This is only reasonable if internal docs, design notes, research notes, etc. count as shipping.
Ship Something Every Day
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Re: Ship Something Every Day
#12IMHO "every day" is far too frequent, and this ADHD-ish attitude is one of the reasons why the quality of average software has gone down the drain. Developers need to step back, think more deeply, and not worry about being pressured into "shipping code" that barely works. The dopamine rush of your code being shipped This frequent overstimulation leads to less ability for long-term attention. When I taught programming…
I think the article would come across better, did the field not have such widespread problems right now.
For developers who are seriously hardcore, sometimes it might be good to lighten up, and enjoy a little daily reward and recognition.
But in the current state of things, the advice sounds closer to embracing the dysfunction, and feeling good about it.
Re: Ship Something Every Day
#13I try to do this, but it's often my own dotfiles or other programs I work on. I have a things.app db of different things I want to do for various projects, most of which are not work related. Just committing a new dotfiles script, fixing an existing one, adding a neovim command to automate something, or deploying a container to my vps that i was curious about -- all of that is shipping imho and i get energy from the creative aspect of it.
Re: Ship Something Every Day
#14> The satisfaction (and mental benefits) of getting something done I used to think that motivation would come to me if I just waited long enough but I now believe that action breeds motivation. You need to do something no matter how small and your motivation will benefit from it.
Totally agree. I’ll also add that although I am often tempted to work alone, sharing my work or ideas or output with someone else boosts motivation a lot.
Re: Ship Something Every Day
#15IMHO "every day" is far too frequent, and this ADHD-ish attitude is one of the reasons why the quality of average software has gone down the drain. Developers need to step back, think more deeply, and not worry about being pressured into "shipping code" that barely works. The dopamine rush of your code being shipped This frequent overstimulation leads to less ability for long-term attention. When I taught programming…
I think this would be better if it was "Do something every day".
Close a bug, clean up a file, take a pass at a refactor. Set up a new monitor. Build some utility for yourself, or your work flow. Learn something. Play with some new tech and try it out.
> I can personally say that the satisfaction is far bigger the longer you've persevered.
I dont disagree but one can collect small joys along the way to make it easier.
Re: Ship Something Every Day
#16|> Your team (and manager) sees you're working
That's one of the greatest corporate flaws and my biggest personal failure that I fail, and refuse, to adapt to.
When I work in a team I often try to empower lacking teammates by taking a challanging task, do most of the hard work, and give it to somebody else to finish up the easy part and ship the solution. While working on it they have to understand how the solution actually works (for instance by writing tests), and usually they are happy that they can contribute something bigger than they normally could. I don't mind passing the credit, as long as I know that the person actually made some work and understand the code. Meanwhile I offer myself for help or pair programming (although I'm not really a fan of the concept per se) to kickstart someone elses tasks, helping with architecture or just the general approach to the problem.
My coworkes like me, it worked wonders when I was running my own company, yet, when working in BigCo I have to constantly explain myself to higher ups that I'm actually present, not slacking and doing my job, because my jira/github profile doesn't shine.
One could say I'm a fool by not building up "portfolio" and paving my way to promotion/raise, but I genuinely think that this brings much bigger value in a long run. :)
Re: Ship Something Every Day
#17As I'm still a coding noob, I don't ship code as much as I want to.
However, I make a simple bullet task list and work on it. Tasks are not necessarily related to coding. It could be a task related to image editing. Initially, I was feeling very bad if I can't finish a task within the time I've set for it.
Now I don't feel bad if I can't finish that task on time. I perceive it as a micro-iteration of the task. The trick is to iterate further, until the task is done.
While rushing to do a task within a specific timeframe, might be productive in the short-term, I don't see it feasible if you push yourself all the time doing it. I imagine it might reflect on the quality of your work and lead to a self-induced burnout.
Shipping for the sake of it, in my opinion, might create some false perception of work being done. In my experience, employers tend to reward that behavior.
So maybe the question here would be: why are you shipping in first place? To show off, to boost dopamine through gamifying yourself, or to deliver a piece of work you'll be proud of before going to bed.
Re: Ship Something Every Day
#18I would say the better version could be "do something meaningful every day".
Re: Ship Something Every Day
#19IMHO "every day" is far too frequent, and this ADHD-ish attitude is one of the reasons why the quality of average software has gone down the drain. Developers need to step back, think more deeply, and not worry about being pressured into "shipping code" that barely works. The dopamine rush of your code being shipped This frequent overstimulation leads to less ability for long-term attention. When I taught programming…
I left off a key point; your code doesn’t need to ship to production, I just think you should do _something_. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
> I can personally say that the satisfaction is far bigger the longer you've persevered.
It’s a great feeling to finish something. I find I’m more likely to finish it well if I break it up versus ship it all at once (and my teammates thank me)
Re: Ship Something Every Day
#20|> Your team (and manager) sees you're working That's one of the greatest corporate flaws and my biggest personal failure that I fail, and refuse, to adapt to. When I work in a team I often try to empower lacking teammates by taking a challanging task, do most of the hard work, and give it to somebody else to finish up the easy part and ship the solution. While working on it they have to understand how the solution a…
this comment resonates with me. I think it’s a common mistake for a lot of folks to forget that programming is a creative task, and creative tasks rarely fit into metrics effectively. I have a bad habit at my place of work for not ticketing things out correctly and pushing larger than average commits.