3 ms·
> "Man what's up with frank today?" > "Oh he was pulling an all-nighter doing a non-urgent task." > "Did anybody ask him to?" > "No. In fact we asked him to
by lqet 6y ago
> "Man what's up with frank today?"
> "Oh he was pulling an all-nighter doing a non-urgent task."
> "Did anybody ask him to?"
> "No. In fact we asked him to stop."
When I am doing this, it is usually because I have the strong feeling that I am in complete control of the problem right now, hours after midnight. Two fears then kick it: will I make it to this point of control a second time in the near future (3-6 months)? Will I even remember the extremely abstract concepts a few days from now? To me, the answer (confirmed by experience) is often: most likely not, better finish it now.
- r00fus 6y agoAfter you create your masterpiece of code, do you know enough to document and understand it later (so you can pass it on to others)? Having been in the zone, I completely sympathize with the view that productivity isn't constant; that the cost to your health is worth the leap... Have you ever had that feeling and then realized in the morning/next day that your feeling was illusory and you actually took the harder path?
- ZephyrBlu 6y agoFor me it's more about getting the idea out of my head. The code wouldn't be a finished product, but more like a brain dump.
- bradstewart 6y agoI know the feeling. In college (and for a year or so right after), I had the same answer. A few years later, I've finally realized that any code I write at 2am almost always needs to be fixed--often substantially--soon after. I miss things. I write stupid bugs. I don't see the requirements clearly. I've found writing things down (sometimes a few words, sometimes a few pages), sleeping on it, and reviewing those notes first thing in the morning--before email, before showering, before anything--to be a much a better strategy. YMMV, of course.