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Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

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Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#232

Post by dimator »

ge96 wrote: post #221

Mentally spent, in the back of my mind I have this feeling like "why aren't you accomplishing something" but I just literally can't. I can't even watch tv or something I'm just in a bad mood in general today idk what to do, kill time till I fall asleep. Wake up with a fresh brain and then do the hardest thing first. In the end... it is just passing time... I guess I'm lucky I at least have a job that pays... what I b…

Don't beat yourself up. This is a video I come back to all the time for inspiration. It's probably the most important youtube video I've seen. I'm hoping it resonates with where you're at.

https://youtu.be/N4IfPtl3W_M

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#235

Post by ornornor »

tobmlt wrote: post #188

Not late enough yet. I only code productively between the hours of 10 pm and 4 am. If the baby sleeps. Morning coding time is spent fighting with my inner manager about how to present last night’s work at standup. Afternoon coding time is spent in a stupor wondering why the coffee has no effect anymore.

When do you sleep?

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#236

Post by ehnto »

sushisource wrote: post #224
ehnto wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For the same reason our job's don't stop when we go home (or turn off slack) either, we are essentially paid to think and our brains do not care about the arbitrary thresholds set by 9-5. Speak for yourself. Some of us have been there, burnt out and had to rebuild our relationship with work in a healthy manner. I think no matter what you do, if it is thought work and you don't find a wat to turn it off, you are doi…

It's a good point, but, to be fair to parent commenter, they may have meant something different. I think they may be referring to the phenomenon of walking away and having the solution "come to you" while doing something else. It took me a while to appreciate this, but simply walking away is often the fastest way for me to solve a hard problem. There I am, lying in bed, or cooking, or whatever, and BOOM the solution…

Yes I hope my tone was fair, I didn't want to be too cynical. There is definitely a spectrum between "overworked, burning out" and "love my job and sometimes I think about it at home too".

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#238

Post by corytheboyd »

0xEFF wrote: post #227
slumpt_ wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You aren’t writing up UX requirements. You’re writing system designs. If you’ve never had to write down and get feedback on a system design that is entirely okay, but as you work on projects of increasing complexity and scope, it becomes more and more important to plan before you write. The prototypes you’re describing are primarily useful for UX iteration, not system design.

A short system design doc with a working prototype is vastly superior to a 50 page design doc with no code. Think of it as the scale model of the house in the original example. It’s a way for sake holder to see and feel what they’re going to get.

Controversial as it may be I completely agree. Maybe I’m just not on the same god tier level as the rest of you but I have done the days/weeks of planning carefully without touching anything close to code “because you’re not supposed to” and there still ends up being things we didn’t think through that become obvious at implementation time. I agree that coding and planning don’t have to be mutually exclusive

Re: Ask HN: Why aren't you coding?

#239

Post by pm90 »

Writing JIRA tickets, meetings, running SQL queries to prepare reports for X number of reasons, on call operational work to keep our systems running, writing design documents.
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