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The art of over-engineering your side projects

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Re: The art of over-engineering your side projects

#151

Post by Raphmedia »

markcerqueira wrote: post #138
alexandercrohde wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. When I see a coworker start irrationally focusing on a new technology at work the first thing I think is "This person probably has no side projects to play with"

> "This person probably has no side projects to play with" Exploring new technologies that could be beneficial (or harmful) to the company shouldn't be a side project. Perhaps we can shift the thinking from "this person doesn't have time for side projects" to "how can we make exploring new technologies a part of the job?"

Depends. Using a new stack for the company's blog is fine. Forcing a new technology into the middle of an existing project isn't.

Re: The art of over-engineering your side projects

#152

Post by cortesoft »

beeforpork wrote: post #137

The best thing about side project is that I may be wonderfully inefficient, so I can do it the way I want and enjoy the way. Even mentioning the word 'deadline' or 'planing' or 'efficient' or 'customer' in the same sentence as 'side project' is contradictory to me. E.g., I love to program in assembler. Preferably 8 bit SoCs like AVR. The point is not to finish the project fast or even at all by using a more efficient…

Yeah, I read the title and I thought it was going to be an ode to the joy of trying new things with your side projects, and spending a ton of time working something just because it is fun.

I guess the author and I have a different purpose for side projects. It sounds like the author is trying to actually start a business while still employed, while I am just trying to mess around and have fun.

Re: The art of over-engineering your side projects

#153

Post by GigabyteCoin »

>You’re so hyped for this project and confident that it will succeed that you start thinking about the future: “how will I scale my application for the millions of users it will have?”

That's one of my side project vices!

Every time I write a new login database... I wonder if I should make the ID a MEDIUMINT or INT.

Re: The art of over-engineering your side projects

#154

Post by fundabulousrIII »

Back in the 90's and early oughts no one thought of writing code this way. It was counter productive. I'd suggest that it is still counter productive to consider SDLC concepts when writing pet code: great idea or not.

This whole agile sdlc idea is a distraction from writing good code.

Re: The art of over-engineering your side projects

#155

Post by CodeCube »

Raphmedia wrote: post #151
markcerqueira wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "This person probably has no side projects to play with" Exploring new technologies that could be beneficial (or harmful) to the company shouldn't be a side project. Perhaps we can shift the thinking from "this person doesn't have time for side projects" to "how can we make exploring new technologies a part of the job?"

Depends. Using a new stack for the company's blog is fine. Forcing a new technology into the middle of an existing project isn't.

It doesn't even have to be something "productive" ... what's being proposed here is that companies invest in literally having developers research new technologies, without expectations that said research will result in anything immediately profitable.

Re: The art of over-engineering your side projects

#158

Post by WalterSear »

markcerqueira wrote: post #138
alexandercrohde wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. When I see a coworker start irrationally focusing on a new technology at work the first thing I think is "This person probably has no side projects to play with"

> "This person probably has no side projects to play with" Exploring new technologies that could be beneficial (or harmful) to the company shouldn't be a side project. Perhaps we can shift the thinking from "this person doesn't have time for side projects" to "how can we make exploring new technologies a part of the job?"

How about making wednesday mornings, a 4hr 'personal project' time? Make it a requirement that everyone has to work with tools at the edge of their skillset, that is also relevant to work, but let them choose what, why, how. They could work on a personal project, or experiment with a new library or tool they would like to incorporate.

Start the day with a "not really a standup", where people can quickly explain what they want to accomplish in the next four hours.

Once a month, you spend a couple of hours of the time demoing the work you have done for each other, explaining the technology and what you have learned, and then discussing and evaluating our individual technical weaknesses and deciding what to do next. This rest of this monthly meeting could also be spent improving social coding skills - code and commit hygiene, team processes etc.

Not only would this keep people technically sharp but it keeps them from playing with toys in production and breaks up the work week, while still fulfilling company goals.

Re: The art of over-engineering your side projects

#159

Post by juiyout »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #50
hectorlorenzo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a thing. Expressing in public your desire to achieve something makes you less likely to deliver. http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gollwitzer/09_Gollwitzer_Sheeran_Se...

The weird thing is the same situation works in reverse as well. Publicly declaring your intention to quit a habit or lose weight has also been shown to increase success in some instances. I think it depends on whether people reward you with positive regard for stating an intention to do something, and whether you look foolish if you don't do the thing you stated. When you can get the reward just for the statement and…

I have observed this vastly "bipolar" results amongst my friends as well. Some take public declaration to heart and they ram through their goals. However I quickly lose interest of the project after I told everybody. I would go extra length to surprise and dish out cool stuff more often I care to finish side project only because I said I will do it.

I somehow concluded that I don't care about approvals on my 'integrity' yet I highly value my 'creativity' viewed by others.

Re: The art of over-engineering your side projects

#160

Post by jmkni »

xwvvvvwx wrote: post #9

For me it's very important that I don't discuss projects with friends / family / colleagues etc. until I really have something to show. I have always found it very easy to talk all the energy out of a good idea before I've even got any real work done.

Yep, as soon as you start talking about it, people start congratulating you, your reward system kicks in in your primitave lizard brain, and you don't bother actually doing it because you've already been rewarded.
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