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I travelled in a motorhome full-time for four years and have returned to that lifestyle again recently. But, I still rarely write code when disconnected. I don'

I travelled in a motorhome full-time for four years and have returned to that lifestyle again recently. But, I still rarely write code when disconnected. I don't know how to code without the internet to answer questions, show me API examples, etc., anymore. I'm so much less productive when I try to work without internet, that I don't try. I can read, write, play games, or get off the computer and get my head right for work, during that downtime, but the idea of writing code without internet just doesn't appeal to me. We are beyond that point in terms of software complexity. Building things of value is no longer simple enough to do all on your own, a lone coder in the woods (or on the beach or on a boat). I'm curious how many of the things you've suggested are activities you've actually done while writing code? Sounds like a Corona commercial...not really a software engineering story.

jasonkester 11y ago
Sorry if I wasn't clear that those were all real world examples from personal experience. Arusi, Columbia (a tiny fishing village a 2 hour launch from the nearest town where you can get an overnight boat to a city connected to the rest of the country by a road), Tonsai Beach, Thailand, back before they had power or internet. And a couple months sailing in the San Blas islands off Panama. Parks, campsites and random comfortable boulders in the forest are pretty regular worksites, even building real shipping products with paying customers. Even the dreaded English Coffee Shop really happened (I live there half the time and have a hard enough time getting BT to deliver internet to my house with any reliability). I find that a good IDE removes pretty much all the Googling from my life. I know what you mean though, having written my share of Ruby and Python, where you're constantly on Google trying to remind yourself what order to pass parameters to File.Open(), and completely aswim with a 3rd party API. But Intellisense knows everything there is to know about C#, Javascript, CSS, etc. and will either tell me about it or just finish writing my line of code for me with a quick key chord. I tend not to rely on 3rd party code for simple things I can write myself, so I don't spend as much time Googling React or Angular into submission as your average modern dev. For genuine 3rd party APIs like AWS or Stripe, you're right. It's hard to test that stuff until you're back online. They all have libraries though, and again the IDE has your back as far as implementation is concerned. Good luck with the RV life! http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/uploaded_images/parrot_vs_keyboard.jpg http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/uploaded_images/parrot... http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=8479 http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=8479 http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=992 http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=992
hollerith 11y ago
>I'm so much less productive when I try to work without internet, For the more easily distracted among us, it works the other way around :)

jasonkester 11y ago

Sorry if I wasn't clear that those were all real world examples from personal experience. Arusi, Columbia (a tiny fishing village a 2 hour launch from the nearest town where you can get an overnight boat to a city connected to the rest of the country by a road), Tonsai Beach, Thailand, back before they had power or internet. And a couple months sailing in the San Blas islands off Panama. Parks, campsites and random comfortable boulders in the forest are pretty regular worksites, even building real shipping products with paying customers. Even the dreaded English Coffee Shop really happened (I live there half the time and have a hard enough time getting BT to deliver internet to my house with any reliability). I find that a good IDE removes pretty much all the Googling from my life. I know what you mean though, having written my share of Ruby and Python, where you're constantly on Google trying to remind yourself what order to pass parameters to File.Open(), and completely aswim with a 3rd party API. But Intellisense knows everything there is to know about C#, Javascript, CSS, etc. and will either tell me about it or just finish writing my line of code for me with a quick key chord. I tend not to rely on 3rd party code for simple things I can write myself, so I don't spend as much time Googling React or Angular into submission as your average modern dev. For genuine 3rd party APIs like AWS or Stripe, you're right. It's hard to test that stuff until you're back online. They all have libraries though, and again the IDE has your back as far as implementation is concerned. Good luck with the RV life! http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/uploaded_images/parrot_vs_keyboard.jpg http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/uploaded_images/parrot... http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=8479 http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=8479 http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=992 http://www.blogabond.com/Photos/PhotoView.aspx?imageID=992

hollerith 11y ago

>I'm so much less productive when I try to work without internet, For the more easily distracted among us, it works the other way around :)