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

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

#81

Post by reinhardt »

randycupertino wrote: post #67
donatj wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OKCupid. She made fun of me, I teased back. Went from there.

haha... that is exactly how I met my sig-o as well. I like your style.

Damn. I am on okc and I am ball-busting women all the time. Ok admittedly I got lucky a few times but they didn't stick for long and most of them were meh anyway. I think the crucial difference in the GP's case was that she initiated it; she had already preselected him for whatever reason. This almost never happens to me and when it does it's not from women I'd be thrilled to get together with. Sigh

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

#82

Post by eibrahim »

cprayingmantis wrote: post #78
eibrahim wrote: post #23

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…

Starting out it seems hard just to work 8 hours a day when everyone else is in the office for 10 or 12. How do you balance this?

Do it from day one and set their expectations right away. But of course do a good job and get stuff done. Make the 8 hours count. That's why I said work from home then you don't have to pretend to work for 10 hours. You will be more flexible.

Under promise over deliver is the best tip I ever got.

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

#83

Post by sotojuan »

reinhardt wrote: post #55
donatj wrote: post #8

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 wo…

Great post. What I find most striking is how does one's (future) wife just "came along" when spending most time at home building open source projects. I mean, I rarely code any more for fun after work (and to be honest, often during work), I am actively looking for someone to get together and let me tell you, it's a bitch. Granted, I'm only searching online but then again I'm not looking for marriage material necessa…

Looking online is your problem. Sure, donatj met his wife on Ok Cupid, but online dating is mostly luck. I have girl friends with an account... they get tens of messages a day, if not more. Even if you do everything right, you can get lost in the inbox (kinda like applying for jobs!).

Online dating works as an "extra" way to find someone, not your sole source. Despite all the talk about online culture, most couples of any kind (serious, affair, etc) meet in person.

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

#85

Post by meric »

tjholowaychuk wrote: post #63
tjholowaychuk wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how I feel as well. I used to put more time into open-source and just code in general, now it's more of a means to an end for me, with the odd "passion" project. Life is short, don't waste it all working, even if it's what you enjoy, there are many other things to enjoy and experience. I refuse to work with companies now that put over 8-10 hours a day in, it's just too much, and fosters a competitive environm…

Also, I would say, even if you think coding is fun or enjoy it, ask yourself if that's what you want to be remembered for, or if you had a year to live would you be happy with having blown it all away on software. I'd bet the answer is likely no. It makes me sad when people in the community pass away and it seems that everyone is just talking about their work, there's so much more to a person (and life) than that.

If I had a year to live, I'd quit my job and finish what I've been working on at night. Plan one month to visit family & relatives.
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