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8 hours?! I've been pulling 12-16 hour days, nearly 7 days a week for the last 12 years. You have to love what you do. It has to be what defines you as an in
by jawngee 19y ago
8 hours?!
I've been pulling 12-16 hour days, nearly 7 days a week for the last 12 years.
You have to love what you do. It has to be what defines you as an individual to pull that off with any kind of success.
It'll kill you though, I have more medical and mental problems than I know what to do with, all stemming from the damage my passion/obsession causes. But that's the cost and I gladly pay it. Why? Because it's what I am, it's what I do - and I'm pretty damn good at it.
How do I do it? Marijuana mostly. I don't drink caffiene (nor alcohol or any other types of drugs/stimulants). Caffeine causes peaks and crashes which make doing 16 hour sprints impossible, so I steer clear of that and I also minimize sugar intake but have noticed a semi-regular pattern of minimal sugar intake during the day - usually in a sweetened beverage or a fruit smoothie or eating fruit - although at 4am I will sneak a snickers.
I also tend to eat a lot of smaller meals throughout the course of the day, which helps keep me energized without making me lethargic.
Also, a few brisk walks during the day are good to clear the head and give me time to isolate my thoughts about what it is I'm working on.
It helps to start the day out with a list of things you want done, with the understanding that you can reshuffle/prioritize that list at any point, so long as you have a list.
But it really does boil down to the marijuana. It does a few things for me, cheif among them is that it sort of clears my brain and lets me really focus on what I'm working on. I'm disciplined enough at this point in my game that I can do this fairly easily. The other thing marijuana does is make me slightly lazy - which actually has the effect of me writing significantly less code to do the same thing, so I gain a LoC metric there. It also forces different perspectives when analyzing a problem so it's fairly often that I find holes in whatever system I'm developing that I might have overlooked otherwise.
Note, I'm not advocating you start smoking weed at work. I'm the boss at my company, so it's kosher, but most places - no way, you'll have to find other ways to achieve the same results.
Listen, if you aren't passionate about what you are doing, don't fine any thrill in it and are worrying about how you're going to pull of an 8 hour day, then maybe this isn't the right career for you?
- berlinbrown 19y agoThat is awesome, vote for a pro drug candidate. It seems like all intelligent people do some kind of drug. (e.g. not Clinton)
- vagmi 19y agoI am sure it will kill you. But whats worse is that you are NOT LIVING. I am very passionate about my work. I consider myself a pretty good programmer. I put in long hours occasionally and wish I could code even more. But there are aspects of living on this earth as a human being apart from writing code. Trust me when I say it. YOU ARE NOT LIVING.
- codesquirrel 19y agoI used to think this way, but you know what? Who are we to say whether he's not living or not? I know plenty of people who are "living it up." And quite frankly I can't tell if they're happier for it or not. Perhaps you can't enjoy life without living it up, but on the same token, perhaps others can't enjoy life without making something big.
- necrodome 19y agohttp://progressiveboink.com/nick/images/calvinandhobbes/CH860417.JPG http://progressiveboink.com/nick/images/calvinandhobbes/CH86...
- jawngee 19y agoWell I find this slightly condescending and incredibly judgemental. A. Who are you to tell me if I'm living or not. Furthermore, what's your criteria for "LIVING". Assuming the status quo; I'm hitting all the major tenents: I travel extensively, I'm married, I've a whole host of life experiences worthy of a book or a movie, I read, I enjoy film, I live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood in NYC, I eat great food. I have nice friends. That sounds like living to me? B. If you also define living by including having an impact on other's lives, than indeed I'm living life to the fullest. No I'm not writing any life saving medical software, but I do write software that people use to express themselves creatively and know a number of the users of my software who have gone on to do some pretty impressive things because of what my software taught them about themselves; their capabilities, talents, etc. This is why I write software in the first place. Now, could I do this extreme lifestyle if I was working for a bank? Hell no. If I was working at an advertising agency? Hell no. But guess what? My extremism has lead me to an oppurtunity to write software for myself and for my own company. Again, living life to it's fullest. Instead of helping others chase their business dreams, I am living my own. So get down from your horse, dude. Because I don't live in the suburbs with my wife and 1.5 kids doesn't mean I'm not living life.
- bayareaguy 19y agoBack in the days of 80x24 terminals, one of the original authors of a popular unix game was often complimented on how well his code was commented. He said that he had to do that because he always smoked pot when he coded and would lose his train of thought when the screen scrolled.
- carlosabs 19y agoHi! I'm a "9 to 6" web developer in a telecom, and i'm also rolling with a nice WEB 2.0 personal project at home. The only way i found to get motivation to keep developing at home after all those boring 8 hours is smoking some weed. And what you said about "different perspectives" is completely right. Sometimes i drink some wine, but just a glass, more can make me sleepy and disturbed.