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Do any programmers actually work only 8 hours a day..? I've never seen evidence suggesting this is actually true. 10+2 seems more realistic.

by j2d2 18y ago

watmough 18y ago
Personally, I'm worthless after 6 hours of programming. I'm decent for most of those six hours, and I can churn out maybe 3000 lines a month, but I tend to need a holiday afterwards. I just quit my cubicle job to switch to iPhone programming, and it's been interesting how hard it is to knuckle down and really get started.
biohacker42 18y ago
Some don't even make it to 40hrs a week, ask DHH and crew: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/893-workplace-experiments http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/893-workplace-experiments
MaysonL 18y ago
I've worked as a programmer for over 30 years. I've had two really productive periods during that time. One of those periods I spent about 4 hours a day coding, totally focused - get to work at about 5:30 after a leisurely brunch and a 30 minute bus ride during which I planned my coding for the day, jump on a machine and pound the teletype for 4 hours or so, and go home, nearly exhausted. This was writing device driver assembler routines and image processing code. The second period, I was implementing a prototype of a distributed OS, about 10% of a 3 inch thick spec which defined the whole thing down to the level of small procedures, with a hard 6 month deadline (which was what I had estimated the job would take). I worked steadily for that 6 months on a 40 hour schedule, and finished about two weeks before the demo was given. I'm currently reading On Lisp and The Four-Gated City (by Doris Lessing), for whatever that's worth.
jrockway 18y ago
I sit at a terminal for more than 8 hours a day, but I do things other than program. There are times when I have done productive work for 20 hours straight, but most of the time I do about 4-6 hours of work.

Do any programmers actually work only 8 hours a day..? I've never seen evidence suggesting this is actually true. 10+2 seems more realistic.

by j2d2 18y ago

Do any programmers actually work only 8 hours a day..? I've never seen evidence suggesting this is actually true. 10+2 seems more realistic.

watmough 18y ago

Personally, I'm worthless after 6 hours of programming. I'm decent for most of those six hours, and I can churn out maybe 3000 lines a month, but I tend to need a holiday afterwards. I just quit my cubicle job to switch to iPhone programming, and it's been interesting how hard it is to knuckle down and really get started.

biohacker42 18y ago

Some don't even make it to 40hrs a week, ask DHH and crew: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/893-workplace-experiments http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/893-workplace-experiments

MaysonL 18y ago

I've worked as a programmer for over 30 years. I've had two really productive periods during that time. One of those periods I spent about 4 hours a day coding, totally focused - get to work at about 5:30 after a leisurely brunch and a 30 minute bus ride during which I planned my coding for the day, jump on a machine and pound the teletype for 4 hours or so, and go home, nearly exhausted. This was writing device driver assembler routines and image processing code. The second period, I was implementing a prototype of a distributed OS, about 10% of a 3 inch thick spec which defined the whole thing down to the level of small procedures, with a hard 6 month deadline (which was what I had estimated the job would take). I worked steadily for that 6 months on a 40 hour schedule, and finished about two weeks before the demo was given. I'm currently reading On Lisp and The Four-Gated City (by Doris Lessing), for whatever that's worth.

jrockway 18y ago

I sit at a terminal for more than 8 hours a day, but I do things other than program. There are times when I have done productive work for 20 hours straight, but most of the time I do about 4-6 hours of work.