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I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

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Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#101

Post by ohyes »

Not programming outside of work is an indicator rather than a cause of 'bad programmer'.

Programming outside of work indicates that you like programming. If you are bad at programming you will not like programming, as it will be frustrating.

It also indicates that you are reasonably smart, probably get bored watching television, and are at least a little intellectually curious. If you are specifically programming something 'fun' to unwind after a long day of work, you are clearly comfortable programming, and you have interesting (enough) ideas about what to program.(It also indicates that there are no decent pubs within walking distance).

If you are programming in your free hours because some guy on stack overflow said 'this is what you must do to be the greatest programmer,' you are probably an idiot. No amount of outside work programming will help you.

Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#102

Post by artmageddon »

gaius wrote: post #98
wisty wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if you don't have a family, but are planning one, ensure that the other potential parent can pass your technical interview. Funny story - Bill Gates' first question to his wife was said to be "What was your math SAT?"

Well, not that funny, when they first met she was a MS employee. He didn't pick her up in a bar with that line! PS Would that work?

This would probably make for a good card in the "30 Day Rejection Therapy" app...

Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#103

Post by lparry »

Back in first year uni, when I felt like everything I was supposed to be learning was a bit of a walk in the park I'd program in my free time a whole lot. later in uni when I was swamped with engineering maths and compulsory management subjects I didnt program in my spare time at all (I suck at analog maths and ROTE learning so it sapped my enthusiasm to do anything in general).

when I finished uni and got my first job, I was back in the position of being given boring menial tasks and I programmed in my spare time for fun again. I left that job for something a lot more interesting and was quickly given enough responsibility that at the end of the day I didnt feel like programming so I didnt. After a few years there I'm on top of things at work again and I'm back to coding for fun in my spare time again.

I dont think that not coding in your spare time is a sign that you're a bad developer; it's more a sign that you're getting enough mental stimulation elsewhere. That said, I think if you've never coded for fun it's possibly a sign you're in the wrong career. You should love what you do enough that you'd do it even if you weren't being paid to do it; not necessarily the exact same work, but at least the same domain. No point spending 1/3rd of your waking life doing something you dont enjoy

Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#104

Post by fharper1961 »

demallien wrote: post #92
kenjackson wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right question is, What is it about certain/many good developers that leads them to program in their spare time? This is a good question, but it does lead me to a thought... why does it seem like most side projects are done by people for whom the predominance of their work appears to be side projects? Let me explain. Most of the programmers who produce large products, don't do much in the way of side projects. Ca…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard Annoyingly enough, he has the same day job as me. My side projects don't get used across the internets :(

Yeah, but I guess he doesn't spend time reading/posting on HN! ;-)

Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#105

Post by ZoFreX »

jsmcgd wrote: post #100
k7d wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess not everybody caught the irony

Don't you mean sarcasm or are you being ironic?

Sarcasm is a form of irony - one meaning of irony is saying one thing, and meaning another. "Sure, that's a great idea" is both sarcastic and ironic (although not ironic in the sense people most commonly use the word, which non-ironically, is not that ironic).

Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#106

Post by sudont »

ohyes wrote: post #101

Not programming outside of work is an indicator rather than a cause of 'bad programmer'. Programming outside of work indicates that you like programming. If you are bad at programming you will not like programming, as it will be frustrating. It also indicates that you are reasonably smart, probably get bored watching television, and are at least a little intellectually curious. If you are specifically programming som…

Doing anything outside of work other than going to the bar signifies intellectual curiousness and a willingness to expand.

Why do you think there are so many designers in bands? Hell, Feynman took up Samba.

Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#107

Post by mattmanser »

DanI-S wrote: post #6

Unless you have a super-awesome job (and lots of people do), programming in your own time may be the only way to discover and play with new things. If you work backend at a C# shop but would like to start writing Ruby, you're unlikely to get the opportunity to learn unless you do it in side projects. Practically, you may be totally happy in your current niche, but you're at higher risk from technological obsolescence…

You don't have to have a super awesome job, for example one company I worked for went through a phase where they didn't have enough coders to cover support and development for about 9 months.

We spent 95% of our time fielding calls from users (no first line, management's bright idea) and fixing bugs on old legacy code (vbscript when everyone else was on C#).

There were some developers who got a lot more support calls done than the others.

And then there were some developers who would refactor the code, write tools and other little programs and upgrade the in-house support system to make everyone's life easier and quicker to fix the bugs, learning while they did it.

It probably won't surprise many that those two sets comprised of exactly the same developers.

Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#108

Post by zwieback »

Has anyone else noticed that doing totally unrelated activities outside of work often inspires programming solutions? Practicing a musical instrument or other creative activities seem particularly useful to put my brain into a state where solutions or at least new ideas come more freely. This seems more pronounced now that I'm in my forties and I couldn't code the night away even if I tried.

Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#109

Post by [deleted] »

code_duck wrote: post #14

I could see someone who only programs for work or school becoming a competent developer, and a good employee. So, do you have to program for joy to not be a bad developer? No. But if you don't love what you're doing, it's unlikely you'll ever be great . People who are the best at anything reached that point through a combination of natural talent and vast amounts of work. Chris Broderick ( http://www.youtube.com/watc…

[deleted]

Re: I don't program in my spare time. Does that make me a bad developer?

#110

Post by hdctambien »

unshift wrote: post #5

when i'm working a 9-5 job, the last thing i want to do is go home and program more. i'd rather throw the ball around with the dog or rock out on my guitar. in my experience the people who say "you have to have side projects to be a good developer" are either people who do program in their spare time, or people who want to hire the type of programmers who voluntarily chain themselves to their desk. this is one myth i…

> construction workers don't pour concrete for kicks on the weekend

My father was a contractor (now a building inspector) and over the last 20 years he has rebuilt his house one room at a time.

He gets excited when a new dumpster is delivered so he can start tearing another room apart.

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