4 ms·

Very inspiring, OP. The little tips and tricks are always helpful, but what is best is getting us to think, "If he can do it, then so can I." One giant questi

by edw519 16y ago

Very inspiring, OP. The little tips and tricks are always helpful, but what is best is getting us to think, "If he can do it, then so can I." One giant question, though. You describe a life where you often squeeze in a few hours on your start-up here and there. This sounds like it would work rather well for repetitive tasks like stuffing envelopes, folding apparel, or answering emails. But what happens if you have trouble getting "into the zone" for writing software during your short window of opportunity. I have found this to be my difficulty developing leading edge software. Finding time isn't always the biggest problem; getting creative is. It's tough to get creative. It's tougher to get creative when you have to right now and you only have 2 hours to work on it. How do you handle that?

abstractbill 16y ago
I used to think I needed long uninterrupted stretches of time to do good work. It turns out I was wrong. I'm working on a side-project now, putting in less than half an hour a day (but making sure to do it every day). Strangely enough I'm making better progress in many ways than when I had the luxury of spending many hours on side-projects. I'm blogging on my progress, if anyone is interested: http://prehacked.com http://prehacked.com (read http://prehacked.com/pages/about-this-blog-53 http://prehacked.com/pages/about-this-blog-53 to get an idea of what I'm working on).
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago
  >I'm working on a side-project now, putting in less than half an hour a day Is that including thinking time? Do you have commuting time or some other time without responsibility for other people in which to think?
brlewis 16y ago
Using a Lisp dialect helps me pick up where I left off: http://ourdoings.com/2006-05-01 http://ourdoings.com/2006-05-01 Sales/marketing seems to require extended effort though, or money.
- cubix 16y ago
  Your comment is intriguing, but the link is broken.
  - brlewis 16y ago
    Sorry, done manually from the phone. I will check the link after posting this time. http://ourdoings.com/brlewis/2006-05-01 http://ourdoings.com/brlewis/2006-05-01
jayro 16y ago
That's a really interesting question. What I've found is that when I'm obsessed with a project it tends to almost always be on my mind, so that when I sit down to work on it I generally have a very good idea of what I want to accomplish and how to go about it (or at least how to get started on it). And when I know I'm only going to have a limited amount of time to make progress then I really try to do as much mental prep as possible so that when I do sit down I can really do some damage. That said, there are times when I end up getting sucked into reading HN and accomplish very little. ;( By the way, one quick trick I use to avoid wasting too much time on HN is to use the Instapaper bookmarklet to print out the articles in a condensed format to read later when I'm away from the computer.
nikster 16y ago
I was thinking the same thing. I have two little ones - I've been a freelance programmer for a long time but only recently have I realized that I am actually a creative. Like a musician or writer, I don't get paid for typing away on my keyboard, I get paid for ideas. By and large. This means I need time in my day where I do "nothing" - where my mind is at ease completely - it's surprising how well it works when you just give it a try. That hard problem you were trying to solve? An elegant solution will suddenly appear in your mind. It's like your mind works best when it can slave away in the background, and not be distracted by thoughts. I am sure it's different for everyone - but despite the fact that we have to bill hourly, it's important to understand that insights have nothing to do with the number of hours spent staring at the screen. So the answer to your question is simple - as long as there are periods where we can relax completely, that's where our best work gets done. Whether I stress out and frantically type for 2 hours, or relax my mind completely in whichever way that works best for me, both is work, and I propose the relaxing way is much more efficient. It's a whole world view. Answer the question of how much can a programmer get done in 8 hours? Well - the answer can be anything from getting close to fixing a bug to writing the next hit web application.

by edw519 16y ago

abstractbill 16y ago

I used to think I needed long uninterrupted stretches of time to do good work. It turns out I was wrong. I'm working on a side-project now, putting in less than half an hour a day (but making sure to do it every day). Strangely enough I'm making better progress in many ways than when I had the luxury of spending many hours on side-projects. I'm blogging on my progress, if anyone is interested: http://prehacked.com http://prehacked.com (read http://prehacked.com/pages/about-this-blog-53 http://prehacked.com/pages/about-this-blog-53 to get an idea of what I'm working on).

pbhjpbhj 16y ago
>I'm working on a side-project now, putting in less than half an hour a day Is that including thinking time? Do you have commuting time or some other time without responsibility for other people in which to think?

brlewis 16y ago

Using a Lisp dialect helps me pick up where I left off: http://ourdoings.com/2006-05-01 http://ourdoings.com/2006-05-01 Sales/marketing seems to require extended effort though, or money.

cubix 16y ago
Your comment is intriguing, but the link is broken.
- brlewis 16y ago
  Sorry, done manually from the phone. I will check the link after posting this time. http://ourdoings.com/brlewis/2006-05-01 http://ourdoings.com/brlewis/2006-05-01

jayro 16y ago

That's a really interesting question. What I've found is that when I'm obsessed with a project it tends to almost always be on my mind, so that when I sit down to work on it I generally have a very good idea of what I want to accomplish and how to go about it (or at least how to get started on it). And when I know I'm only going to have a limited amount of time to make progress then I really try to do as much mental prep as possible so that when I do sit down I can really do some damage. That said, there are times when I end up getting sucked into reading HN and accomplish very little. ;( By the way, one quick trick I use to avoid wasting too much time on HN is to use the Instapaper bookmarklet to print out the articles in a condensed format to read later when I'm away from the computer.

nikster 16y ago

I was thinking the same thing. I have two little ones - I've been a freelance programmer for a long time but only recently have I realized that I am actually a creative. Like a musician or writer, I don't get paid for typing away on my keyboard, I get paid for ideas. By and large. This means I need time in my day where I do "nothing" - where my mind is at ease completely - it's surprising how well it works when you just give it a try. That hard problem you were trying to solve? An elegant solution will suddenly appear in your mind. It's like your mind works best when it can slave away in the background, and not be distracted by thoughts. I am sure it's different for everyone - but despite the fact that we have to bill hourly, it's important to understand that insights have nothing to do with the number of hours spent staring at the screen. So the answer to your question is simple - as long as there are periods where we can relax completely, that's where our best work gets done. Whether I stress out and frantically type for 2 hours, or relax my mind completely in whichever way that works best for me, both is work, and I propose the relaxing way is much more efficient. It's a whole world view. Answer the question of how much can a programmer get done in 8 hours? Well - the answer can be anything from getting close to fixing a bug to writing the next hit web application.