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Ask HN: How do prolific programmers go about their daily lives?

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Ask HN: How do prolific programmers go about their daily lives?

#1

Post by lollipop25 »

When I read the interwebz, I see other devs pumping out code to open source projects like food-to-code machines. They manage open source projects, be on top of the latest trends and even drive the hype causing these other developers to follow suit. Part of me wants to become like one of these prolific developers. I want to learn a lot of things, do a lot of things.

However, in contrast, I find myself out of energy after work that I just drop dead in bed only to wake up the next day. People advise me to do recreational stuff instead of writing more code on the weekends. Even my boss advises against writing code even when deadlines are just right around the corner. Forcing myself a few times, I felt like I was inches away from becoming part of the zombie horde.

How do these prolific developers spend their time? How do they work, do open source while staying healthy and awesome, and not become zombies at the same time?

Re: Ask HN: How do prolific programmers go about their daily lives?

#5

Post by chill1 »

Maybe you could make some life-style changes to improve your overall energy level and/or cure your tiredness. How do you eat? Do you eat right before you go to bed? Do you wake up with an alarm clock? Do you eat a lot of greasy, processed foods? Soda? Do you exercise?

Other than that, maybe you could try pulling back the number of hours you're at work. I've felt myself getting stuck in that cycle of work, eat, sleep in the past, but I am currently pretty happy with my routine.

If you want to make some life changes, I'd recommend starting small. Pick one thing to improve this week (don't eat less than 2 hours before going to bed). Then next week try adding another thing. Before you know it, you'll be doing these healthier things without even thinking about it.

Re: Ask HN: How do prolific programmers go about their daily lives?

#6

Post by Randgalt »

I'm on my computer, essentially, every waking hour. I've been this way since I was a boy. I have two passions in life: programming and playing the drums. If I'm not drumming, I'm programming and vice versa. This is what I enjoy and thus I contribute to many OSS projects, manage an Apache project, consult to two startups and have a full time job.

I do all these things because it's what I'm driven to do. I would go crazy without it. There's no shame in not being like me. Do what you enjoy.

Re: Ask HN: How do prolific programmers go about their daily lives?

#7

Post by zwischenzug »

I've automated large chunks of my life.

I have a JIRA for everything I do with customized workflows, and among many other projects I built this:

http://hnalert.tk

to mail me when subjects interesting to me come up on HN.

I recommend reading 'Getting Things Done' and working at your own pace. Focus on the things you're motivated to do, not what you think you should be doing - that's what a paid job is for!

Re: Ask HN: How do prolific programmers go about their daily lives?

#8

Post by donatj »

Honestly until I met my wife, I spent the majority of my time at home building open source projects I knew would save me time later at work, and probably more time overall because the code will be less specialized to the project. This was almost every single night after work.

My wife came along and showed me though that there is more to life than programming and I have to thank her for that. She's a wonderful gruf woman who changed my life. I still code at night on occasion, but not very often. I've got better things to do. I really believe I am happier for it.

All that said, are you entirely sure programming is what you want to do the rest of your life? After a long day of coding I need to be ripped away from its siren song or I'd simply never stop, and I know a lot of developers that feel the same. The job takes a lot from you, imho, and it sounds like you may not enjoy it enough for it to be worth its cost.

Re: Ask HN: How do prolific programmers go about their daily lives?

#9

Post by shinryuu »

zwischenzug wrote: post #7

I've automated large chunks of my life. I have a JIRA for everything I do with customized workflows, and among many other projects I built this: http://hnalert.tk to mail me when subjects interesting to me come up on HN. I recommend reading 'Getting Things Done' and working at your own pace. Focus on the things you're motivated to do, not what you think you should be doing - that's what a paid job is for!

I would totally be keen on reading a blog post about that :)
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