81–90 of 141 posts
It's odd but sex is not mentioned even once as a legitimate release.
It's common sense between many cultures and philosophies that sex drains energy, at least for males.
And by the way: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/10/health/sex-athletes/
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> shot down a nap room because it implies people should stay longer True! Smart move: did it work?
"Shot down" means that he said no, he dismissed the idea.
Fantastic Article. Three weeks ago I hit absolute rock bottom with exhaustion from working hard for the last 2 years (I worked out I've been working 70-80 hour weeks since Dev 2010 with 8 days off in 4 years). I resolved to get my life sorted out, I cut back work hours drastically, started riding my bike more and went to the Doctors to get help with sleeping tablets and pain management (the last 3 months I've been wa…
One question though: did your spouse cheating on you have anything to do with you working that much for the last 4 years? How did the relationship even last that long? How much time did you spend together and how many nice things did you do together?
I'm asking because the relationship I'm in would probably suffer a lot if I worked 80 hour weeks for two weeks in a row, let alone 4 years. I'm wondering how other people's relationships look from the inside.
If you don't have the following utterly optimized: - Nutrition - Exercise - Friends (Support Network) The above will continue to happen. Get healthy, get a tribe. It's not HN, by the way.
I think many people have this misconception that humans have "evolved" with technology, but in reality we're not that different than our plain-dwelling ancestors.
Sure we have better medicine and more gadgets, but we still have a strong, subconscious social desire to belong to a group of like-minded humans.
If you don't have a tribe, it's a good idea to find one.
Um... Not work so hard? I'm not a programmer, so I'm viewing the stuff on hacker news from outside the bubble, so to speak. And from here, y'all look crazy. To the average person, spending extra hours at work with no overtime pay is absurd, but you all discuss it like it's no big deal. Your industry needs a huge cultural overhaul. People must be trained not to accept burnout as normal.
I program because I love it. It's my hobby. I quit my job a 14 months ago. 5 months ago I thought of an idea I wanted to pursue. I've been spending 8-12 hours a day 5-6 days a week on it since then. I'm sorry you apparently picked a career you don't get real enjoyment from. Those of us that picked something we love don't see doing it a lot as a negative. We see it as just that, doing something we love.
There are dozens of us!
If you don't have the following utterly optimized: - Nutrition - Exercise - Friends (Support Network) The above will continue to happen. Get healthy, get a tribe. It's not HN, by the way.
"Get a tribe" is some of the best advice that can be had. I think many people have this misconception that humans have "evolved" with technology, but in reality we're not that different than our plain-dwelling ancestors. Sure we have better medicine and more gadgets, but we still have a strong, subconscious social desire to belong to a group of like-minded humans. If you don't have a tribe, it's a good idea to find o…
They're some of my best friends.
It doesn't need to be Crossfit; it can be a user group, LAN gaming, cooking classes, rotary, biking, climbing, MAKER fair stuff, etc.
Just get out there and talk and share.
Um... Not work so hard? I'm not a programmer, so I'm viewing the stuff on hacker news from outside the bubble, so to speak. And from here, y'all look crazy. To the average person, spending extra hours at work with no overtime pay is absurd, but you all discuss it like it's no big deal. Your industry needs a huge cultural overhaul. People must be trained not to accept burnout as normal.
Making great software tends to require extremely talented developers who are extremely engaged in their work. And that tends often to result in devs working long hours as a natural consequence, though that's often not strictly necessary to produce good results (despite what I said above, though it is often strongly correlated). Regardless of how many hours are put in, when there's a collision between the passion and engagement in the work from the individual on the one hand and the rewards, recognition, and guidance coming from management and the rest of the company the result can easily be burnout. Burnout can happen even if you're only working 20 hours a week, it's not about some trivial reaction due to overwork. It's about traumatic interpersonal experiences. It's about being engaged strongly and passionately and either being overused or misused.
Alternately, think about it in relationship terms. A passionate dev has fallen head over heels in love with the project their working on. So much so that they dedicate a lot of their life to it. If they don't see that love reciprocated, or if that love is used in service of an abusive or dysfunctional relationship then it will cause the individual significant emotional trauma and heartbreak which is manifested in the form of "burnout".
Again, burnout isn't necessarily overwork, it's the equivalent of heartache and emotional trauma in business relationships.
It's odd but sex is not mentioned even once as a legitimate release.
It's common sense between many cultures and philosophies that sex drains energy, at least for males.
More importantly, the positive benefits of regular sex have been made evident by virtually every study ever done on the matter.
Fantastic Article. Three weeks ago I hit absolute rock bottom with exhaustion from working hard for the last 2 years (I worked out I've been working 70-80 hour weeks since Dev 2010 with 8 days off in 4 years). I resolved to get my life sorted out, I cut back work hours drastically, started riding my bike more and went to the Doctors to get help with sleeping tablets and pain management (the last 3 months I've been wa…
So what is responsible for this miraculous change? Simply working fewer hours? Sorry to hear about your partner, that is horrible. Best of luck.
The realisation that if I don't change course I'm going to either have a complete breakdown or throw myself off a bridge.
> Simply working fewer hours?
Unfortunately no life isn't that simple though working fewer hours does have a side effect which is it frees up time to do things you enjoy doing, in my case Cycling.
Getting out everyday on my bike in the sun (or rain, it is England after all), eating right and getting some quality sleep have all had a marked effect on both my mood and energy levels.
The irony is last week I got more done than I would have in two weeks a month ago working half the hours.
I'll take 4 hours wide awake and well rested over 12 exhausted and stressed.
I'm not entirely there yet but I'm mentally stronger than I have been in a long time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm also coming from outside the bubble. From a different viewpoint, though, programmers aren't so bad about this. Try hanging out with some medical doctors and nurses, instead. I might think my 60 hour weeks are bad, but i just can't complain about it to my wife when she gets home from her 80 hour weeks. Burnout is a completely accepted part of nursing, and many nurses take it into account in career planning. Not sa…
I think it's a bit apples to oranges. Programming is for the most part sitting quietly in front of a computer screen for hours each day. At face value it looks easier, but it's actually a lot more brain-numbing. If I'm honest with myself, I think I can do it for 4 hours a day before my brain starts to slowly shutdown. I've been working for only a couple years and I'm seriously concerned about my future in the industr…
In other words, don't worry about your future in the industry. You're doing fine.