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Too busy to read all comments, apologies if it's been stated elsewhere, but a related remark: Whenever I interview a programmer, I ask them about their pet proj

Too busy to read all comments, apologies if it's been stated elsewhere, but a related remark: Whenever I interview a programmer, I ask them about their pet project at home. I have yet to meet a good programmer that doesn't have at least one pet project developed outside of the office. Active development not required, just something that they put a lot of time/thought into. I ask them to tell me about it, platform used, problems encountered/resolved, things they've discovered. Fire in their eyes -> a big plus. A statement along the lines of "I had to stop because I dreamt about code" or they teach me something new -> double plus. Anyone who tells me "I don't program at home, once I leave the office the day is done" -> 'archived' immediately. 'School-coders' typically fall into the latter category. PS I taught myself at ages 14-17 (Basic -> 6502 ASM -> Pascal -> C) then went to college (computer science BSc/MSc). Then the internet came about. Yes, I'm that old… No, I can't keep up with the latest and greatest either. Still have a pet project (or 10)

sheepmullet 11y ago
> I have yet to meet a good programmer that doesn't have at least one pet project developed outside of the office. I don't. I use my limited spare time outside of work to study.
- notlisted 11y ago
  But you did… at one point? (note that I wrote: "Active development not required").
  - sheepmullet 11y ago
    Last time I had a side project was at uni. So a bit over a decade ago. At the time I was 90% theory/learning (Uni) and 10% practical, so adding in a side project to increase the practical side was very valuable. These days I'm 90% practical (work) and so adding extra L&D/theory is much more valuable to me than spending another hour coding.
jcrben 11y ago
That really depends on how much you can put into your day job. If you're at a small firm and you have equity, it may be more worthwhile and interesting to focus on professional work, dealing with problems at a scale and complexity beyond personal projects.
Amezarak 11y ago
> I have yet to meet a good programmer that doesn't have at least one pet project developed outside of the office. Frankly, I have never once had any need that could not be solved by free off-the-shelf software and/or a couple short scripts. I have absolutely zero desire to get home, having spent the day programming, and program some more. I guess I would still fall into that because I developed and ran a website for some time (and forums that I sometimes hacked a little on), but I've never mentioned it in an interview and really, looking back on it, I should have spent that time doing other, non-tech related things. Yet at every job I've been at, management considers me a "rock star" (ugh). I think you criterion is likely (though of course not guaranteed) to get you good programmers, and it's not necessarily a bad thing to exclude the set of good programmers who don't meet that criterion, but I find the idea that I should love programming so much that I should dream about it and do it at home...unsettling. Nobody expects that from other professions. And I think I associate it generally with people who are willing to accept below-market pay (and therefore companies that pay poorly) because they're happy to just get a job doing it. That said, I do like programming, well enough. But what I really like is solving other people's problems. And what I love is my hobbies that have nothing to do with computers and are unfortunately impossible to monetize.

sheepmullet 11y ago

> I have yet to meet a good programmer that doesn't have at least one pet project developed outside of the office. I don't. I use my limited spare time outside of work to study.

notlisted 11y ago
But you did… at one point? (note that I wrote: "Active development not required").
- sheepmullet 11y ago
  Last time I had a side project was at uni. So a bit over a decade ago. At the time I was 90% theory/learning (Uni) and 10% practical, so adding in a side project to increase the practical side was very valuable. These days I'm 90% practical (work) and so adding extra L&D/theory is much more valuable to me than spending another hour coding.

jcrben 11y ago

That really depends on how much you can put into your day job. If you're at a small firm and you have equity, it may be more worthwhile and interesting to focus on professional work, dealing with problems at a scale and complexity beyond personal projects.

Amezarak 11y ago

> I have yet to meet a good programmer that doesn't have at least one pet project developed outside of the office. Frankly, I have never once had any need that could not be solved by free off-the-shelf software and/or a couple short scripts. I have absolutely zero desire to get home, having spent the day programming, and program some more. I guess I would still fall into that because I developed and ran a website for some time (and forums that I sometimes hacked a little on), but I've never mentioned it in an interview and really, looking back on it, I should have spent that time doing other, non-tech related things. Yet at every job I've been at, management considers me a "rock star" (ugh). I think you criterion is likely (though of course not guaranteed) to get you good programmers, and it's not necessarily a bad thing to exclude the set of good programmers who don't meet that criterion, but I find the idea that I should love programming so much that I should dream about it and do it at home...unsettling. Nobody expects that from other professions. And I think I associate it generally with people who are willing to accept below-market pay (and therefore companies that pay poorly) because they're happy to just get a job doing it. That said, I do like programming, well enough. But what I really like is solving other people's problems. And what I love is my hobbies that have nothing to do with computers and are unfortunately impossible to monetize.