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"Programmers love to work long hours! There I said it, c'mon admit it, your job/boss doesn't make you do it, we do it to ourselves." I stopped reading. We don'
by CoryMathews 16y ago
"Programmers love to work long hours! There I said it, c'mon admit it, your job/boss doesn't make you do it, we do it to ourselves."
I stopped reading. We don't. In fact a job that only required 30hr/w would be great. Even if I took a pay cut.
- huherto 16y agoMy friend who is far more organized than me, logged his programming hours every day. His conclusion is that you are really productive max 6 hours a day and you fill the rest of the day with other work. Of course there are days where you can do development 12 hours a day, but it is usually not the case.
- hello_moto 16y ago... this is the truth that many programmers wouldn't admit ...
- mattm 16y agoI also log my productive time and find this to be the case as well. Actually, I find 4.5 hours (6 x 45 minute blocks) a day to be the sweet spot but when you factor in breaks, it adds up to 6.
- maigret 16y agoYes, for the planning I was involved in where we took the tasks planned to the hours, 4 hours a day of productive coding was the most matching value.
- eru 16y ago80% of 40h/week (=32h/week) seems to be possible where I work.
- jheriko 16y agoI do... hell, in the worst case I can think of I did a 10 hour day, came home, coded my own project all night, went to work for another 8 hours or so of coding then came home and did a little more code before sleeping. This sounds stupid on reflection, but I really wanted to solve all of those problems at the time, and I nailed them all with a low error rate. :)
- LargeWu 16y agoPutting in a few long days isn't what the author is talking about. It's doable to be really productive by putting in a ton of hours in a short span of time, like, for a couple of days. But try doing this for weeks or months at a time. I put up with this at my last job for a while, but my life became a total grind. I would literally wake up in the morning while my wife was sleeping, work all day, come home and my wife was already asleep for the night. Sometimes I wouldn't talk to her for days in a row. This is not sustainable, either personally or professionally, and is what the author is cautioning against.
- winter_blue 16y agoHe goes on to say the exact opposite: you're not doing this for yourself, you're doing it for "the man". When trying something new or reading, it's good to keep going at least for a short while before giving up, rather than turning away the very first time you see something unpleasant.
- megamark16 16y agoThis. I love what I do, but I wouldn't mind doing less of it, especially when I'm doing it for someone else (working on someone else's dream instead of my own). I love my job but I love other stuff more, like spending time with my family.
- megablast 16y agoThere seems to be two types of coders (or maybe even more!). Those with their own families, and those without. If you have a family, you have found something more important. I don't, so I will spend sometime with friends and family, but most of my time coding. I could go out every night, or watch tv every night, or read a book, but I prefer to create something.
- kscaldef 16y agoSorry, no. Some of us prefer having other hobbies even in the absence of a family. And your comment that you "prefer to create something" is offensive and condescending considering the diversity of activities that other people engage in outside of work.
- tkahn6 16y agoHow is that offensive and condescending? He derives enjoyment from creating while maybe you choose to do other things for enjoyment. To each his own - isn't that your point?
- kscaldef 16y agoThere are other forms of creation than coding. The choices are not just code more or watch TV, as he seems to suggest.
- megablast 16y agoHey, yeah didn't mean to imply that. I mean, you could paint, or write, which are all very worthy pursuits. I mean, I also bike ride every now and again, do a bit of downhill. But still spend most of my time (free or at work) coding.
- nopassrecover 16y agoWe do it because we're often atypically obsessed with doing it right.
- Tamerlin 16y agoProgrammers working long hours (regularly) aren't doing it right. If they were doing it right, they wouldn't need the extra hours.
- docgnome 16y agoI don't agree. It's my experience that no mater how smart I work (or how long) there is always more work to be done. Lots more. Granted, I'm an in-house developer so YMMV if you work for a software company.
- viraptor 16y agoYes, that's pretty much right. I'm doing in-house stuff and my bug list stays at around 50 items all the time. The lack of critical issues is just an indicator that I can be given new tasks. I do however stay late sometimes to finish a particular task, because it's easier than starting again the next day... but then again I'll take a longer lunch or come in later instead another day.
- docgnome 16y agoI'd kill for 50 open tickets. ;-p
- Tamerlin 16y agoAgree or not, I have to say that you're quite simply wrong. There's always more work to be done as long as the company you're working for exists. How you pace it is the problem -- burnout hours will prevent you from getting on top of the bug race.
- docgnome 16y ago
- CamperBob 16y agoWe do it, because if we don't, some bored kid in a basement somewhere will do it for the fun of it.
- leftnode 16y agoI did that with my last job. I said I only wanted to work 3 days a week in the office, and have my salary reduced by 40%. Worked out great. Seriously, talk to your boss, they may be up for it.
- Tamerlin 16y agoYou should read the rest of the article then. You'll end up agreeing with him in the end, because he concludes that smart programmers do NOT like working long hours.