiting for builds to complete?

#5

Post by softwaredoug » Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

What I do: get distracted and lose focus via slack, email, YouTube. Then I forget what I was doing originally.

What I feel would be more useful: meditate, find something related to the task in working on (documentation, thinking about next steps, etc), figure out how to speed up the build so I can keep focus