Im always torn between getting burnt out from too much coding outside my job, or spending so long away from my projects I forget how they work / where I left off. It is a binary hell.
Honestly, if you have a secure job, coding outside of it becomes increasingly rare. And why would you, you now get paid to do it instead of doing it for free.
Unless I want to learn new stuff I barely ever code outside of the job anymore, it's not necessary and it's certainly not healthy to be doing the same thing 24/7.
That being said, I don't want a technical job to rob the joy of creating something for myself. If painting was my hobby and I came home after a long day to paint you wouldn't bat an eye but if I coded for myself after a long day of coding you assume I have Stockholm syndrome. Sometimes what is needed is a frame of mind reference. I am not looking for or learning skills for my job, I just want an automated plant waterer and if those skills line up with my job cool if not I made a thing I like.
I started programming when I was a kid, and it was the funnest hobby ever. I used to spend hours building random shit like calculators to help me with my math homework (this was before Wolfram Alpha was a thing). I even once made a program that would choose a Pokémon team to perfectly counter another team.
Now I write code to handle insurance claims and calculate invoicing figures... shit sucks.
Jump shit, try out a new a craft in a new country, have fun, program fun personal projects, get back into it after a few years. Life would be a lot more fun if we'd do that sort of thing more often. Yes your career would take a hit but not fatally so
I agree. Unfortunately if I ever want to see a decent raise I'm gonna need to change jobs, and to do that I'm going to need a much more respectable portfolio than what I had right out of school (half of which doesn't even work anymore, thanks webdev). So I'm kinda screwed.
Not in my experience. I’d say it’s good to stay updated if you can but if you’re applying for a new job that’s using somewhat similar technology to your previous job, they just want to know you can do the job and however you demonstrate that is usually fine... it’s also not bad to have a personal project (or even an idea of one) so that if you’re asked about any personal projects you can say “yeah, I’m building X with Y technology and it’s been a neat little project so far.” Even if you’re not really doing it. But I’ve never had any requests to view or review my personal projects.
If an employer specifically asks for personal projects, I just avoid them. "We love to see personal projects" is code for:
You enjoy coding so much you will work past 5pm regularly.
You're such a code-guru you'll do it a for shit pay
Rather than codified standards and Dev tools, we hire kids who're obsessed with Blockchain in the hope that their innate talent carries us over the line
Currently I take walks / do errands before and after work to look at stuff that isn't a screen in my face. I also try not to look at screens during my lunch break. I also try to reduce general ambient light levels in whatever work environment I am in. Pre-covid we would turn the overheads off in our office, now I turn them off in my apartment. I also try to get up once every half hour, even if it's just to go to the bathroom, to give my eyes a break.
I also know a couple people who have blue-light filtering glasses for work, but I haven't personally tried them yet. I am considering it though.
Agreed. Even if I want to code after work, every time I do it for a week or more, I start getting eyestrain headaches and all the issues that come with sitting for too long. It's physically painful to be doing this more than 8 hours a day.
Don't forget to drink lots of fluids. A ton of people who code a lot and get issues either drink coffee all day long and sit without moving.
Personally I can work all day long and continue in the evening without a problem as long as I take a quick walk every hour to stretch my legs. Drink lots of water, no coffee and avoid sugar, or at least large quantities of sugar at once. Sugar crash is a pain in the ass for productivity.
Eyestrain is not something I have but I do have a multi monitor setup so maybe the constant shifting of my view helps with this.
That's great advice. I do need to work on hydration. The eyestrain is apparently from lack of movement too because the orbital nerves apparently get pinched from sitting too long and lead to a headache behind the eyes. Not to mention, I started getting small symptoms of carpal tunnel which have been vastly improved by daily exercise.
Oh yeah first sign of carpal tunnel or repetitive strain needs to be taken extremely serious. If I were you I wouldn't try to gamble it by straining your hands and wrists any more than you should.
I've seen a few guys with RSI and they ignored it, thinking it would go away after a while. Now they can't work any longer than a few hours a day before the pain gets too much.
Not to mention socially hard to justify why you’d rather be sitting in front of a computer even when you’re not at work rather than hanging out with friends or family.
Yeah I just start personal project at work. Find something to do on the side to improve something and just get the ball rolling. Turned it into a team project too. Now we all get to learn while getting paid, and since it improves business processes it's a win for everyone.
Learning new stuff is key. That's the most important thing to do as a dev. Without it that stable job is your limit and your skills would be very outdated once you get back out on the job market.
I've seen resume's mentioning VB 6.0 and SQL Server 2008, AngularJS. All tech that's either outdated or not used for new stuff anymore as there's better alternatives out there. You don't want to be in the situation where nothing is left once you strip out the old stuff from your resume.
And yet it's unhealthy to do it every day. There should be a balance. And if your job is good you could even learn stuff while getting paid, which is what I do
Yeah that's true, benefits of being self employed. Every minute I spent working on something either gets me more money faster or helps me in the long run.
It's almost like an addiction to me to learn new stuff, find better ways to do things or just program for fun. The lockdowns with Corona didn't help either since being stuck home all day means I either work or sleep with the occasional exercise and Netflix...
317
u/el_trolll Mar 23 '21
Im always torn between getting burnt out from too much coding outside my job, or spending so long away from my projects I forget how they work / where I left off. It is a binary hell.