4 ms·

Your friend is an exception. I've met a few, too, but the majority of top-tier programmers I know program outside of work. I'm not talking about "hackathons" an

Your friend is an exception. I've met a few, too, but the majority of top-tier programmers I know program outside of work. I'm not talking about "hackathons" and shit like that, or github profiles--usually just personal projects for practical or amusement (often both) purposes. Heuristics are, unfortunately, quite valuable in hiring scenarios, especially for start-ups. It's also just much more fun to work with people who love programming, and an easy way to tell (even if it's susceptible to a few false negatives like your friend) is to find out if they program in their own time.

grogers 12y ago
It probably depends on where you work. Most of my colleagues are amazing developers, but very very few of them actually do side projects at home. Most of us wish we had more time, and would like to do this or that as a side project - but there isn't enough time in each day to do everything you want to do. The only exception to this was a guy who did amazing work on side projects, but the work he did for his paying job suffered significantly...
overgard 12y ago
>It's also just much more fun to work with people who love programming, and an easy way to tell (even if it's susceptible to a few false negatives like your friend) is to find out if they program in their own time. The thing is though, you can love programming and find that 40 hours a week of it is more than enough. I think what you'd find with this heuristic is that it tends to favor young people. It's a lot easier to be enthusiastic about some side project when you're 20 than when you're 40 and have a lot of responsibilities.
- napoleond 12y ago
  Agree completely. The heuristic should be used in the fashion of "yes is good, but no is not necessarily bad".
- Iftheshoefits 12y ago
  That's an implicit point of using the heuristic. It's a kind of dog whistle in the context of ageism in the tech industry.

grogers 12y ago

It probably depends on where you work. Most of my colleagues are amazing developers, but very very few of them actually do side projects at home. Most of us wish we had more time, and would like to do this or that as a side project - but there isn't enough time in each day to do everything you want to do. The only exception to this was a guy who did amazing work on side projects, but the work he did for his paying job suffered significantly...

overgard 12y ago

>It's also just much more fun to work with people who love programming, and an easy way to tell (even if it's susceptible to a few false negatives like your friend) is to find out if they program in their own time. The thing is though, you can love programming and find that 40 hours a week of it is more than enough. I think what you'd find with this heuristic is that it tends to favor young people. It's a lot easier to be enthusiastic about some side project when you're 20 than when you're 40 and have a lot of responsibilities.

napoleond 12y ago
Agree completely. The heuristic should be used in the fashion of "yes is good, but no is not necessarily bad".
Iftheshoefits 12y ago
That's an implicit point of using the heuristic. It's a kind of dog whistle in the context of ageism in the tech industry.