It's okay to code on nights and weekends
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Re: It's okay to code on nights and weekends
#2I think it's OK too.
Not just coding but other types of technical work might benefit from not ruling this out, especially creative or innovative efforts.
It can really make a difference depending on where you stand in a project environment.
For me it was pretty easy to accept with cargo work where the ships come in at any time 24/7.
Before I started my company I had already gone the extra mile like this for employers when it really made a difference.
So I knew what I was getting into beforehand, I used to say you can run a company OK during business hours alone, but building a company may be the best use of nights & weekends depending on the circumstances.
It took some time but doing it for my own self turned out better after all.
It's not exactly a "super power" but good to have in your arsenal, plus in the right situation you could direct all your focus migrating toward having a 24/7 business that hardly ever requires "after-hours" effort after a while.
Re: It's okay to code on nights and weekends
#3A lot of people that are in tech because it’s a good job got pressured to make it their life. They reasonably pushed back, but the upshot was those of us that are passionate about programming as a hobby got pressured to not do it for fun.
Both things are unreasonable. You shouldn’t have to program for fun to get a job. You can be good at it as a profession only. You also should be allowed to love it as a vocation or avocation. That doesn’t make you a sucker.
Re: It's okay to code on nights and weekends
#4A lot of people that are in tech because it’s a good job got pressured to make it their life. They reasonably pushed back, but the upshot was those of us that are passionate about programming as a hobby got pressured to not do it for fun. Both things are unreasonable. You shouldn’t have to program for fun to get a job. You can be good at it as a profession only. You also should be allowed to love it as a vocation or…
As a hypothetical employer, should I be allowed to select for people who love programming because my internal metrics say they're an awesome fit? If so, then that's where the fundamental pressure is going to come from.
So we can be on HN and sing "Oh, you do you!" but that won't relieve the fundamental source of pressure.
Re: It's okay to code on nights and weekends
#5A lot of people that are in tech because it’s a good job got pressured to make it their life. They reasonably pushed back, but the upshot was those of us that are passionate about programming as a hobby got pressured to not do it for fun. Both things are unreasonable. You shouldn’t have to program for fun to get a job. You can be good at it as a profession only. You also should be allowed to love it as a vocation or…
It helps to accept that no matter how balanced or perfect you try to make your life, you’re going to screw it up anyway, so just do what you feel like, for fun or not for fun, and don’t worry about it.
Re: It's okay to code on nights and weekends
#6I have a non-coding day job and spend most of my time thinking about how to improve my projects when I get home, then code late into the night. Trying to get hired as a programmer somewhere, but part of me also worries it might exhaust me from coding on my own projects. If only I had enough spare time to build something worth monetizing while being able to pay the bills...
Re: It's okay to code on nights and weekends
#7A lot of people that are in tech because it’s a good job got pressured to make it their life. They reasonably pushed back, but the upshot was those of us that are passionate about programming as a hobby got pressured to not do it for fun. Both things are unreasonable. You shouldn’t have to program for fun to get a job. You can be good at it as a profession only. You also should be allowed to love it as a vocation or…
As a hypothetical employer, should I be allowed to select for people who love programming because my internal metrics say they're an awesome fit? If so, then that's where the fundamental pressure is going to come from. So we can be on HN and sing "Oh, you do you!" but that won't relieve the fundamental source of pressure.
You can hypothetically do whatever you want, no one in the real world is hiring you because you "love programming".
Re: It's okay to code on nights and weekends
#8I would love to code more on nights and weekends, but if I spend too long at the computer it makes my body hurt and feel bad.
Re: It's okay to code on nights and weekends
#9I have a non-coding day job and spend most of my time thinking about how to improve my projects when I get home, then code late into the night. Trying to get hired as a programmer somewhere, but part of me also worries it might exhaust me from coding on my own projects. If only I had enough spare time to build something worth monetizing while being able to pay the bills...
I definitely was much more exhausted and with much less energy to work on my projects after I got a real industry job, sadly.
Re: It's okay to code on nights and weekends
#10Stream of thoughts:
- I recently had an hours-long screenshare with a MMO guild leader showing dozens of spreadsheets. I was bewildered until he said that this is the game for him. This stuff is fun. He loves it. You can love what people call "work."
- I fell into a years-long trap of, "if is not advancing my career or my family, why would it ever be worth doing?" This led to depression and terrible downwards spiraling of Five Why's of "what's the point of it all?" There's very few ways to live life wrongly. All of them are obvious.
- I just had 2 weeks off where I didn't look at a single line of code. The longest stretch in my career. I was worried I'd come back to work and feel I wasted my time off. But no, it was amazing. My kids are amazing creatures.