Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Survive 80+ Hours of Programming Every Week

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 63 posts

Re: How to Survive 80+ Hours of Programming Every Week

#21

Post by jadc »

sauldcosta wrote: post #16
zerr wrote: post #13

Is it only me who thinks that actually typing the code takes the least amount of time from all of the activities required for software engineering?

I think early in your career as a programmer you spend a lot of time researching, and then as you gain more experience and learn more about the languages, tools, etc. you're working with you end up spending more time writing code and less having to read S.O. answers :)

Actually, unless you are working on your own, you will find as you get more experienced, you will be spending more time on tasks other than coding, such as design, mentoring, etc...

Re: How to Survive 80+ Hours of Programming Every Week

#23

Post by sauldcosta »

kelvin0 wrote: post #19

I think that this type of excessive 'hero' attitude is not without risks mostly to your overall mental health. Also, no mention is made of physical exercise ... I am worried for you lil' fella ...

Sorry, I really didn't mean for this post to come off how a lot of people seem to be taking it. I just figured there might be other people out there who run into the same issues I do, so I figured I'd share what has helped me.

I make sure to exercise every day: bike + swim + p90x occasionally. I think that exercise is just as important as the rest of what I'm talking about here, I suppose I should have gone into more depth on that in the post.

Re: How to Survive 80+ Hours of Programming Every Week

#24

Post by adekok »

It was well established in the 1930s that workers peak productivity is at about 40 hours of work a week.

Anyone who thinks they can be more productive at double that, for long periods, is either superhuman, or deluding themselves.

Get out, see your family, watch a movie, go for a walk. Be a human, and not a programming machine.

Re: How to Survive 80+ Hours of Programming Every Week

#25

Post by sauldcosta »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #20

Falling asleep in less than 10 minutes is a strong sign that you have a chronic sleep deficit. A chronic sleep deficit significantly impacts your mental abilities. So in other words, you may be working long hours, but they are very likely to be much less effective hours than if you were getting a proper night's sleep every night.

Possibly, although I don't know if that has to be the case.

I fall asleep extremely quickly no matter how well rested I am. It's not based on how tired I am but rather the approach I explain the post.

Re: How to Survive 80+ Hours of Programming Every Week

#27

Post by sauldcosta »

jadc wrote: post #21
sauldcosta wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think early in your career as a programmer you spend a lot of time researching, and then as you gain more experience and learn more about the languages, tools, etc. you're working with you end up spending more time writing code and less having to read S.O. answers :)

Actually, unless you are working on your own, you will find as you get more experienced, you will be spending more time on tasks other than coding, such as design, mentoring, etc...

Agree 100%. I'm a co-founder on an early stage startup, so the only people I have the time to mentor right now are the other members of the team.

Re: How to Survive 80+ Hours of Programming Every Week

#29

Post by rocco337 »

melling wrote: post #6
sauldcosta wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. And just to be clear, I'm not suggesting anyone should program this much. But I think some people are forced into this situation, especially in certain settings. My goal with this post is to provide a list of things that might help alleviate side effects.

You should get a good mechanical keyboard. Cherry Browns or Blues. Reduces hand stress.

after 80 hours per week, stress on your hands is your least problem.

Re: How to Survive 80+ Hours of Programming Every Week

#30

Post by DanAndersen »

I find it sad how much our industry obsesses about working crazy-long hours. It's a hard thing to criticize, since I think most of us (myself included) have found ourselves passionately working on a project non-stop for extended periods of time, and found it fulfilling. But I worry about the mythologizing that happens where we take this behavior as a source of pride, either to make heroes of the famous programmers who locked themselves in their room for a week with Red Bull and pizza and, or use this as a status symbol to brag about how awesome a hacker we are.

Who am I to tell someone to stop working if they choose to do so? But I do worry that this just normalizes expectations by companies that every dev needs to be a rockstar ninja 10x hacker that lives and breathes code 24/7 and has no life outside the company.

I guess what I think is that when we see things like "working 80-hour weeks continually" we shouldn't be defaulting to "wow that's so impressive!" but rather "wow that's not healthy."

Post reply on HN