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I’ve worked for a decade in academic labs where 90 hour weeks were normal and you get two weeks off in a year. Not just grunt work but reading writing analyzing

I’ve worked for a decade in academic labs where 90 hour weeks were normal and you get two weeks off in a year. Not just grunt work but reading writing analyzing complex experiments etc. I then came to tech and started coding. It was a breath of relief. I didn’t know what you’re supposed to do on saturdays! But when you get in the zone and start writing a large amount of non-crud code, seven hours is kinda the max. You’re totally wiped out. Coding a complex application is quite unlike anything except writing a complex novel or technical document. No one, I mean NO ONE who writes well writes for 11 hours a day lol. The most prolific writers average an hour.

shortrounddev2 3y ago
I get tunnel vision when I've been coding for several hours. I'll be stuck on a problem and I'll keep switching back to the same two areas of focus that I've already exhausted. I'll get frustrated because the problem seems totally inexplicable. The other day I was stuck on such a problem at 8pm. My sister in law suggested I just go to sleep, and look at the problem with fresh eyes tomorrow. Doing what she said, I solved the (stupidly simple) problem within 5 minutes of turning my laptop on the next day. There are SO MANY environmental and physiological factors which go into your state of mind. Some variables that I try to control for: 1. What (if anything) did you eat today 2. How much water did you drink 3. Did you shower today 4. How much sleep did you get, or how long have you been awake (probably the most important one right here) 5. What is the warmth of the light where you are working (is it cloudy and rainy outside?) 6. What is the temperature of the room 7. Is anything else going on in your life occupying your mind right now? If you take medication: did you take your medications? 8. Did you exercise today? Do you exercise at all? Are you healthy? 9. How is your posture? 10. Is your work environment clean? Is it noisy? 11. Do you work better with music on, or in silence? 12. Did you drink so much caffeine that you are now manic and can't focus? 13. Are you happy? The brain is a part of the body
cpncrunch 3y ago
>reading writing I think it depends precisely what you are doing. There is a difference between low cognitive effort (e.g. reading) and high effort (e.g. creating an algorithm or playing chess). Low effort uses glucose, whereas high-effort requires the microglia (the brain's immune cells) to create lactate and transport it to the neurons. Excess microglia activation has been linked to anxiety, depression and neuroinflammation. I suspect it's not physically possible for a chess grandmaster to play for 90 hours a week, but probably quite easy for the average person to read or write for 90 hours a week (with some breaks). >start writing a large amount of non-crud code, seven hours is kinda the max. Most programming jobs are just writing "crud code" if you want to call it that...basically mostly meetings, and cranking out banal code. You can certainly do this for 90 hours a week without fatigue, although it will likely lead to burnout in the long-term, so it's probably better to find a job that does require significant mental effort, but without requiring 90 hour weeks.
- ramraj07 3y ago
  Academic reading is not light reading if you’re doing it right though. It’s much harder than programming for me.
  - cpncrunch 3y ago
    Well, again it depends. I was just reading a few reviews on microglia before replying to your comment, in order to update my knowledge, and I would describe it as very light effort...I'd guess I didn't enter into the lactate territory. It's nothing like coming up with an algorithm or trying to solve a problem. The only time I've found it has come close is when actually writing a hypothesis or review paper: having to read through the literature in order to come up with a coherent theory while juggling the concepts in my head. It's very similar to solving a programming problem, and does involve significant mental effort. But it probably also depends on the speed that it's done at. For complex algorithms or prototypes I prefer to just power through and get the whole thing done to the prototype stage in half a day (or whatever it takes, depending on the complexity), then spend the next month (or whatever) fleshing it out. There are probably other ways of doing it that don't require such cognitive effort at the beginning, but I find that for complex problems that's sometimes the best way of solving them, at least in my experience, and it only involves significant mental effort for a very short period of time.
- aflukasz 3y ago
  > Most programming jobs are just writing "crud code" if you want to call it that...basically mostly meetings, and cranking out banal code. I would say that in such instances, often times the code is banal, but proper modeling of the reality, even in cases where final result looks like a classical crud, is where complexity hides. I say "hides", because, from my experience, only those directly involved in the implementation are actually mentally exposed to it. If they care about the quality of the output, that is.

shortrounddev2 3y ago

I get tunnel vision when I've been coding for several hours. I'll be stuck on a problem and I'll keep switching back to the same two areas of focus that I've already exhausted. I'll get frustrated because the problem seems totally inexplicable. The other day I was stuck on such a problem at 8pm. My sister in law suggested I just go to sleep, and look at the problem with fresh eyes tomorrow. Doing what she said, I solved the (stupidly simple) problem within 5 minutes of turning my laptop on the next day. There are SO MANY environmental and physiological factors which go into your state of mind. Some variables that I try to control for: 1. What (if anything) did you eat today 2. How much water did you drink 3. Did you shower today 4. How much sleep did you get, or how long have you been awake (probably the most important one right here) 5. What is the warmth of the light where you are working (is it cloudy and rainy outside?) 6. What is the temperature of the room 7. Is anything else going on in your life occupying your mind right now? If you take medication: did you take your medications? 8. Did you exercise today? Do you exercise at all? Are you healthy? 9. How is your posture? 10. Is your work environment clean? Is it noisy? 11. Do you work better with music on, or in silence? 12. Did you drink so much caffeine that you are now manic and can't focus? 13. Are you happy? The brain is a part of the body

cpncrunch 3y ago

>reading writing I think it depends precisely what you are doing. There is a difference between low cognitive effort (e.g. reading) and high effort (e.g. creating an algorithm or playing chess). Low effort uses glucose, whereas high-effort requires the microglia (the brain's immune cells) to create lactate and transport it to the neurons. Excess microglia activation has been linked to anxiety, depression and neuroinflammation. I suspect it's not physically possible for a chess grandmaster to play for 90 hours a week, but probably quite easy for the average person to read or write for 90 hours a week (with some breaks). >start writing a large amount of non-crud code, seven hours is kinda the max. Most programming jobs are just writing "crud code" if you want to call it that...basically mostly meetings, and cranking out banal code. You can certainly do this for 90 hours a week without fatigue, although it will likely lead to burnout in the long-term, so it's probably better to find a job that does require significant mental effort, but without requiring 90 hour weeks.

ramraj07 3y ago
Academic reading is not light reading if you’re doing it right though. It’s much harder than programming for me.
- cpncrunch 3y ago
  Well, again it depends. I was just reading a few reviews on microglia before replying to your comment, in order to update my knowledge, and I would describe it as very light effort...I'd guess I didn't enter into the lactate territory. It's nothing like coming up with an algorithm or trying to solve a problem. The only time I've found it has come close is when actually writing a hypothesis or review paper: having to read through the literature in order to come up with a coherent theory while juggling the concepts in my head. It's very similar to solving a programming problem, and does involve significant mental effort. But it probably also depends on the speed that it's done at. For complex algorithms or prototypes I prefer to just power through and get the whole thing done to the prototype stage in half a day (or whatever it takes, depending on the complexity), then spend the next month (or whatever) fleshing it out. There are probably other ways of doing it that don't require such cognitive effort at the beginning, but I find that for complex problems that's sometimes the best way of solving them, at least in my experience, and it only involves significant mental effort for a very short period of time.
aflukasz 3y ago
> Most programming jobs are just writing "crud code" if you want to call it that...basically mostly meetings, and cranking out banal code. I would say that in such instances, often times the code is banal, but proper modeling of the reality, even in cases where final result looks like a classical crud, is where complexity hides. I say "hides", because, from my experience, only those directly involved in the implementation are actually mentally exposed to it. If they care about the quality of the output, that is.