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“Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

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Re: “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

#121
post #15

One day, everyone has to decide what they want from life... We only have finite time and need to use it carefully. I was a big nerd in school and from 11 - 17 I put most of my time in video games and coding. This helped me greatly in my carer, but I ended up without any of the typical experiences people have in that age. Later I decided I also want different things from life. Finding partners, learning instruments an…

> there are always people better than you, but they bought this with their lifetime

This is so true. Unless you spend your life doing something you will never be as good as them. You gotta choose what you want, but being the best at something is a heavy life decision.

Re: “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

#122
I never forget the years working Christmas and Thanksgiving at the movie theater, or bagging groceries at Harris Teeter pretty much every holiday(that was actually a huge step up because I didn't have to work Christmas day). Sure work sucks sometimes but I keep those days in the back of my head at all times and I never take what I have for granted. While my roommates in my late teens and early twenties, sat around smoking weed and playing video games and racking up student debt, I worked on paying cash for community college and learning more and more about programming which I had already started learning at an early age.

I still get up every day happy to go to work. I haven't dreaded work in 9 years. I have a 10 month child now and yea I don't eat sleep code, but it's actually given me more motivation to start a small Saas companies on the side. Just side projects to see if they stick. Bring in a little extra cash. If my employer wants a little extra work here and there that's fine. If they begin to expect it every day then I'll just go to the next thing, but I sure as hell rather sit at a desk and do something I enjoy than bag groceries or do construction.

Re: “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

#123

Yeah, fuck enthusiasm! /s I can understand that we might want to avoid the obsessive behaviors of some developers that could be considered unhealthy, but blaming a simple catch-phrase isn't going to get us anywhere. What if the shirt said, "Coding is rad" ? I say that all the time, and people just give me that look that says, "Ha, what a nerd" and it's fine for me because I can maintain my enthusiasm. Other people ne…

It's not the shirt that bothers me, it's the fact that Google tries to create this kind of work culture internally with perks designed to keep you at work longer, and then they sell this shirt so they can profit even more from the wider developer community's passion. I know that Google pays their developers well, and personally I am a bit of a workaholic myself devoting long hours to my company, but still there is so…

Don't they have the right? I mean, a developer that's talented enough to attract attention from Google then surely they'd be smart enough to know what constitutes working 'too much.'

I don't think Google exploits its workers anymore than they exploit themselves. If you think you've worked too much, then go home? If they ask you "hey, do you want to pull a 80-hour week this week?" why should you say anything other than: "fuuuuck no"

Going even further, it wouldn't shock me if at least a subset of Google programmers go home and -- sit down and start programming something else. If they were going to do it anyways, and Google's going to pay them their dues, hell, I'm all about it.

Eat, sleep, code, get paid, repeat.

Re: “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

#124
post #8

Generally, this is an easy stance for young, unmarried, and otherwise unattached people to approach their career. A warning to those that think this will enhance their opportunities later in life. It won't. Sure there are a few great employers out there that will reward you with loyalty (or massive sums of money) but that is the exception. After a life of nothing but work, no matter how much you love it at the time,…

> But once you get burnt out at something, digging ditches out in the sunshine (or rain for that matter) looks much more appealing.

Spoken like a person that's never dug a ditch.

Re: “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

#125

While I don't agree that programming needs to be all consuming, spend enough time around new programmers and you'll see a difference in passion. Someone who does programming because they can earn a pay check vs someone that does programming because they truly enjoy it. You don't get that passion by doing it 9-5. Programming CAN be all consuming if you let it and for a while, I did. I had so much work to do be it at m…

> You don't get that passion by doing it 9-5. You can't get passion for a subject by dedicating a majority of your daily hours on it? Seems like that could be the very definition of passion. I get what you're trying to say, but I firmly believe you are wrong. > I'm trying to make it a point to spend at least an hour a day bike riding or roller blading or just even spending time with my wife. One hour out of 15 you sp…

> You can't get passion for a subject by dedicating a majority of your daily hours on it? Seems like that could be the very definition of passion.

I've been wondering this myself lately too. What's the difference between someone who spends 100 hours doing something with rigorous discipline because they're trying to cultivate a passion, and someone who spends 100 hours doing something because they're passionate about it? Warm fuzzy feelings?

Re: “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

#126
post #8

Generally, this is an easy stance for young, unmarried, and otherwise unattached people to approach their career. A warning to those that think this will enhance their opportunities later in life. It won't. Sure there are a few great employers out there that will reward you with loyalty (or massive sums of money) but that is the exception. After a life of nothing but work, no matter how much you love it at the time,…

> But once you get burnt out at something, digging ditches out in the sunshine (or rain for that matter) looks much more appealing. Spoken like a person that's never dug a ditch.

I've done both, and honestly if I could get paid 6 figures to work outside with my hands I'd probably switch back and forth between the 2 every 3-4 years. Sure manual labor is hard but it has some rewards to. Sadly one of those rewards is not a decent living.

Re: “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

#127
post #102
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had a literal ditch digging job, and I hated that even more. But I still find myself longing for such a thing. Maybe if I could just have 3-4 days per year? xD

Do you know somebody with a garden? Or maybe there is a community garden nearby?

I second this. I find nothing more grounding after a caffeinated day of coding than pulling a beet out of the ground. Good food gardens (esp. permaculture ones) are fascinatingly complex systems that appeal to the engineering mindset, but involve neither 1) reading nor 2) looking at a screen.

Re: “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

#128
post #8

Generally, this is an easy stance for young, unmarried, and otherwise unattached people to approach their career. A warning to those that think this will enhance their opportunities later in life. It won't. Sure there are a few great employers out there that will reward you with loyalty (or massive sums of money) but that is the exception. After a life of nothing but work, no matter how much you love it at the time,…

I wouldn't wear this to "enhance my opportunities". I love coding, that's why I chose this career. Coding at home as a hobby is quite different from coding at work. I love both.

Why shouldn't I embrace my hobby and my job? Because somewhere some people might feel offended, like in this thread? I don't care. I had to giggle reading the shirt, I like that shirt, I wear that shirt. It's as simple as that.

Re: “Eat, sleep, code, repeat” is such bullshit

#129
I share the sentiment of the article, but have another issue. What is this obsession with "coding"? As in producing lines of code? I'd encourage programmers to "code" less and think more. And the best time to think is away from the keyboard, perhaps on a walk, or with your family.

Consider that some of the cleverest things in programming, be it algorithms like sorting, hashing or whatever, ideas and inventions that actually make the computers do what they do can usually be implemented in very few lines of code or explained in a page of text, but may have taken collective lifetimes to come up with.

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