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Ask HN: What's your working day like?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#381
post #282

Taco Bell Manager in a mall food court [0800] - Wake up, shower, eat breakfast. [0830] - Ride my bike to work since I lived close to the mall. [0850] - Unlock the store, turn on lights, turn on re-thermalizer, groan about how crappy the night shift cleaned. [0915] - Wonder why I still work at Taco Bell. Drop the previous days's, along with fresh, beef/chicken/steak in the re-thermalizer to be ready to serve at 1000.…

I'd be interested in hearing more about your journey from fast food to software development. Grats on the life change!

At the time I programmed as a hobbyist to try and better myself--I wasn't always just playing video games after work. Eventually I got an office job as a temp doing data entry. I came to dislike my single task I was given, so I did what any lazy programmer would do and automated it. Eventually I was found sleeping at my desk while the program was running, and was reported to the boss. When I went to the boss's office to be reprimanded he instead referred me to the head of IT who then offered me a job as a programmer. That was about 5 years ago.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#382
post #380

Profession: meat robot at an Amazon fulfillment center. [4:00am] wake up [4:30am] coffee, morning workout, maybe code [5:30am] shower [6:00am] breakfast [6:30am] drive to work [6:55am] clock in, mandatory stand-up, bullshit, pretend OSHA stretches. Everybody claps out. [7:00am] push juice carts full of merchandise from point a to point b, push empty juice carts from point b to point a [10:15am] break, definitely not…

I'm sorry to say this, but this is literally one of the funniest things I've ever heard

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could also be a literal reference to taking down the United States flag. Those organizations of which I've been a member, which flew the US flag, would strike it at or just before sunset, and I believe Title 4 of the US Code, which details respectful treatment of the national flag, requires that this be done. ETA: Indeed, 4 USC 6(a) [1]: It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset on…

There are six United States flags that are not required to follow this rule. Do you know which ones they are?

The one in front of the White House is one of them, I believe, but then I also seem to recall that it's lit 24/7, so may not count. The other five I couldn't hazard a guess at.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#384
post #382
post #380

Profession: meat robot at an Amazon fulfillment center. [4:00am] wake up [4:30am] coffee, morning workout, maybe code [5:30am] shower [6:00am] breakfast [6:30am] drive to work [6:55am] clock in, mandatory stand-up, bullshit, pretend OSHA stretches. Everybody claps out. [7:00am] push juice carts full of merchandise from point a to point b, push empty juice carts from point b to point a [10:15am] break, definitely not…

I'm sorry to say this, but this is literally one of the funniest things I've ever heard

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that in the US many (most?) fire departments are 24 hours on/48 hours off so the overnight is sleep at the fire station or respond to calls if there are any. In this case I think "flag down" just means "no responsibilities other than responding to calls."

It could also be a literal reference to taking down the United States flag. Those organizations of which I've been a member, which flew the US flag, would strike it at or just before sunset, and I believe Title 4 of the US Code, which details respectful treatment of the national flag, requires that this be done. ETA: Indeed, 4 USC 6(a) [1]: It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset on…

> I believe Title 4 of the US Code, which details respectful treatment of the national flag, requires that this be done.

The cited provision requires nothing, it is purely descriptive (“it is the universal custom that...” is not “everyone who flies a flag shall...”)

> To the best of my understanding, no criminal penalty attaches to mishandling a flag in contravention of Title 4 requirements,

There is, for actual requirements, like those regarding advertising use of the flag in 4 USC Sec. 3. But section 6 subsections either describe custom or describe what “should” be done, and thus are not requirements in any sense.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#387
post #78

Profession: Software Security Engineer (Work from home) Workday: - [08:00] Wake up in a daze make breakfast - [08:30] Shower, get dressed and ready - [09:15] Start work (at home), read email / respond to email. - [10:30] Prioritize days work. - [10:40] Research first priority issue, read bz, take notes, read again, familiarize self with new area (almost every time). - [11:45] Eat lunch - [12:35] Attempt to write a re…

You only play a half hour of Overwatch a day. I call bullshit.

This is why i'm silver/gold.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#389
Profession: Web and Graphic Designer (aka UX Designer), part-time, remote and onsite at employee organization.

### Morning ###

Wake up with feline alarm clock and his sister, both of whom are fed, given fresh water, spoken to and pet.

Light breakfast, usually yogurt and cereal or freshly-ground peanut butter on toast, and fruit. Stove-top coffee, black, no milk, no sugar, and accompanying glass of water. Meditate a little, not following any mantra, just trying to observe my thoughts with no judgment. Avoid looking at any screens, except to answer the usual call from my mother who lives overseas.

Depending on what day it is, either: ¶ Go out for long walks and photograph mostly people on the street; ¶ Go to office in part-time job, talk to people in person, draw and align things on paper and on the screen, print things and stick them on the wall and put them on a table where everyone can see them and often let them ‘sit’ for a day or five and live with them; ¶ Stay home and go out to buy fresh bread for breakfast. Look at paper planner to find out what I forgot I need to do and remember the context I am doing them in — Examples: update the color or redraw a line on a vector illustration, redraw and rescan a drawing, find a more appropriate typeface, change the wording in an InDesign or GitHub document, update the Google App Engine SSL certificate for a website, update or enhance a Wordpress or Django or Hugo website, make an HTML element display elegantly on a small and large screen, figure out a progressive enhancement with JavaScript while making sure it fails gracefully, find or craft a regular expression that matches a piece of text so I can search and replace it. Most of these involves looking up and also writing documentation to refresh my memory. ¶ I draw, align or write or choose things, around half the time for projects for other people and half the time for my own. Two current projects are a website about visual beauty and a book of black and white photographs.

Eat lunch often but not always consisting of heated leftovers from the previous evening’s dinner which was purposefully cooked in abundance so there is also lunch the following or following-following day. A particularly tasty leftover food is black or brown beans and white or brown rice and a spicy sautéed vegetable. If it is not raining or cold I like to eat sitting on grass outside. Should weather and temperature be grim I stay in and read things on a few websites while noting down ideas for projects and blog posts on a paper notebook, which is something I tend to do throughout the day.

### Afternoon ###

Coffee after lunch, and sometimes a sweet, at least 70% cocoa if chocolate.

Check email and reply. If there is an email asking me to do something which I cannot do at the current time I either write down what I need to do and when I need to get it done by on my paper planner or I archive the email.

Mid-to-late afternoon I usually draw and look at things on a large computer screen and draft an email showing progress, often with screenshots and brief captions with questions. I make sure to go outside before the sky is dark and walk home looking at and taking pictures of things. I may also walk to a bar and have a beer or play basketball or tennis or throw a frisbee or go to an event with a friend (when I do not get to do exercise outside due to, for example, soul-threatening weather or laziness, I often do the ‘7-minute Scientific Exercise’ routine in the living room before dinner). When I get home I look at, choose and sometimes publish a picture to my website and auto-post a link to it on social media websites that I rarely log into (this is called POSSE — [Publish on Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere](https://indieweb.org/POSSE)). If I am home and it is cleaning day I take turns vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, taking clothes to the washer in the building basement and setting up a line and hanging them in the living room, which makes it look Neapolitan and reminds me of the great food and people of Naples and of Pink Floyd’s [Live at Pompeii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd:_Live_at_Pompeii).

After dinner (which I take turns cooking or washing up after) and conversation I explore an open-world computer game with emergent gameplay mechanics or read a carefully-chosen book (I am lucky to have a partner who loves reading and writing). I also play with the felines, and talk to them and play music on the stereo for them — they particularly enjoy Kenny Burrell and Mozart — when I stay home during the day.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#390
Profession: Software Engineer (Remote, currently in Nunavut, Canada)

[06:00] Woken up by cats poking my face, I roll out of bed & feed them a little bit of food then head back to bed.

[08:00] Alarm goes off, I get up, grab a quick shower & take the dog out for a quick morning walk.

[08:40] Feed dog & cats their breakfast. Make a coffee with Irish Creamer (It makes the coffee taste like it has booze in it).

[08:50] Start my first block of uninterrupted coding time at home. I'm a few hours ahead of my colleagues, so this time is my most productive. I listen to an audiobook or podcast to avoid talking to myself.

[11:00] Make another coffee & prep for morning standup call.

[11:10] Sit down on my sofa & start the call.

[11:40] Coffee #3, tell myself I should plan out my afternoon, then promptly start dicking around on social news sites.

[12:00] Make lunch, then take the dog for 1h of exercise. Dog decides its ball should be split in two.

[13:20] Head to the shops to grab food for the next few days & a new ball for the dog.

[14:00] Saw I had a unread message from my Mum. I give her a call to remind her I'm still alive.

[14:30] Finally back to coding. Spend way to long debating about a 4th coffee.

[18:00] Start a load of washing & take the dog out again.

[18:40] Feed animals (saving a little bit of cat food for later), then cook dinner.

[20:00] Remember about washing, then figure out plans to go out for dinner tomorrow with some locals I've met.

[21:00] Decide I should burn some evening oil on getting to a better place for work tomorrow. End up thinking more about side projects & catching up on TV.

[22:30] Sun still hasn't set outside. I take the dog out again for a quick pre-bedtime walk.

[23:00] Feed cats the last of their dinner in a hope they'll let me sleep in a bit more tomorrow.

[23:15] Catchup on news in bed, then sleep.

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