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Protect your shed

dylanbutler.dev

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Re: Protect your shed

#21

Post by mikestaas »

adrianwaj wrote: post #9

Is there a place where people can document and share the things they are tinkering with in the shed? I had this idea where people's inventions/devices could be sent around in a "pay-it-forward circle" for learning and inspiration. People already do that with crystals. Also, can being aware that x number of people are working on the same thing yield to development in the state-of-the-art if they start working together…

Hobby related forums are a great way for people working on similar projects to collaborate and share SoTA. Some random examples:

https://www.lathetrolls.com/

https://www.shroomery.org/

Re: Protect your shed

#22

Post by curtisblaine »

The big problem starts when your job contract limits what you can do with your intellectual property. Then you can have. your shed, but you can't show it to anyone, you can't invite friends, you can't use to plan your future business etc.

Re: Protect your shed

#23

Post by ssiddharth »

Nursie wrote: post #3
netule wrote: post #2

This post really resonated with me. Through the daily drudgery, I lost that spark that drove me to programming in the first place as a kid and became disgruntled with it for a while. It wasn't until I pushed myself to get back to hobby (or shed) programming that I rekindled my old passion and, as a result, find my day job much more bearable.

Opposite for me. I have an actual shed that I spend time in, doing maintenance work, building physical items (latest one is an auto-refilling bird watering station), and making beer. Given my day job is so desk-bound, and so tech oriented, I find using my hands in my off-time to be very fulfilling and what keeps me sane. Different strokes, as they say.

Same here. I've been trying to get more into the physical world, with a tech angle, rather than just pure software. As you said, using my hands is what keeps me sane, makes the world seem a little more real, if that makes sense?

Re: Protect your shed

#24

Post by franciscop »

dgb23 wrote: post #15
franciscop wrote: post #4

I did this for ~10 years, and absolutely no regrets, it was a lot of fun and the side projects gave me energy. Nowadays it's hard though, learning a new language, with a gf and a full-time demanding job, I don't have a lot of time to be tinkering. I do feel a bit sad about this but just assumed it's just life, and cannot imagine with kids how impossible this'd be. I did look at doing some basic housekeeping with LLMs…

There’s this special feeling when you can sit down later in the evening to tinker for a couple of hours, or read a challenging/inspiring book in peace. But when I don’t have time and frankly energy, then I still try to do _some_ minutes of this kind of thing daily. I feel like there‘s a big difference between 0min and 15min for anything (also includes exercise, meditation etc.), and while it’s great to have more time…

When I push myself to do these things, it loses all meaning. I do fun programming because it's fun, when I tried pushing myself like this virtually always I ended up more tired (for a miryad of reasons). And if I need to push myself, I'd rather just learn more Japanese, or do some exercise, or something else. But when I have like 1-2 weeks holiday, I will for sure sneak a few full coding days in there, and that is liberating.

Re: Protect your shed

#25

Post by pityJuke »

eterm wrote: post #14
ad8e wrote: post #10

The second half of this article is detected as AI by pangram: https://www.pangram.com/history/63fdecd4-f932-4fad-af60-da99...

Ai detectors are bullshit. That said, the second paragraph has the distinctive stocatto tone of AI But AI is shaping how we write, so this could well all be hand written just by someone who spends time with AI output.

AI is also based on how we write. Some people are bound to write in a similar vein to LLMs naturally. See this person’s blog about it [0].

[0]: https://marcusolang.substack.com/p/im-kenyan-i-dont-write-li...

Re: Protect your shed

#27

Post by dgb23 »

franciscop wrote: post #24
dgb23 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s this special feeling when you can sit down later in the evening to tinker for a couple of hours, or read a challenging/inspiring book in peace. But when I don’t have time and frankly energy, then I still try to do _some_ minutes of this kind of thing daily. I feel like there‘s a big difference between 0min and 15min for anything (also includes exercise, meditation etc.), and while it’s great to have more time…

When I push myself to do these things, it loses all meaning. I do fun programming because it's fun, when I tried pushing myself like this virtually always I ended up more tired (for a miryad of reasons). And if I need to push myself, I'd rather just learn more Japanese, or do some exercise, or something else. But when I have like 1-2 weeks holiday, I will for sure sneak a few full coding days in there, and that is li…

I agree with this. But there‘s a big difference between building a habit of doing some intellectual or creative activity regularly and pushing yourself to do a specific thing.

Before having built a more regular habit I was often in a sort of excitement-burnout loop. That doesn’t work well for me.

Re: Protect your shed

#28

Post by zoobab »

prmoustache wrote: post #19
zoobab wrote: post #13

I finally have a garage where i can weld my own bike frame! No more coding after 5pm!

Congrats and have fun. Oh and order those Paragon parts ASAP if you need them as they are closing shop! https://www.paragonmachineworks.com/

I saw it, so sad.

Nearly all the local frame builders were using their parts, especially the rear dropouts.

Re: Protect your shed

#29

Post by imiric »

d--b wrote: post #7

Personally, I am over side projects. Did them, the games, the websites, the failed startup thing. I just do other things now. Building finance stuff during the day, doing little computer outside work (a bit of 3D printing here and there). It’s fine. My career’s fine. The work doesn’t suffer from it. Do I have the spark? Idk, I feel I am too old for that spark shit. There is work to do, I do it. If it’s tedious, I’ll…

I think both viewpoints are valid. It's perfectly fine to see your work as a craft which you hone in your personal time, and also see it as a means to an end where you clock in, get the job done, and clock out. It's also understandable that the amount of personal time we have to dedicate to it, and even interest, can vary over time.

That said, I think your day job is more enjoyable when you see your work as a craft. It becomes less of a chore, you feel more engaged, and generally happier, which ultimately has a positive impact on your work and your colleagues. This has been my very fuzzy experience over the years, going through periods of both, but there are no definitive perspectives either way.

Re: Protect your shed

#30

Post by ryukoposting »

> That’s taking the structural discipline from the skyscraper and applying it to a space where I had total freedom.

Yeah, nah. When I take my learnings home with me, it fails every time.

Usually, the scale of work necessary to maintain an enterprise-grade system rapidly outgrows the time I can reasonably allocate to it. In other cases, I lose interest because it's boring corporate crap.

I don't known how all of you "homelab" people put up with it. I have enough Linux boxes at work that demand too much care and feeding.

The author has a good point but it really isn't a two-way street. The hobby stuff can feed into your career, but letting it go the other way is usually either counterproductive, or bad for your mental health.

Don't tinker in your shed because you think it'll advance your career. You'll be disappointed. Sorry for the spoiler.

Tinker in your shed because it makes you happy, and brings joy and meaning to your life. You'll be more productive and, in my experience, you'll actually be more likely to learn something useful for work.

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