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Fuck You Sunday
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- JEzra100 6y ago“You don’t hate Mondays, you hate capitalism”
- o_class_star 6y agoI don't know why you were downvoted for this. It's utterly true. The birds and the trees don't hate Mondays. Babies don't hate Mondays. It's a learned behavior.
- throwaway38235 6y ago> I don't know why you were downvoted for this On HN everybody is a temporarily embarrassed billionaire. See "Internalised capitalism" - when you feel guilty for resting: https://preview.redd.it/5smjp4d0dzr51.jpg?width=743&auto=webp&s=1cc9392b4011b902a4c7b1369d5510bccf750f50 https://preview.redd.it/5smjp4d0dzr51.jpg?width=743&auto=web... Let's see how many downvotes I get
- nathanaldensr 6y agoI downvoted you not because of the linked image, which I agree with, but with your generalization that "everybody on HN is a temporarily embarrased billionaire." I can tell you I'm certainly not; I'm just a guy earning a salary like many people here, trying to figure out how to make my life more peaceful and meaningful. Don't sink too far into those depths.
- peterwwillis 6y agoSure, but it has nothing to do with Capitalism (other than Capitalism giving us two days off a week rather than 0). I'm sure the good people of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union didn't enjoy going to work again after a few days off.
- o_class_star 6y agoPeople in the Soviet Union, in general, took a high degree of pride in their work. Don't get me wrong. There was a lot wrong with the USSR, especially under Stalin. And since they didn't have a tradition of democracy and free speech in Russia, it wasn't a good place for dissidents. For most people, though, they did a much better job of lining people up with positions and careers suiting their wants and talents than our "work for rich people or you starve" system does. Capitalism is a system that runs on human misery, led by a class of people who are completely unaccountable to anyone but themselves, who therefore have no incentive to make things decent for the workers.
- cpursley 6y agoPeople in the Soviet Union had to work Saturdays and were also obligated to participate in community activities.
- o_class_star 6y agoAs I said, the Soviet Union wasn't perfect. If I were to live in 1970, either in the US or the USSR, I would have picked the US, no contest. Back then, capitalism actually worked. If you wanted a job, you looked a CEO up in the phone book, called him, and got one. You'd literally get every promotion if you worked two honest hours per day. It ain't like that anymore. In 2020, capitalism sucks. There are basically no opportunities unless you inherit the connections. (I anticipate downvotes from 20-year-olds who've just read Ayn Rand and think her writing reflects how the world really works.) Would communism have degraded just as fast? It's hard to say. I doubt it, but we'll never know, since we destroyed it.
- nullsense 6y agoYeah... Yeah I remember how much better everything was under Stalin. ...not?
- jokethrowaway 6y agoIf you're referring to Stakhanovite, they were just propaganda workers supported by the communist party with the best tools, hence why the increased productivity. They were meant to motivate / allow the communist regime to extort more work out of workers.
- anonytrary 6y agoThat's a bit of a stretch. I think the more accurate phrase is “You don’t hate Mondays, you probably just hate your job”.
- chiefofgxbxl 6y agoI was just speaking to a friend about this a few hours ago -- there's always some feeling of guilt that creeps up on me on Sunday evening, like I'm questioning if I spent the weekend well. But honestly, I don't think I would avoid that feeling if the weekend went completely unproductive, productive, or a combination of that. I've come to accept this, and I know I only need to stave off this feeling for a few hours per week.
- murftown 6y agoI can relate to the feeling of anxiety when the all-too-short weekend is drawing to a close. Glad you put this up! Hope it helps you feel a little more in control and able to do something creative. It makes sense that you chose to just get something out there without worrying about the details or polishing up the rough edges. Happy Sunday! :)
- greatNespresso 6y agoThanks a lot, happy sunday too !
- 082349872349872 6y agoBon Dimanche ! (am I late for last sunday or just early for next?)
- bobobob420 6y agoTreat every day like it’s monday or Friday and forget the notions of weekends except as a vessel to do more things
- cortesoft 6y agoI tried this, but for some reason daycare wouldn't let me drop off my kids this morning.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- divbzero 6y agoAwesome. Now iterate and keep shipping and you’ll go a long long way. (^W Hacker News)
- nikanj 6y agoI think it’s an absolutely insane idea that you’re supposed to use five days of the week working, and then the remaining two working on something else. Weekends are for resting and recovery.
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoAnd building relationships with people not computers.
- o_class_star 6y agoIt used to be six and a half. It became five because a bunch of people were smart enough to figure out their bosses weren't their friends, and fought for a shorter workweek (also reducing unemployment and increasing the value of each worker). We've gotten lazy, collectively speaking, and the bosses have crept it back up to five-plus-some-extras. Five is still ridiculous, though. There's so much waste in the system these days; the world would run fine on a three-day week. It's time for working people to get fighting again.
- CameronNemo 6y agoI would be fine working six and a half days per week. Given a full work day was considered to be 2 hours.
- wccrawford 6y agoI couldn't believe that a "work day" was ever 2 hours, so I looked it up. https://www.lovemoney.com/gallerylist/84600/how-many-hours-did-people-work-in-history https://www.lovemoney.com/gallerylist/84600/how-many-hours-d... That says 3-5, and it was a long time ago.
- CameronNemo 6y agoMy comment was meant to convey conditionality. As in I would happily work those days if I had those hours. Thanks for the interesting link. If I only worked 2 hours a day on a computer, I would likely spend my free time on hunter-gatherer-gardener-cook tasks. Perhaps art and science as well.
- quaffapint 6y agoI was just thinking about this yesterday. During the week I do my 9-5 and my mind is mostly numb after that. Enough for some exploratory stuff, but hard to get a lot of 'real' grind work done. Then it's Friday night and you think how great it is that the weekend is here to get stuff done. Saturday arrives and if you're a home owner like me it's full of house and yard work (which in itself is fine, just time consuming). So what you have left is Sunday. Relax in the morning with a cup of coffee and watch a relaxing show with the wife. The rest of the day is ahead, and based on how relatable this article is you know where that goes. Welcome to Sunday night and the cycle continues.
- o_class_star 6y agoIf you're trying to "break out" instead of "just existing" (although there's nothing wrong with the latter; we put too much demands on ourselves) the winning play, for most, is to get up as early as you can stand. Most people's best hours are from 1 to 4 hours after waking, and it's a shame to give those to a boss.
- eyelidlessness 6y agoI relate to this (and upvoted), but it’s worth acknowledging that some people have more energy in evenings or even the dark of night. The key, if you’re trying to best utilize your time: 1. Your point: don’t give your most productive time to someone who uses you as a resource. 2. Try to structure your schedule so that you can best utilize your most effective energy without it being solely devoted to the obligations outside of being a profit center for someone else.
- behnamoh 6y agoSo somebody made a simple page about how they feel about Sunday without even putting in some effort to give solutions or details, and it should hit the HN front page? Seems like a simple Tell HN would suffice.
- o_class_star 6y agoHe has more product here than 75% of YC-funded startups have on Demo Day.
- behnamoh 6y agoDoesn't matter. I'm talking about the lack of content in this webpage, regardless of who created it.
- Minor49er 6y agoI think that's the point. The author has no solutions and is simply expressing frustration at a situation that many people can relate to.
- NewOrderNow 6y agoBut somehow was able to get a job? Who are these people who have the creativity to get a job, but none to work on a project. I will never understanding this perspective of being in a great position and not having to worry about money while being apathetic toward the entire situation.
- punchclockhero 6y agoMany burnt out people can muster just enough enthusiasm to pass an interview.
- behnamoh 6y agoI agree. I hate it when some successful people try to tell others to not do certain things, while those things were exactly the reason behind their success. They just come across as dishonest tbh.
- malwarebytess 6y agoShow HN: Drunk Posting. Call me a Hedonist but the point of life is to enjoy it. If you spend your time with people who make you happy your weekend is a success at minimum.
- CameronNemo 6y ago> If you spend your time with people who make you happy your weekend is a success at minimum. I wish I had friends.
- gen_greyface 6y agoHello, Friend.
- dluan 6y agomost of my best ideas for the side projects and perfect tech stack combos come late at night, when i am procrastinating to even sleep. in chinese it's called 報復性熬夜, which translates to something like "retaliatory staying up late", it's a phenomena happening more in china where people just get stuck scrolling on social media because of the feeling that they want to use or own all of the free time they have left, and then it gets squandered and you hate yourself in the morning. bill gates used to say that he valued engineers who turn procrastination into an art.
- taxcoder 6y agoThis whole comment. It's nice to know that I am not the only one. There's even a name for it!
- thelazydogsback 6y agohttps://www.wired.com/story/stop-doomscrolling/ https://www.wired.com/story/stop-doomscrolling/
- angled 6y agoaka making yourself redundant through better tech and processes; and / or laziness as a Good Thing.
- toomanybeersies 6y agoMy ultimate goal as a software developer is to make myself redundant. Not a great goal financially, but there's always another job out there. Until there isn't, and at that point we'll either be living in a utopia or the robots will have exterminated us.
- lucb1e 6y agoThis is me right now. Work starts in 4.7 hours. Retaliatory is an interesting word to apply to this behaviour, I hadn't thought of it like that but it's kind of true: I am struggling with the bounds of my weekend (or spare time in general) and trying to make the most of it while the clock ticks down. I'm not scrolling a feed exactly, but I logically know that I should be sleeping so it's also not good use of my time. Thanks for sharing this.
- peterwwillis 6y agoIs there a term for Techie FOMO? Fear Of Not Capitalizing? FONC
- interestica 6y agoCan you make "FUNC" work? Seems apt.
- nullsense 6y agoFear of Under-Capitalizing
- Minor49er 6y agoThe book "Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life" by Adam Phillips is a bit dry, but helped me to overcome a lot of my feelings of FOMO. Around the same time I read that, I also purged all of my social media accounts. My anxiety has gone down since then.
- titanomachy 6y agoI've felt this way before. The only thing that's worked is to either take a bunch of time off, or change jobs. I don't really try to do "productive side projects" on weekends; mostly I read books, go outside, play music, spend time with friends and family, etc. But if my 9-5 job doesn't scratch the itch of "using my hard-earned talents for a constructive purpose", then the inexorable approach of Sunday night brings with it a deep feeling of dread: freedom to pursue things I enjoy is coming to an end, mandatory drudgery is fast approaching.
- sevensor 6y agoThe author of the page we're discussing recommends unproductive side projects and presents us with one. This is worth emulating. Productive side projects are just more work, and sometimes you're tired of work. A good unproductive side project gives you something fun to think about all the time. If your mind wanders at work, this gives it a good place to go. It only works if you're having fun though.
- nicbou 6y agoI go for time well spent, which encompasses productive activities, but also the activities you listed. If I could spend the rest of my life having similar days, then it was a good day. That metric allows for more than just productive work.
- titanomachy 6y agoI like that metric. I've definitely done projects in the past, just haven't had an inspiration in a while.
- radicalriddler 6y agoI decided to build a website that scraped data from wikipedia to tell me whether Kim Jong-Un was still alive. It contains a very basic index.html, a python script to scrape wikipedia on a cron hourly, and store the result in a file, which my flask app serves to the index.html. I served my index.html on netlify which setup https, but I wasn't able to get an nginx server up and running to setup a https connection to the server, so the browser is complaining. Alas, it was a fun Friday night project. Coffee and Python, a solid duo.
- kabdib 6y agoI've been sitting on a nice domain name (no specifics...) and it's been a "someday, I'm going to build this simple idea" application. A few days ago, someone offered to buy the domain. Not for much money, but still, it's a kick in the pants. I'm going to build that thing. Probably take me a few weeks, it'll scratch the itch, and it might even be useful. I've spent a couple hours fleshing out some user interaction and it looks like it'll be fun. What else are rainy days for?
- interestica 6y agoCan we form a club? For co-motivation (read: guilt).
- Algomancer 6y agoI would like to second this.
- robmsmt 6y ago3rded... wait maybe there's an idea here.
- agustif 6y agoIf you don't build somethhing for this $SuperAwesomeDomainIdeea in 30 days, it will start auctioning. lol
- interestica 6y agohaha so put the unused projects/domains/whatever into a central trust. If you don't 'do' something with it in the 30 days it becomes 'available' to anyone else in the pool.
- Techasura 6y agoAbsolutely tired of weekends.
- sillysaurusx 6y agoI have been fortunate enough to be able to focus on nothing but AI for the past year or so. I don't talk about it as much as I'd like, because it feels like talking about the mansion you got to live in for a year, among people who don't have mansions. I just try to work as hard as possible every day and hope it benefits others in the end, somehow. There are some lessons that might be worth sharing, though, so maybe I should talk about it anyway. When I was much younger, a sharp programmer in #gamedev on Afternet – a sort of guru figure named Washu – was talking with me, which is to say I was rambling to him in the way teenagers do about hopes, dreams, life, all the ways you want to change the world, etc. I was saying things like, "If only I didn't have to work. I would do so much. It feels like my potential is being drained." He replied, "If you're not productive at work, you won't be productive outside of work." That always stayed with me, partly because it made me mad. Who does he think he is? He doesn't know me or my situation at all. And yet, over the last decade-and-change, it's been an inescapable truth. I left that job a couple years later with $15k in the bank, exhausted, and thoroughly not looking forward to the next one. So I sat down, finally free of job, and started to change the world... ... by playing dota. All day, every day. Now, I wouldn't trade those days for anything. It was necessary soul-searching, and it prepared me for this last year, where I was able to be productive. But you must understand: unless you're disciplined, you need to focus on simply being happy at work, before you can be happy outside of work. There's a very good chance that you're making yourself unhappier than you need to be, because instead of simply choosing to be happy (which is often, but not always, a choice), you are choosing to be unhappy (by dreading that alarm). The flipside is, once you're ready, you really can do so much more, when you get to focus for multiple days on problems of your choosing. Or multiple weeks. I don't know if anyone needed to hear that, but... just remember, you can choose your mindset, even though you can't choose your emotions. Mindset != emotion, and emotions tend to follow mindset in the long run.
- StavrosK 6y agoI entirely disagree, I've had jobs where I was very unproductive at work (because I didn't care for the subject matter) and quite prolific outside it.
- pram 6y agoI don't necessarily agree with that axiom. I'm far more productive in my hobbies (art) than my actual IT job. Theres no correlation between my performance or enthusiasm for my real work and other stuff, unless my work is just making me extremely miserable. In that case it's closer to suffering from depression than a lack of 'productivity'
- maerF0x0 6y agoYeah, fuck sunday! You inspired me to make something too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzkO4ODjqnA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzkO4ODjqnA
- greatNespresso 6y agoI love go, congrats on putting up that video
- Touche 6y agoI'm seriously worried about this generation's inability to stop scrolling their social feeds nonstop. You don't have to start a company in your free time. You don't have to create things or contribute to the world. But please enjoy your lives. Read a book. Do some gardening. Learn to bake. Watch junk TV. Do anything other than constantly comparing yourself to what acquaintances are doing this second.
- xavierlint 6y ago> Watch junk TV Agreed with you until this point. At least the junk TV I know also involves (be it consciously or not) comparing yourself, this time with celebrities instead of acquaintances.
- lethologica 6y agoI see it as a bit of a feedback loop. I think that If you're the kind of person who is stuck in the mentality of having to be efficient and productive with every single second you have, then you're more prone to be the sort of person to try and keep up with the Jonses. But, if you're able to disconnect and to have a healthy work life balance then you're less likely to compare yourself to what you see.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kleer001 6y agoA more good-faith definition of junk TV might be "television with an emphasis on entertainment and a notable lack of educational content". No need for trash celebrities.
- rdiddly 6y agoFor me it has to be the right kind of junk. There's junk, like in a junkyard, and then there's a toxic waste dump. Stick with the junkyard. The stronger a show's resemblance to your current reality, the more likely you'll find someone in it with whom to compare yourself. So right off the bat, so-called "reality" TV is off the table. Anything where you're able to forget about "you" and be transported into someone else's world, is good. That takes good writing, i.e. yes, an actual script. Old stuff works too - anything so old that you can't possibly imagine yourself in that milieu, that helps. We watch old Columbo episodes from the 70s on network TV on Sunday nights. Granted we are then bombarded with ads for Sono Bello, Consumer Cellular, and every drug on the market (and then ads for the lawyers suing the makers of last year's drugs), and anything else an advertiser has deemed likely to appeal to the demographic that cares about Columbo or the 70s... and all those ads in themselves are an assault on your self-esteem, so just mute that shit or do chores. Mostly though it just takes time to build a life, and a you, that you love enough that you win most of those comparisons to celebrities. Think about how most celebs are basically slaves in various ways: slaves to public opinion, to the Hollywood social hierarchy, to the crappy contracts under which most of them are laboring, and especially to the fear of not being famous/loved/accepted tomorrow, of being replaced by one of the thousands of others who (maybe just as tragically) would jump at the chance to have that person's shitty contract and precarious perch on the ladder of fame. Slaves to the empty holes in their souls that they have been filling with the quest for fame probably their whole lives. Ah, but to the extent that you spend time on social media, seeking approval from strangers, you are (or your avatar is) kind of a micro-celebrity and would tend to be plagued by all those same problems! So yeah, that ruins it. All the more reason to get the hell off of there, ideally permanently!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- qwertox 6y agoGreat. I just hope the author has no OCD, because there is a typo on that page ("shoudl"), which means that this side project turned into something with consequences.
- justusthane 6y agoI think the typo reinforces the message: don't worry about it being perfect; just do something.
- cortesoft 6y agoI love Monday's.... finally get a chance to do intellectual work. Weekends are spent chasing the kids from the time I wake up until I go to sleep.
- om12 6y agoLove it - this is so relatable. Having so much time to myself recently has really made me reflect on my job and its impact on my personal life. I have managed to keep up some of my hobbies and relationships during isolation, but it is certainly much more difficult when I don't feel engaged or valued at work.
- lvturner 6y agoI really, really hate the expectancy of software developers to have side projects at home. Do we ask lawyers what free cases they take over the weekend? Doctors about the diagnoses they make for fun on Saturdays? Teachers about their open source lesson plans? I'm sure many of the above DO these things. Worst yet its often phrased in the interview as "do you have any hobbies?" Yeah - I do, I spent the weekend figuring out how to replace parts on my car. Why wasn't I writing the next Linux? Because I get enough screen time at work.
- ryandrake 6y agoReminds me of this one, currently making the rounds: https://youtu.be/vQJ8IjklA4U https://youtu.be/vQJ8IjklA4U
- Igelau 6y agoIt's kind of sickening. To the point where I seriously distrust people who make programming their only hobby. Its all the nauseating superficiality of true-believer cultists and MML participants, but without the organization.
- notsuoh 6y agoI interviewed someone earlier this year. Some line of questioning on engineering topics and someone led to the person saying something like, “but I don’t really know, it’s not like programming is my hobby and I do it on weekends, it’s my job.” That was so refreshing to hear and was one of the reasons I fought for them at decision time and they’ve been a fantastic employee ever since.
- cgrealy 6y agoEh, there's nothing wrong with having programming be your only hobby, if that's what you enjoy. The problem is when there is an expectation that as a developer you're somehow inferior if you don't code in your free time.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
- justusthane 6y agoThis reminds me of another site I recently found. A decidedly different tone, but a similar goal I think: https://sundaysites.cafe/ https://sundaysites.cafe/ I haven't been able to participate in a session yet, but I have used some of the prompts to create a few "for fun" sites of my own: https://sundaysites.justus.ws/ https://sundaysites.justus.ws/ It's fun to make things just for the sake of making them.
- greatNespresso 6y agoI love the concept, thanks for sharing
- euske 6y agoI really hope that this doesn't end up with being somehow a "cool" website. Screw professionalism. Stay crappy and amateurish. with love
- r-bryan 6y agoAs a mentor for a high school robotics club, I have learned the freeing joy of tinkering, as opposed to the engineering I have done my whole career. It's great to work with foamcore, X-acto knife, glue gun, little motors and electronics, and create something crappy and amateurish and _successful_.
- thomasfromcdnjs 6y agoMy secret tip for getting side projects completed is red wine aha
- person_of_color 6y agoI would love to start a micro-SaaS but I can’t think of any good ideas.
- Algomancer 6y agoIf I didn't know better, these could be my words. Extremely relatable. I'd love an community of people fighting against this feeling, especially one that isn't filled with 'gurus'. I am not sure that can exist.
- jariel 6y agoThis misses the point of Sunday though.
- fendy3002 6y agoIt's kinda sad to see people that have incorrect expectations. It all stem from some geeks that love to code in their free time (my younger self too), then suddenly many employers or colleagues expect everyone to do the same. Then suddenly many programmers hate sunday.
- eyelidlessness 6y ago<3
- eyelidlessness 6y agoOn HN, a simple show of affection and emotional recognition for something personal someone shared is a Bad Contribution. Y’all this is ridiculous.
- gitgud 6y agoRelatable, so here's my advice for side-projects (take it or leave it): - Build what you're interested in, not what other people on the social feeds are doing. - Things that were built for fun can end up making money. So why not aim to build for fun first! - Build pointless things! (like this). They're great to express yourself and they're much easier to finish and release (less pressure). - You don't need to finish anything!! But if you really want to finish that side-project, try a pointless project to boost your morale. - Divide and conquer - Large side-projects can be overwhelming. Divide that MMO game into smaller projects which are easier to finish. Maybe this is all pretty evident to most people... but it doesn't hurt to see it written explicitly.
- ExcavateGrandMa 6y agoHey my friend, I give you a point cuz yeah... I now calling that the vanishing ideaz... takes notes... or let them go...
- egypturnash 6y agoI spent today walking around a gorgeous park I didn't know existed in a city I've lived in for almost thirty years total, then hung out in a cafe discussing the interpretation of a favorite piece of fiction online, and drawing a goofy Halloween image. Sunday is what you make of it. Get the hell out of the house and you're less likely to sit on your ass scrolling all the endless scrolls. It helps if you forgot to charge your phone last night so you have barely enough battery for stuff you actually need, too.
- nicbou 6y agoWhen the weather allows it, I love to pack an "adventure" backpack and ride my bicycle to interesting places. I carry a notebook, some pens, a water bottle, snacks, warm clothes, and other things that might help on my journey. I'll stop for coffee, museums, interesting scenery, sketching, etc. These little adventures give me time to relax, reflect, do some exercise and explore my city. It's thoroughly satisfying.
- bobsmooth 6y agoI work 3, 12 hour days with 4 days off. If you can get it, it's amazing.
- hannofcart 6y agoDo you do 3 days at a stretch, or is it punctuated with your off days?
- cmauniada 6y agohow? What does your schedule look like?
- zmix 6y agoTo the person, somewhere near Paris: Congratulations! :-)
- greatNespresso 6y agoThanks a LOT
- andrewstuart 6y agoThere seems to be alot of people who "want to build something" but don't. What's that about - I don't really get it? I work hard on my software ideas. I can absolutely understand if you simply don't have time - work/kids/family/friends/health etc. But if you do have time and instead procrastinate - that's a mystery to me. I'd like to say "just do the work" but I think that would be missing the point somehow. I made a definite decision a while back I'd rather do something with my life than play endless hours of computer games or TV/Netflix watching. I absolutely do watch TV and play computer games but it's at the very end of the day when my brain won't do any more productive work.
- dvtrn 6y agoCognitive load is a bitch when someone is staring down the barrel of burnout. Kids or not.
- raindropm 6y agoThis right here. When you overloaded with a lots of things, it will take toll on your body and mind eventually. You know what's good, but you just can't bring yourself to 'just' do it. It's not fun at all. I personally found radical change help in this case.
- themacguffinman 6y agoAside from tiredness, in my experience procrastination is primarily about fear. On a very deep level, I'm scared of feelings and realities that I know I'll have to confront by doing the work. Feelings like "I don't know how to do this" and "what I've made actually sucks and was a huge waste of time".
- dang 6y agoPlease don't fuck with Show HN like that. The rules are here: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html. Note the part that says "Off topic". (I've taken "Show HN" out of the title now.)
- ericmcer 6y agoI’m taking a month off work and it is amazing. I was sitting quietly thinking about how not doing anything important frees you up to just be a good person. Listen to a friends story? sacrifice sleep or a workout to do someone a favor? It’s easy once you remove that constant feeling of needing to be somewhere or be doing something. It sucks that work forces us to not only make the most of our working hours, but also our free ones.
- jim_and_derrick 6y agoglad that OP is happy he made an html page. Ya boy does the bare fucking minimum and still kicks ass. Guess what work sucks balls man. Who gives a shit you're just making money for shareholders. I spent quality time with my wife and child today on sunday. not thinking about work at all cause work sucks.
- superasn 6y agoI think creating a side project just because all the cool kids are making money doing it can make you exasperated. It looks like when the reason for doing it is not to solve your own or anybody else's problem, your focus becomes more and more about technology, competition, process, etc. Otoh when you're alleviating the pain, your focus is always to get it done as quickly as possible no matter how many corners you need to cut. So yes it's time to take a step back and figure out what your goals are and if they align with whatever it is you're doing with your time.
- austincheney 6y agoI work on side projects as an escape of competence because all the cool kids complain about how hard life is and cry about unnecessary framework bullshit.
- zinckiwi 6y agoWe need to talk about your side projects. - Really? I... I did forty hours of my actual job this week. I, also... Well, okay. Forty is the minimum, okay? - Okay. Now, you know it's up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum. Or... well, like Brian, for example, has three side projects, okay. And a terrific smile. - Okay. So you... you want me to work more? Look. Joanna. - Yeah. Companies can get software engineers anywhere, okay? They look to side projects for the atmosphere and the attitude. Okay? That's what side projects are about. It's about fun. - Yeah. Okay. So more then, yeah? Look, we want you to express yourself, okay? Now if you feel that the bare minimum is enough, then okay. But some people choose to work on side projects and we encourage that, okay? You do want to express yourself, don't you? - Yeah, yeah. Okay. Great. Great. That's all I ask.
- seer 6y agoThat’s why I’m such a huge proponent of company sponsored open source. You wrap your infra/core functionality into an os project, and keep the businessy things in the private repo. You get to work on it during your work hours. It inevitably ends up much better documented and tested code than the usual company developed tooling. And you get to keep it when you leave. No need to spend time on it at home if you don’t want to. And the company benefits as well as it now has much better internal codebase, people might consider maintaining it even after they’ve left the company, and it acts like a pr/recruitment hook.
- m463 6y agoSo I'd like to know which companies support this -- and do not support this. I know some companies are famously leave-water-at-home-we-drink-koolaid-here cough! (apple) cough!
- seer 6y agoGranted I've worked only for smallish companies (<2000 people) but most places don't have specific policies _not_ to do it, especially if you do your due diligence security wise, and don't show the company in bad light. If you make it a very nice looking OS project, most of the time they are either on board or don't care too much. But I really check for this at the interview stage, and they must have a really good reason not to, compensated accordingly. Didn't Apple start doing OS as well though? I think there are a bunch of projects from them already.
- tartoran 6y agoSome of us (in the US) were spared today, tomorrow Veterans' day is being observed (it was today actually) and the office is closed. But yes, that's how it usually goes, after the short respite it starts over and it goes like that the whole year with a 2-3 weeks break. But I should consider myself lucky even if I don't like this ballance, others either work 7/7 or 0/7.
- mattcdrake 6y agoVeteran's Day is November 11th, just FYI.
- tartoran 6y agoThank you for the correction. But I'm still off tomorrow so this weekend felt a bit more generous than usual.
- sl1ck731 6y agoColumbus Day :)
- tartoran 6y agoYes. Big blunder on my part!
- raindropm 6y agoHey...This is great. I have this kind of 'fuck everything' moment from time to time. It's satisfying but not last long because the lack of further plan. Still miles better than scrolling through reddit or reading gurus advices all days without taking any action though. I know I should make this 'spur of anger' a routine, but seriously, fuck routine for once, too.
- IntemerateApe 6y agoComedian Steve Hughs on Work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIJrsAIhoEo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIJrsAIhoEo
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- flowctrl 6y agoFuck that. So many better things to do or think about on your time off. Read a good book. Climb a mountain. Hang out with friends/family. You know, live.
- Whistl3r 6y agoI feel you. Nice page though.
- cloudhead 6y agoLook, if you're happy working for Initech for the rest of your life, then no, you probably don't need side projects.
- sai_c 6y agoHere's my take on it (and why I don't do side projects anymore). Roughly: As musician you grab your instrument and play. As a writer you pick pen and paper and write. As a chef you slice your stuff and cook. Me, starting with an idea: - Turn on computer. Oh no, updates galore. Ok fine. - Those updates broke my IDE/dependencies/network driver etc. Let's fix that as well. - Let's research a gazillion libs to see which one can help with my idea. Ah, none of them. So let's first implement this (for the actual problem) irrelevant, but elaborate base module. - Meanwhile: more updates. - Grrr. I should have picked another language. Or no, let's start again with new shiny, because it's better suited (also not BLUB programmer). - My wife got the updates too. Guess what I have to fix now because I'm into computers. - Damn, hours passed and I achieved nothing valuable so far. Back to work. Wait what? Work?. - Screw that, I'm spending the time with my son playing electric guitar. So, there you have it. Edit: Corrected typos.
- codersteve 6y agoThis should be at the top. This is why at home I read about tech and at work I execute tech. There's reading and then there's doing. Reading should be considered a side project when you work full time executing.
- sai_c 6y agoReading should be considered a side project when you work full time executing. Full ACK. I wish I were only asked ONCE in an interview "Which blogs/sites do you read for technical education and what was the most interesting article you read last year?".
- agustif 6y agoOMG, so I actually pushed to gh my latest sunnday project with that repo name. It's yet another ( unfinished ) template using my TypeScript fav stack. I managed to make AcccountsJS work in nextjs API which was an awesome feeling after weeks of struggling with it lol. at the end I managed to provide my TypeORM connection in a differeent way using conneecctionManager instead of createConnection, which didn't work nicely with Next's HMR Now I need to get the fontend apollo parts... Anyway just in case someeone is interested: https://github.com/agustif/sunday/ https://github.com/agustif/sunday/ AccountsJS Boilerplate template with TypeScript, NextJS, Apollo and GraphQL. Also under the hood TypeORM and Postgres for the ORM and DB. Working on the frontend now, gonna use bumbag.style for UI frontend.
- co001de 6y agoThis looks like something I would have totally dismissed 2 years ago and something that I would write myself in 2 years from now...
- s0l1dsnak3123 6y agoRemember folks: you don't hate Mondays, you hate capitalism.
- conductr 6y agoReading all of the opinions on side projects is interesting. Particularly those of you who think rather negatively of it (or the expectation of it). And probably rightfully so. When I was picking my major/profession, I liked coding as a hobby and thought hard about going the CS route. Even just taking a few 100 level courses turned me off because it wasn’t fun. I even took on a small consulting gig and didn’t enjoy building things to someone else’s spec. Or working on things that I subjectively found boring. I realized coding was my hobby and making it my profession would take away the joy. Some 20 years later, I work in finance. I don’t love it. It pays the bills. I don’t keep up with finance, markets, etc. in my off time but I still code as a hobby and enjoy my side projects. No chance I’d be happy as a software engineer. It’s dizzying seeing how much has changed in past 20 years and how much you have to keep up with. I have the flexibility to ignore things that don’t interest me (eg. I have no interest in the cloud or learning 500 products offering of AWS). I don’t know if that helps you feel better or worse, but it’s at least one alternative reality to the one some of you are living.
- PhilosAccnting 6y agoTorvalds' Just For Fun really inspired me. You should be having fun doing it. Of course, fun is definitely relative. But, I believe that hacker-geeks find lots of fun building stuff. In fact, I'll be bold enough to propose that if someone is having trouble with a side project, they might not be having enough fun doing it for it to be justifiable, and may need to do some soul-searching to find out whether they should continue with it.