Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it? • Hacker News Board

Re: Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it?

#61

Post by a-priori » Wed, Jul 09, 2008, 1:45 PM UTC

time_management wrote: post #43

Become a morning person (oddly enough, I'm typing this at 12:45 am... but I'm also unemployed right now). Use brainwave entrainment technologies and meditation to get yourself to sleep in the evening, because you probably haven't had a habit of going to bed before midnight since grade school. Most people need less sleep if they go to bed and rise early, so if you're asleep by 10, you can get up around 4:30 easily. Wh…

This is my advice too: work on your own stuff in the early morning.

I'm in a similar situation, in that I'm working a 9-5 job, but with me the "other programming" is a freelance gig. I found I never had time to do the freelance work, so I started getting up earlier to work on it before going to the 9-5. It's been a big improvement.

Re: Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it?

#62

Post by sebastianavina » Wed, Jul 09, 2008, 1:55 PM UTC

Hi kamme, I'm in the same position, 24 y/o, hacking around since 12, and at some moment, about 2 years ago, I got tired of programming the same foo, bar classes over and over. I founded a little software company, and now I've 12 full time employees, and we offer a lot of services, web paage design, multimedia cd-roms (a.k.a flash movies), and consulting for companies for erp implementation (opentaps, mostly), by the end of this year i'm opening a repressentetation office in Monterrey... I know it's a little company, but it allows me to play around (evaluating new technologies) when i'm not dealing with people...

follow your dreams !

Re: Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it?

#63

Post by nihilocrat » Wed, Jul 09, 2008, 2:34 PM UTC

I would agree with most people here that you should take a vacation of some sort, and make sure it's something that's going to really take you out of your element. Anything that keeps you away from the internet is a good idea; going sailing with my family for a three-day weekend in October felt really refereshing and gave my brain something to think about (navigation and sailing technique) that didn't have anything to do with my usual interests, but that I could still get interested in. It just felt like a great way of removing myself from my routine and being refreshed... sort of the objective of a vacation, right?

Also, I've noticed my level of energy has a lot to do with inspiration, and to a lesser extent how heavy my workload is. I started working for a video game company in a non-development position (I develop web-based tools, actually, but nothing directly related to the game) and it's given me a whole lot more motivation to follow through with one of my myriad video game projects, which I've never before managed to get to this level of completion. Being around them and around lots of people obsessed with them simply just helps me from getting too distracted or thinking that my projects aren't going to amount to anything and that it's no big deal if I abandon them.

Re: Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it?

#64

Post by petercooper » Wed, Jul 09, 2008, 2:52 PM UTC

whacked_new wrote: post #41

giles_bowkett wrote: post #18

Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop, and build things because you want to build them. Your skill will return, the light will return to your eyes, and your career will improve. I'm not even kidding. Take a few years away. You'll build something so much cooler than you would at these apparently soul-destroying jobs you've got. I did it, and I'm now showing off what I've built at damn near every Ruby conference i…

This advice reads like utter insanity, but the even more shocking thing is that there are at least 14 people here who thought positively of it, and a magnitude more that nod in assent but didn't click the up arrow. I have come to believe this kind of spirit is part of the core of true innovation. If this was posted in another community, I'm fairly sure you would've been treated like a lunatic. How amazing is that!

It certainly does read like utter insanity to a mind indoctrinated to the 9 to 5 and the traditional concept of getting and sticking to a "career."

It doesn't read like utter insanity, however, to those who are independent, free thinking, and willing to do things a bit differently in order to have the life they want.

Re: Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it?

#65

Post by petercooper » Wed, Jul 09, 2008, 2:58 PM UTC

I've been in the same situation, but a lot of people here have given good advice on the general aspects of it already. I have only one specific thing to add..

Build things that you NEED.

There is a natural drive (survival?) that kicks in when you start creating things you need or that will make your life a lot easier in the short term. These things do not need to be for resolving basal needs like food, shelter, or even money, but for resolving problems you have regarding technology, the Internet, or programming, say.

A few years ago I started to use del.icio.us, and decided I wanted my del.icio.us postings to appear at the header of my blog. I developed an RSS to JavaScript service to do this. To cut a very long story short, it turned into a very big deal quite quickly, got funding, tens of thousands of users, made a profit, and I sold it a year ago for a reasonable sum.

Ditto for a "tagged source code repository" (like a del.icio.us for code) I developed a couple of years ago. I needed to store bits of code I used regularly in a tagged fashion, so I built it (in a day or two). Natural forces took over, it became popular, and I sold it.

I'm not a procrastinator, but I'm an incredibly lazy person. I don't "feel" like doing lots of things, but if I know I have a "need" (or there's no way I can get out of doing something) I jump into it out of necessity. Perhaps you are the same.

Re: Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it?

#66

Post by hugh » Wed, Jul 09, 2008, 3:11 PM UTC

astrec wrote: post #29

mynameishere wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop This is bad advice.

Sure. But Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop, and build things because you want to build them. is stellar advice. Seriously. The sabbatical is the instrument of champions.

I would say that:

Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop, and build things because you want to build them.

is good advice only in response to

I'm bored with my job AND I have an idea I really really want to work on. Here's the idea: [insert non-bad idea here]

but it's not very good advice in response to

I'm bored with my job and I'd kinda like to work on something different, dunno what though

Re: Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it?

#67

Post by giles_bowkett » Wed, Jul 09, 2008, 3:29 PM UTC

hugh wrote: post #66

astrec wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop, and build things because you want to build them. is stellar advice. Seriously. The sabbatical is the instrument of champions.

I would say that: Dude, quit your job, work at a coffee shop, and build things because you want to build them. is good advice only in response to I'm bored with my job AND I have an idea I really really want to work on. Here's the idea: [insert non-bad idea here] but it's not very good advice in response to I'm bored with my job and I'd kinda like to work on something different, dunno what though

It worked for me. I kinda wanted to work on something different, didn't know what though, and found out what when I stopped working on the stuff I didn't want to work on.

I believe you've got it exactly backwards. The advice comes from exactly the experience this person describes, and the conditions which you think would make my advice better may actually worsen it.

If you know exactly what you want to build, you don't need the open schedule factor, as you can scope it and schedule it around what you're already doing, or timebox the project between school years or between jobs.

It's when you don't know what to do next that exploring different options pays off.

Re: Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it?

#68

Post by felideon » Wed, Jul 09, 2008, 5:55 PM UTC

LKM wrote: post #60

mleonhard wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saving money to start a company?

I'm not sure whether saving money for a startup is a good idea. It might just be a copout, a reason why you can't yet start your own company. But you can. You don't need that much money to incorporate, and you don't need to quit your day job - you may be able to move to a cheaper flat, keep working something like 50% at your day job, and spend the rest of your time on your startup while still making enough money for…

That, or look for seed funding.

Re: Questions from a young developer that "just" started working aka: how do you manage it?

#69

Post by whacked_new » Wed, Jul 09, 2008, 10:16 PM UTC

giles_bowkett wrote: post #56

whacked_new wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This advice reads like utter insanity, but the even more shocking thing is that there are at least 14 people here who thought positively of it, and a magnitude more that nod in assent but didn't click the up arrow. I have come to believe this kind of spirit is part of the core of true innovation. If this was posted in another community, I'm fairly sure you would've been treated like a lunatic. How amazing is that!

I told him that if he wants to love what he does, he should do what he loves. And you call that utter insanity.

That is, in fact, not what you told him to do. Your advice is a risky proposition, and for people who aren't used to it, it is fair to point out how crazy it seems.

I was not trying to criticize what you said, but I still think it sounds insane. It might truly be the core of innovation, just as how some artists create groundbreaking work when they go nuts. But if I repeated this to some people around me I'd expect loud disagreement.