Top developers can have a life outside of programming.
As an industry, we are going into unhealthy wilderness, when we not only expect, but also demand that people continue to work after work.
Refusal of candidatures, since a person does not contribute to open projects; employee selection for dismissal due to the absence of a personal project; expectation from employees of fully independent, timely acquaintance with new technologies, frameworks and languages; and so on.
This happened because somehow it became an indisputable truth that only those who write (free) code after work are in love with their work and / or are good developers .
')
However, here are some more realistic truths:
Life is going. People meet - people fall in love ... Children are born. People create families. Developers are people too .
It can be assumed that children or family is the luxury of choice . Even if you think that this is so (in fact, no), life goes on. Parents are aging, and they needed daily care. Mental illness appeared, for example, depression, and after a whole day of work there is no more work to do. After the road accident that happened, I had to spend 2 hours a day on rehabilitation.
Who is able to continue writing code after an 8-hour workday consisting of the same code? Who does not spread rot in the open source software community? 20-year-old young people with no responsibilities and / or income sufficient to “purchase” more free time (for example: babysitters, housekeeping, good medical services, a car to get to work, and so on) .
And all this begs the question ...
Firstly, it should be understood that work goes best when we are happy and stress free.
Cut down so important a dream to study a book? Bad idea. Sleep is of paramount importance to health (and work efficiency!), And its lack will lead to losses.
To neglect the second half and the children to create a personal project? Seriously? Is a personal project more valuable than seeing your children grow up or enjoy life with someone you love?
Get away from social life, abandon your hobby, stop training and work on your body - and that's all to follow in open source? Will this bring you happiness in the long run?
So what to do?
In my life I did this: I used my work time completely . Pair programming with colleagues, reading someone else's code, asking a lot of questions, answering a lot of questions, analyzing programs and so on.
Offer your employer to pay for the conference and give you working time to participate. If the company is small and resources are scarce, then you can ask for the opportunity to attend local seminars, meetings, etc. As mentioned above, companies are interested in ensuring that the training of employees corresponds to the current level of the industry. If they do not create the conditions for this, it means that they think that employees are easily obtainable and easily replaceable, so you have reason to start looking for a new job.
You can read technical books or articles in blogs at lunchtime or in transport on the way to work. To develop a small auxiliary tool or prototype, you can try new technologies and languages. Do not be afraid to try new things!
Do not feel guilty about other hobbies than programming. Other activities and physical activity will enhance your mood, your energy and creativity - in short, improve your skills as a developer.
And if it turns out to carve out some free time that you can devote to programming, then spend it wisely. The most useful for me was to establish a hard limit on the hours allocated to a personal project . For example, it can be a weekend in the format of gamejam or something of its own: "I will spend 20 hours on this." If there is a deadline, then at least something will be finished . And it motivates to work further, allows you to publish something on the Web or an online store and looks good in a resume.
Refusal of candidatures, since a person does not contribute to open projects; employee selection for dismissal due to the absence of a personal project; expectation from employees of fully independent, timely acquaintance with new technologies, frameworks and languages; and so on.
Problem
This happened because somehow it became an indisputable truth that only those who write (free) code after work are in love with their work and / or are good developers .
')
However, here are some more realistic truths:
- Only a very special demographic group can allow working for free after the completion of the official working day.
- It is in the interests of companies that their employees continue to learn and meet modern requirements. For this, companies must provide resources.
- There are great developers who have a life outside of work.
- There are great developers who have commitments outside of work.
- There are excellent developers who did not master programming themselves when they were 12 years old.
Life is going. People meet - people fall in love ... Children are born. People create families. Developers are people too .
It can be assumed that children or family is the luxury of choice . Even if you think that this is so (in fact, no), life goes on. Parents are aging, and they needed daily care. Mental illness appeared, for example, depression, and after a whole day of work there is no more work to do. After the road accident that happened, I had to spend 2 hours a day on rehabilitation.
Who is able to continue writing code after an 8-hour workday consisting of the same code? Who does not spread rot in the open source software community? 20-year-old young people with no responsibilities and / or income sufficient to “purchase” more free time (for example: babysitters, housekeeping, good medical services, a car to get to work, and so on) .
And all this begs the question ...
How to be a good developer without programming 24/7?
Firstly, it should be understood that work goes best when we are happy and stress free.
Cut down so important a dream to study a book? Bad idea. Sleep is of paramount importance to health (and work efficiency!), And its lack will lead to losses.
To neglect the second half and the children to create a personal project? Seriously? Is a personal project more valuable than seeing your children grow up or enjoy life with someone you love?
Get away from social life, abandon your hobby, stop training and work on your body - and that's all to follow in open source? Will this bring you happiness in the long run?
So what to do?
In my life I did this: I used my work time completely . Pair programming with colleagues, reading someone else's code, asking a lot of questions, answering a lot of questions, analyzing programs and so on.
Offer your employer to pay for the conference and give you working time to participate. If the company is small and resources are scarce, then you can ask for the opportunity to attend local seminars, meetings, etc. As mentioned above, companies are interested in ensuring that the training of employees corresponds to the current level of the industry. If they do not create the conditions for this, it means that they think that employees are easily obtainable and easily replaceable, so you have reason to start looking for a new job.
You can read technical books or articles in blogs at lunchtime or in transport on the way to work. To develop a small auxiliary tool or prototype, you can try new technologies and languages. Do not be afraid to try new things!
Do not feel guilty about other hobbies than programming. Other activities and physical activity will enhance your mood, your energy and creativity - in short, improve your skills as a developer.
And if it turns out to carve out some free time that you can devote to programming, then spend it wisely. The most useful for me was to establish a hard limit on the hours allocated to a personal project . For example, it can be a weekend in the format of gamejam or something of its own: "I will spend 20 hours on this." If there is a deadline, then at least something will be finished . And it motivates to work further, allows you to publish something on the Web or an online store and looks good in a resume.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/308620/
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