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Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

zephony.com

21–30 of 308 posts

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#21

> Buy a whiteboard and write the goals for the day on it, for instance As a solo dev the biggest productivity booster for me, from a physical and mental aspect, was purchasing a whiteboard. It honestly feels like some sort of hack. Prior to having one I would use pen and paper but that didn't quite scratch my itch - if I made a mistake I would have to scribble it out and that space was now wasted. I can't quite expla…

The Frixion pens they sell in Japan are incredible for this. They're truly erasable, not like the shitty ones I remember from my childhood. The multi-color pens are especially useful. All the fun of brainstorming and erasability, without the bad smells and imprecise lines of whiteboard markers. http://www.frixion.jp/lineup/work.html?pid=product_ball-3-sl...

I've used those. I would say that they're not perfectly erasable and it still takes more effort to erase compared to a whiteboard.

I think the biggest thing here is the size of the canvas and the speed at which you can make changes. Sure, markers can be messy and smelly, I will give you that. Regarding the imprecision: when I am brainstorming I am not looking to be precise and I would argue that noone should be aiming for that; prototyping should be messy and quick to mutate.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#22
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

try a fountain pen with erasable blue ink

I had no idea that erasable ink (for fountain pens) is a thing. That’s awesome!

Invented by Pelikan in weimar germany!

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#23

Here's another angle - not saying it's correct, just different. Why would you want to perfect working from your bedroom? It's ok to WFH for a while, but i would not recommend perfecting it long term. As a human being you should be looking to interact and socialize with other humans, in person, as well - this makes us better humans, more empathetic, more understanding to the needs and pains of others.

During my worst commute I was spending 4.5 hours traveling to and from work each day. A long day at work meant doing nothing but work, travel, and sleep and still being deprived of sleep. I didn't last six months, and I have no family or anyone to depend on me. When I worked from home I lived in a difficult climate which became overly pleasant. The worst snow storm didn't bother me in the slightest, if I didn't feel…

4h daily commute is horrific. the alternatives to your solution would be to get another job, closer to home or move closer to the job...just saying.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#24
post #20

off-topic: I like how that agency is selling "Faster pages" / "just like this website hence resulting in lightning fast websites." But sending 1.3MB over the wire for a super simple website :D

Is it really sending 1.3 MB of content over the wire? My network tab in browser shows only 75 KB of transfer size.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#25
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

try a fountain pen with erasable blue ink

I had no idea that erasable ink (for fountain pens) is a thing. That’s awesome!

You're going to need this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_eraser

(We called it 'ink killer' in school, you were however not allowed to use it the first few years after switching to ink from pencil.)

addendum: And you can get ballpens with the ink as well.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#26

Sometimes I have unproductive weeks . It can be hard to overcome the miasma by refactoring code or picking favourites. I have found the easiest way to get out of the funk is to start making Todo lists of my life. Get the things out of the way that are bothering me or need to be done as a priority and then slowly chip away at it. Productivity isn't something you can hack. There is a maximum that you can do without sac…

Achievable goals for the day on a sheet (digital or real) that you can cross off is a great perpetual motivator, especially if you reinforce it -if you need it- with rewarding yourself (peptalk or giving yourself a little slack/something)

It can also can be very satisfying at the end of a project to take at the long laundry list you’ve conquered (and sent the final invoice ;)

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#27

Here's another angle - not saying it's correct, just different. Why would you want to perfect working from your bedroom? It's ok to WFH for a while, but i would not recommend perfecting it long term. As a human being you should be looking to interact and socialize with other humans, in person, as well - this makes us better humans, more empathetic, more understanding to the needs and pains of others.

>As a human being you should be looking to interact and socialize with other humans, in person, as well - this makes us better humans, more empathetic, more understanding to the needs and pains of others.

I don't disagree. But your assumption is that you would have less social interaction WFH is wrong (at least in my case).

My current commute is 2.5 hours a day. WFH would give me an additional time to do different activities each day (most with other people). Currently I'm limited because my preferred activities, I won't get home till close to midnight.

Having that commute time cut to zero would allow me to pursue my interests and have more social interaction than I currently do going into the office each day.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#28
post #20

off-topic: I like how that agency is selling "Faster pages" / "just like this website hence resulting in lightning fast websites." But sending 1.3MB over the wire for a super simple website :D

I just checked the bundle size and it's around 70KB, not 1.3MB. I guess you summed up the images being loaded as well?

And "Faster pages", since it's an SPA. And SPAs usually have the whole website bundled into a single JS file and an optional CSS file - hence bigger than a static website rendered on the server :)

PS: I designed the website.

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#29

Here's another angle - not saying it's correct, just different. Why would you want to perfect working from your bedroom? It's ok to WFH for a while, but i would not recommend perfecting it long term. As a human being you should be looking to interact and socialize with other humans, in person, as well - this makes us better humans, more empathetic, more understanding to the needs and pains of others.

[deleted]

Re: Becoming a high performing software developer working from your bedroom

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During my worst commute I was spending 4.5 hours traveling to and from work each day. A long day at work meant doing nothing but work, travel, and sleep and still being deprived of sleep. I didn't last six months, and I have no family or anyone to depend on me. When I worked from home I lived in a difficult climate which became overly pleasant. The worst snow storm didn't bother me in the slightest, if I didn't feel…

4h daily commute is horrific. the alternatives to your solution would be to get another job, closer to home or move closer to the job...just saying.

I could also have just won the lottery, just saying.

There are other realities to contend with, like how it looks bad to have a six month job on a resume, or leases that are expensive to break, or how moving when your lease ends to somewhere better to commute to a job you've lost confidence in, or waiting for a vesting cliff and promised raise, or moving far enough away that your friends might as well be in another state...

Not to mention if you have a family or partner.

In the long commute case, much of that was true. I tried to stick it through hard times after they moved offices to be significantly further away and burned out. It happens.

Life isn't always so simple and you can't always optimize your life around your job.

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