Ask HN: People who enjoy coding in free time, what does your process look like?

19 points by vdizzle 5 years ago | 19 comments

Do you have particular snacks? Do you take your laptop to a public place with wifi? Is there some kind of ritual that gets you into the mood to write code?

I don't program in my job, so coding in free time has been a wonderful creative outlet. These past few weeks, however, have been a slog to open the IDE; often distracting myself instead with watching edu material on writing better unit tests, binge reading HN, etc.

One new habit which has somewhat worked was inspired by Neil Gaiman's writing process (ie. sitting in a quiet place where the only two choices are to write or do nothing until boredom inspires writing) - I've started sitting at home, without music and with a notebook, where the only two choices are to do nothing or write pseudo code for the immediate next exciting feature.

As you may have guessed, at this moment this new process isn't quite working; curious to hear from anyone who enjoys coding at home / in free time: what does your lifestyle around those programming hours look like? Thanks!

aristofun 5 years ago |

Coding by nature is nothing like a regular hobby, like dancing or playing guitar, or skiing...

There is no inherent pleasure in the process itself.

In solving puzzles - yes, in overcoming obstacles - sure, in seeing final product working and not failing - of course.

But coding itself is a boring but inevitable process of reaching some goal(s).

Thus the only reliable and long lasting source of motivation is a specific idea (product) in mind you want to create (no matter how small or simple).

This what can drive you no matter whats snacks or laptop or wifi you have. Without any rituals.

But pushing yourself to code without a good goal is a waste of time.

cercatrova 5 years ago | |

> There is no inherent pleasure in the process itself.

Speak for yourself. I find pleasure in writing code inherently, playing around with different languages, data structures and algorithms that may not have any definite end goal in mind.

Nevermark 5 years ago | | |

Me too for very different but similar reasons.

I tend to take my time adding code, anything from a few lines an hour to a few lines a month. So the moments where I do are like adding a few careful brush strokes to a painting and seeing its character change immediately.

In between, I read about things related to my problem, I think on walks, waking up and going to sleep, and during more active times I have worked on a problem in my dreams all night.

The mornings after "dream work" always feel magical. I realize how repetitive and grindy dreams are. Seems that my mind goes over the exact same ground dozens of times, without any normal daytime fatigue, then figures something out like finally seeing a gem after scraping away meters of rock.

aristofun 5 years ago | | |

From the sound of it you find pleasure in exploring something new (dopamine kind of pleasure).

Whould you enjoy writing code with same language, same data structures & algorithms for a long period of time?

If not => you don’t really enjoy coding itself.

tedyoung 5 years ago | |

Agreed. This is what I always recommend to those who are looking to learn how to (better) code: find a personal, meaningful project that fills a want or need for you. Not only will it provide you with realistic problems to solve, they will be personally meaningful, helping you stay motivated.

The OP issues may also be related to procrastination, where having accountability to others may be one (among many) solution, e.g., having a pair-programming partner (or a mob), or, what has worked for me, programming live on Twitch.

muzani 5 years ago | |

It's easy to get into flow when writing (like I am right now) or reading, or nearly any hobby. Heck it's easy to get into flow doing many menial jobs. But coding is very difficult, which is perhaps why flow and "deep work" is valued so highly.

Jugurtha 5 years ago |

I remove frictions. An IDE is a friction, so I'll use the interpreter directly to write snippets of code and play with a library or prototype a feature or something. Small functions. This works just like foreplay or messing around because after a bit of doing this, I'm turned fully on and possessed and banging much more serious and fully fledged code. It gets me fully in the zone, and I regain situational awareness some time after.

This is akin to playing a game in a half-assed way, and before you know it, you take off your jacket to really play. If you were told to come with the proper attire, you probably would have declined or postponed or procrastinated, hence removing friction works.

I recently have tried putting on sounds. Nature sounds. There are tracks that go for more than 8 hours. These cover "Dirac impulse" like sounds in my physical location, which can burst my bubble. I'm fine with noise in a bus (I've coded entire projects while commuting).

One 'hack' to improve productivity is to work disconnected from the internet and with an unplugged charger. I had a laptop that could only hold about two hours, and boy that was greatly motivating to code something up before the laptop shut down. Even with my crurrent laptop, there just is something about working with 'finite energy'. Removing frictions and adding restrictions seems to work.

Nevermark 5 years ago | |

You have shared some wisdom. Managing the flow. At least three new things that sound very right for me. Thanks!

austincheney 5 years ago |

I just put on music and write code. I have an excellent personal laptop, but I prefer coding my big desktop.

My key to staying interested is automation of all the things. I mean spending the extra time to finding new ways to perform test automation, automation to keep documentation up to date, adding new lint rules. With better automation in place there are fewer barriers to validating or executing new ideas.

Nevermark 5 years ago |

What a fantastic question. I didn't expect so many truly great responses.

For many years I have had this humorous fantasy of having a bare room with little but natural rock walls and irregular rock paving flooring, a fireplace, and a ceiling consisting mostly of a huge sky light. with only a little desk for furniture as a place to work with no distraction. My contractor is now designing that room to put on the top of my house.

I can't recommend it because I have no idea if it will be the happy place I have always imagined, lol! But I think it will. :)

What I can say is imagining that kind of peaceful natural hermit-able place was one of my visualizations that helped me get into the zone many times in the past.

What code we would write if we all lived in lighthouses?

retox 5 years ago |

If you're working on a personal project, which as others have said should give you some drive to get started, don't fall into the trap of making things too complicated too quickly. You'll get side tracked, fail to complete the core behavior and get discouraged at your own lack of progress.

Set a small goal and only when it's finished start working on something else, make a kanban board with small tasks. Don't think too far ahead with "oh, I'd like to add x in the future, so I should architect y so that's possible". Don't endlessly review and refine the code you've already written trying to achieve perfection.

By all means capture these next features in a notebook, but act like you're working on a 'real' project and have an actual deadline. It might also help to make commitments to show other people what you've done, I always work best when I have an audience otherwise I quickly fall into the trap of trying to make the perfect system because I know there's no hard-limit on my time. YMMV obviously.

5cott0 5 years ago |

I always have a project goal in mind and keep a backlog of personal project ideas and work on whatever I feel like leveling up on. Having a shippable goal helps because it gives some purpose to the occasional tedium slog which are unfortunately unavoidable. One important thing is that I aim for small scope MVPs that can be launched fairly quickly on the app store or web and if something gets traction or I feel compelled to do so I can keep working on it. Or not if I don't and take what I learned and start the next one. It's a fun hobby, feels like building those little model ships in bottles.

wingerlang 5 years ago |

One thing I've found helps me not lose my mind is to CMD+Q everything at some point. Nothing better than decidedly stop working. I usually write a note (that does not compile) in the code about what I was doing, and what I should try next. In case it takes me a few days to get back to it.

adithyasrin 5 years ago |

I use my desktop for this usually in the evenings a bit before and after dinner. Got music on Spotify running. I use notions to keep a list of small things that I need to do.

I don't do open source contribution a lot so it's mostly my own stuff.

slipwalker 5 years ago |

after i read "discipline beats motivation"[1] i realized my biggest problem with personal projects were exactly lack of discipline, awaiting for the motivation to come by itself. Now i have a large paper calendar in front of me, where i mark with a large red "F" ( Failure ) every day i don't spend my allocated 1 hour on my pet projects.

( the number of "F" varies over time, but tend to reduce... )

[1]https://medium.com/1-one-infinity/discipline-beats-motivatio...

username90 5 years ago |

> I've started sitting at home, without music and with a notebook, where the only two choices are to do nothing or write pseudo code for the immediate next exciting feature.

If that doesn't work it is pretty likely you have ADHD.

dankwizard 5 years ago | |

or it's just writing code into a notepad by hand is ridiculously boring and tedious

jitendrac 5 years ago |

Only thing inspiring me to code in free time is that I need it or I have motivation for it. I code things that are I am really interested into rather what is a general interesting thing.

emteycz 5 years ago |

No process, nothing. Just sit down and code.