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Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

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Re: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

#141

Post by jhartmann »

marvin wrote: post #83
undershirt wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finance my open source software like I do with all my hobbies, by having a day job and doing what I can on nights and weekends. Incremental effort, patience, and commitment are important for side projects that are funded like this. And I respectfully call bullshit on mental exhaustion. The true burnout comes after juggling your personal work and your day job, which you can fix by throttling back your personal work.…

Not all people have the capacity to do ambitious personal projects on top of their day job. I've tried, ended up with burnout and depression. So controlling the pressure means never planning to do something big on the side outside of holidays or other time off work. It's nice that you're able to do it like this, but your approach won't work for everyone. People have different capacities for doing organized stuff. My…

I think people would be very surprised what they are capable of doing. I have been working 80-100 hours per week since March of last year, and before I worked a pretty standard 45 and 'had no time'. I am actually more productive with my time, help my wife more, and still read business books and novels at a pretty good clip.

My biggest two tips are to wake up early and get things done before work, and truly love what you are working on. I wake up around 4 am and go to sleep around 9 pm most nights, and that is a pretty reasonable schedule for me now. It didn't start out that way, but you would be surprised what becomes normal when you push yourself. I would wager you are capable of a lot more then 8 hours a day, five days a week.

Re: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

#142

Post by jbn »

Ingaz wrote: post #109
rckrd wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He went to a institution known for its math, we do see the same kind of results from his peers - just not in computer science.

>> we do see the same kind of results from his peers It's interesting. Can you name some of them? With published works

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Cand%C3%A8s for one.

Re: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

#143

Post by malkia »

rossjudson wrote: post #138
malkia wrote: post #81

My personal programming heroes: - Edi Weitz - http://weitz.de/ - Lots of Common Lisp libraries (cl-ppcre) - Mike Pall - http://luajit.org/ - luajit off course

Mike Pall impresses the hell out of me. Jason Garret-Glazer too (x264). Cliff Click. Jeff Dean. Tony Morris. Martin Odersky.

Rich Hickey there too.

Re: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

#144

Post by tedunangst »

sunnybythesea wrote: post #112
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am 41, and am assuming I will (be able to !) want to retire at 60.. I know Ghandi, Linus Pauling etc. But I suspect I shall be a tiny bit tired by 60. Who knows. Maybe I have 40 years to go. Whatever, I am fed up with looking back and thinking "if only" - so I shall try and minimise those by 60.

Ghandi -> Gandhi Nothing personal. Seems like a very common mistake, but I can't figure out why. I also see this mistake when people mention Sal Khan as Sal Kahn.

Pronunciation? Ghandi is a potential spelling for gon-dee. Gandhi looks like it would be pronounced gand-hee. Perhaps it depends on your accent.

Re: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

#145

Post by rawland »

keithpeter wrote: post #126
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am 41, and am assuming I will (be able to !) want to retire at 60.. I know Ghandi, Linus Pauling etc. But I suspect I shall be a tiny bit tired by 60. Who knows. Maybe I have 40 years to go. Whatever, I am fed up with looking back and thinking "if only" - so I shall try and minimise those by 60.

But in retirement you will want to remain engaged and involved with the world. A nice free software project spun off to others to maintain would fit the bill? Hint: the two distinct prime factors of my current age add to 16 and I'm over 50

Hm... I'm glad for having you here... :-) Oh, and personally, I believe young age is hyped too much. (http://500hats.com/late-bloomer/)

Re: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

#146

Post by dotatello »

rawland wrote: post #145
keithpeter wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But in retirement you will want to remain engaged and involved with the world. A nice free software project spun off to others to maintain would fit the bill? Hint: the two distinct prime factors of my current age add to 16 and I'm over 50

Hm... I'm glad for having you here... :-) Oh, and personally, I believe young age is hyped too much. ( http://500hats.com/late-bloomer/ )

But 9 isn't prime. So it would be 11 and 5.

Re: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

#148

Post by thewarrior »

Lets not just beat up on ourselves for being so inferior to someone like him . Its a hard fact to swallow but some people are just way better than can be explained away by any simple reasoning . Lets be thankful that we can live along side them ,reap the fruits of their labor and awaken ourselves to the heights of human potential .

Re: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

#149

Post by Someone »

raverbashing wrote: post #75
antirez wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In France and many other places in Europe is common to work 36 hours per week, so you have a reasonable amount of time to do your own stuff.

You actually work 40h/w (usually) and then consolidate the 4 extra hours into a day (or days) off.

"Four times nine" (four days of nine hours each week) also is popular, as is "every second Wednesday is a day off".

Employers like these because they do not build up vast reserves of free days. If you collect four hours off each week for 36 weeks, you have collected four working weeks of holidays. Add the regular 4-5 weeks of holidays and some national holidays, and you can almost take a three month vacation.

Re: Fabrice Bellard: Portrait of a super-productive programmer (2011)

#150

Post by lifeisstillgood »

keithpeter wrote: post #126
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am 41, and am assuming I will (be able to !) want to retire at 60.. I know Ghandi, Linus Pauling etc. But I suspect I shall be a tiny bit tired by 60. Who knows. Maybe I have 40 years to go. Whatever, I am fed up with looking back and thinking "if only" - so I shall try and minimise those by 60.

But in retirement you will want to remain engaged and involved with the world. A nice free software project spun off to others to maintain would fit the bill? Hint: the two distinct prime factors of my current age add to 16 and I'm over 50

Nice to meet you, and yes something like that would be nice to look forward to.

In the meantime I have to monetize the brainpower of the next twenty years to be able to retire :-)

But I would like it if I could make some cash by or along with contributing something worthwhile.

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