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> I need to be always learning, even on my spare time! You should always be learning even in your spare time. Maybe not always about programming but about some

> I need to be always learning, even on my spare time! You should always be learning even in your spare time. Maybe not always about programming but about something. If you don't then you've relegated yourself to walking around like a robot repeating the same things you do every day not ever thinking about your actions. Right now I have a huge facination with machining/metal working. I can't own any gear for doing such stuff but I wish I could and I devote a larger amount of my time to learning about machining just because I find it interesting. If I could get into, and start working at a, shop near me I'd be very happy with it as a hobby but I have no intention of being a machinist. Why would I spend so much time learning about machining then? I enjoy it and it's something I've never seen. It has nothing to do with my programming ability and I'll never need the information in a practical sense but learning about it bings a sort of happiness to my life. Learning is one of the few things that keeps us human. Always exploring ideas, possibilities, and how to solve problems even if they aren't directly applicable to us. When we stop doing that we just turn into vegtables in my opinion.

RubenSandwich 10y ago
I meant coming home from your job and continuing to work on your job in some form or something that directly relates to your job. Because that strikes me as indicative of deeper issues. Does your job not give you enough time to finish projects? Does your job not give you enough time to stay up to date in your field? Do you constantly feel like an impostor? I have no quarrels with someone having side projects. But those side projects shouldn't be fueled by some existential dread related to one's job or position. I have corrected the language to be more specific.
- gravypod 10y ago
  > But those side projects shouldn't be fueled by some existential dread related to one's job or position. If you're looking at it like that then you're not going to have any interest in programming after work. If you look at it like "I am a tradesman and I can either pay someone to do this for me or I can just take a few minute and hack together solutions for myself then I can save time and money". I write a lot of software for my own tasks to automate things I need to do like recently I made a remote Steam Streaming machine so I can finally fully migrate to linux and to do so I needed to write a control service on my machine and write a daemond that listens for a packet to run a `shutdown /h` on the windows machine. It was a bit of programming but it wasn't "existential dread" and it definetly wasn't in some attempt to bettering myself as an employee. It was because I wanted a product that doesn't exist so I made it and I think more software developers should be interested in that. Not for work reasons but because making things is cool and we live in a time where people are happy to give you perfectly good hardware that they think is "garbage" because it's 1 version out of date. This is the perfect time for the engineer to live, and not just the Civil or Software but any engineer.
- eeZah7Ux 10y ago
  > ...indicative of deeper issues. Does your job not give you enough time to finish projects? Does your job not give you enough time to stay up to date in your field? Do you constantly feel like an impostor? You are confusing 3 completely different issues and not accounting the enjoyment of learning new things.
  - rootlocus 10y ago
    > the enjoyment of learning new things. This is exactly what I believe passion is. Passion isn't something that's 'vague' or that you have to search for. It's the simple joy of doing some activity or learning something related to that activity. No joy, no passion.
Saanti 10y ago
> You should always be learning even in your spare time. Maybe not always about programming but about something. Actually, one of the most important things I learned 'the hard way', is that you should actually 'learn not to learn' (i.e. really rest), and let go of any anxieties that may urge you to 'always be learning'. This insight improved my joy in life and tech, and also my focus and productivity, by much more then an approach of anxiously trying to be learning all the time. Maybe for others things work differently, but generalizing into 'everyone should always be learning' seems too strong a claim to me.
- gravypod 10y ago
  Well the alternative is that you narrow your knowladge to a small problem domain which sounds horrible for 1) your own mind, 2) your ability to talk to people who work outside of your problem domain, and 3) your ability to think outside of the "box" that is held by your field.
  - pc86 10y ago
    How is the alternative to always learning narrowing your knowledge to a small problem domain? It's not. The alternative is... taking a rest every once in a while.
    - gravypod 10y ago
      Learning isn't a tedious process. It can be as simple as saying "hey, how does that work" or "what are you doing" to someone working. I think talking to people, or thinking through how things work is relaxing. Also there is no reason why you can't rest. We dedicate ~8hr/day of our lives to resting. We also get full days on weekends. We also get about 7-12hr/day for doing whatever we want while awake. In those 7-12hr you can sit and stare into the idiot box and laugh when the talking heads tell you to laugh or you can read a book, go out side, think about "how would I make X", prototype some code for doing something, talk to some people who are professionals in a craft and ask "how do you build X". I think one is way more fun then the other. Now don't get me wrong, I watch a lot of TV but most of the TV I watch is "What If". I like science fiction stuff and a lot of it is some social commentary put into a setting that makes it ok to talk about or even asking moral questions that are different all together. Thinking about those dilemas falls under the classification of "learning". This isn't technical knowladge but instead social.

RubenSandwich 10y ago

I meant coming home from your job and continuing to work on your job in some form or something that directly relates to your job. Because that strikes me as indicative of deeper issues. Does your job not give you enough time to finish projects? Does your job not give you enough time to stay up to date in your field? Do you constantly feel like an impostor? I have no quarrels with someone having side projects. But those side projects shouldn't be fueled by some existential dread related to one's job or position. I have corrected the language to be more specific.

gravypod 10y ago
> But those side projects shouldn't be fueled by some existential dread related to one's job or position. If you're looking at it like that then you're not going to have any interest in programming after work. If you look at it like "I am a tradesman and I can either pay someone to do this for me or I can just take a few minute and hack together solutions for myself then I can save time and money". I write a lot of software for my own tasks to automate things I need to do like recently I made a remote Steam Streaming machine so I can finally fully migrate to linux and to do so I needed to write a control service on my machine and write a daemond that listens for a packet to run a `shutdown /h` on the windows machine. It was a bit of programming but it wasn't "existential dread" and it definetly wasn't in some attempt to bettering myself as an employee. It was because I wanted a product that doesn't exist so I made it and I think more software developers should be interested in that. Not for work reasons but because making things is cool and we live in a time where people are happy to give you perfectly good hardware that they think is "garbage" because it's 1 version out of date. This is the perfect time for the engineer to live, and not just the Civil or Software but any engineer.
eeZah7Ux 10y ago
> ...indicative of deeper issues. Does your job not give you enough time to finish projects? Does your job not give you enough time to stay up to date in your field? Do you constantly feel like an impostor? You are confusing 3 completely different issues and not accounting the enjoyment of learning new things.
- rootlocus 10y ago
  > the enjoyment of learning new things. This is exactly what I believe passion is. Passion isn't something that's 'vague' or that you have to search for. It's the simple joy of doing some activity or learning something related to that activity. No joy, no passion.

Saanti 10y ago

> You should always be learning even in your spare time. Maybe not always about programming but about something. Actually, one of the most important things I learned 'the hard way', is that you should actually 'learn not to learn' (i.e. really rest), and let go of any anxieties that may urge you to 'always be learning'. This insight improved my joy in life and tech, and also my focus and productivity, by much more then an approach of anxiously trying to be learning all the time. Maybe for others things work differently, but generalizing into 'everyone should always be learning' seems too strong a claim to me.

gravypod 10y ago
Well the alternative is that you narrow your knowladge to a small problem domain which sounds horrible for 1) your own mind, 2) your ability to talk to people who work outside of your problem domain, and 3) your ability to think outside of the "box" that is held by your field.
- pc86 10y ago
  How is the alternative to always learning narrowing your knowledge to a small problem domain? It's not. The alternative is... taking a rest every once in a while.
  - gravypod 10y ago
    Learning isn't a tedious process. It can be as simple as saying "hey, how does that work" or "what are you doing" to someone working. I think talking to people, or thinking through how things work is relaxing. Also there is no reason why you can't rest. We dedicate ~8hr/day of our lives to resting. We also get full days on weekends. We also get about 7-12hr/day for doing whatever we want while awake. In those 7-12hr you can sit and stare into the idiot box and laugh when the talking heads tell you to laugh or you can read a book, go out side, think about "how would I make X", prototype some code for doing something, talk to some people who are professionals in a craft and ask "how do you build X". I think one is way more fun then the other. Now don't get me wrong, I watch a lot of TV but most of the TV I watch is "What If". I like science fiction stuff and a lot of it is some social commentary put into a setting that makes it ok to talk about or even asking moral questions that are different all together. Thinking about those dilemas falls under the classification of "learning". This isn't technical knowladge but instead social.