41–50 of 86 posts
Exercising is for sure a net gain in time. It makes you feel healthier, happier about yourself, and helps you think more clearly.
Here's me: https://github.com/andrewrk
Being a prolific developer doesn't have as much to do with talent as people might think - Developers become well known by blogging, speaking at multiple conferences or just being in the right place at the right time (whilst making lots of open source contributions).
Also, famous developers tend to own/maintain many (often several hundreds) of different open source projects instead of focusing their energy on just one project. There are rare exceptions like Solomon Hykes of Docker - But if you just made one popular open source project, then that's usually not enough to be known in the community.
Also, where you live makes a difference. Your odds are much better if you live in Silicon Valley. I know a developer who created/maintains about 5 projects each with 2000+ GitHub stars and he is still not well known because he doesn't benefit from network effects like devs who are living in the US.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm Sindre. I actually spent more time on open source when I did work. Some people cook or bicycle as a hobby. I code. I'm totally addicted to making things on the computer. I used to spend work lunches coding on open source projects. I lived in a remote place (Lillehammer, Norway) with few people around and not much happening, so I had a lot of free time after work. It definitely is tough working up energy to code a…
Hi Sindre. You have me blocked on GitHub and I'm not sure why. As far as I'm aware I've never interacted with you directly. I tried to submit a bug fix to one of your projects, but I wasn't allowed to even fork it. I also tried emailing you but I got no response. I hope that if I said something offensive in some other context that gave you cause to block me, you'll give me another chance. -andrewrk https://github.com…
However, I came down to the realisation of several things very quickly.
1) Something in my brain causes me to grasp new concepts quite slowly, no matter how interested I am in the subject. So it takes me longer to work through things.
2) I also enjoy my family life, so it comes down to searching for time after the family has gone to sleep or before they wakeup to do some tech stuff. Kids are still a bit young to do tech stuff together.
3) There are only 24 hours in a day and I wont get any more days after I dead. I want to allocate some of the hours away from tech and experience humanities.
Sorry, I am sorry that this does not really answer your question, but I think that this side of the coin is important as well.
My advice is to find a job that you really, really enjoy doing. Once you have reached there, give it all you have got during the working hours. Your social life will thank you for it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hi Sindre. You have me blocked on GitHub and I'm not sure why. As far as I'm aware I've never interacted with you directly. I tried to submit a bug fix to one of your projects, but I wasn't allowed to even fork it. I also tried emailing you but I got no response. I hope that if I said something offensive in some other context that gave you cause to block me, you'll give me another chance. -andrewrk https://github.com…
Just looked at your GitHub profile and you're not blocked. Couldn't find any email from you either. Don't see why I would block you. Can't remember us interacting before.
If you don't feel compelled to code outside of work, it's probably because you don't love what you are working on enough. I find that programming itself is not enough for me to want to work constantly--I have to legitimately love what I'm building.
This is worded, negatively, but I think the positive formulation is more meaningful: If you aren't coding outside of work, it's probably because you love doing something else more.
As others have been saying, the "prolific programmers" have a passion to program that doesn't get satisfied by coding from just 9 to 5. Personally I tend to have waves of intense programming around the clock followed by a cooling down period with either part of the cycle lasting days to weeks. Sorry for the shameless self plug but you should start small and try making a "One Hour Side Project" http://kolodny.github.i…
Exercise helps like everyone is saying.
Recently I read a book called Pragmatic Thinking and Learning. Great tips in there.
Thanks for asking this. I have always wondered the same and I look forward to the answers. I am not as prolific as many of the people you are probably thinking of but I am slightly above average. Here are a few things that WORKED FOR ME: - Learn & use GTD - life changing. I use omnifocus but you can do it with pen & paper - Automate as much as you can - checkout keyboard maestro and many other tools - Use your calend…
How do you deal with habits? What are projects and what are tasks? Is vacuuming once a week something you would schedule in a calendar? Would you schedule doing dental floss every night?
Also, for big projects which would have a task list of several 100 tasks, many of which would not be visible to you on the outset, how would you deal with those?
And what about all those halfbaked, barely logged ideas, sentences for things to write someday, concepts...
In essence. GTD stresses me out because it promises complete control over what to do and think about and when. Trying to implement it whilst dealing with the above questions induces anxiety and procrastination.