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Ben Halpern
Ben Halpern

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Are you coding more in your spare time due to COVID—19?

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yaser profile image
Yaser Al-Najjar • Edited

I with my sis have been badly sick for a week or so, I thought it's the seasonal flu... been recovered and doing pretty well.

One week later, my father, mother, and aunt got sick but this time my aunt hardly breathed, took her to the hospital to find out we have Covid-19 at home!

Another week later after making them eat & rest well, they're all getting better and I feel the happiest person on earth that we passed this 😌

Realized after that small stuff like "having spare time to code" or "doing stuff you love" or even "breathing with no problem" are big blesses that we took for granted.

Stay safe and grateful for what you have ❤

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snowie profile image
Snowie

Oh no! Thank god they're getting better! You're right, we should always be grateful for health and things around us instead of looking for problems to solve. Hope your family will recover soon ❤

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yaser profile image
Yaser Al-Najjar

Thanks Snowie 🙏

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Personally the answer is a definite yes. Being more or less stuck at home I've allowed myself to just get deeper into coding in non-work hours. It's not necessarily a healthy thing to do, but in these times I'm just making the most of it all.

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Jorge Eψ=Ĥψ

I'm spending more time in coding but I'm feel I'm less productive

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Bruno Germano

I know what you are talking about.

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Maxim Chechenev

Not really, I found myself needed to do something else but not sitting in front of a laptop and writing more code. Since we are not really allowed to go outside and all activities are paused, I started to pay more attention to do more activities at home - more time for hobbies (unless coding is your hobby of course), doing yoga with online teachers, reading book, watching more movies, cooking, etc.

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cbloss

I so can relate. I feel like a horrible dev because I don't like spending a whole lot of extra time on my laptop after I'm off. I would rather walk the dogs, read a book, draw or do something off of a screen if I can.

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Maxim Chechenev

But it doesn't make anyone a horrible dev - it's just different values and different hobbies.

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cbloss profile image
cbloss

I never thought of it that way. Thanks for saying that!

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Arswaw

Honestly I've been practicing piano more. It's brought me more satisfaction in recent months than programming has. I still enjoy programming, but music is a joy all its own.

Otherwise I'm playing Half-Life: Alyx and Doom Eternal.

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Patryk

I finally took the time to play with LMMS, as I don't have a piano.

Been needing a new hobby, and have missed making music. I played bass in a band, but that was almost 15 years ago.

If anyone wants a free / libre replacement for FL Studio, I recommend it. Works in Linux too!

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Arswaw

Well if you want to buy a keyboard, which you totally should, then I have a recommendation.

The Yamaha DGX-660 is the one that has helped me return to music. It sounds like a real grand piano. It is difficult to distinguish a recording of this and a concert grand.

It also has some useful features such as recording and transposition.

It is $800. I understand we're in the middle of a plague and money can be tight, but at the point where you feel ready to start looking, you should really consider this one.

Thanks!

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patryktech profile image
Patryk

Probably won't be for a while. I'm doing the nomad thing, so no room for a piano at the moment 😅😅

But I'll consider it when I settle down somewhere, thanks.

LMMS is fun, because it can synthesize everything from synths to pianos, drums, etc. Great for electronic music, but you can get some rock sounds too. And $800 cheaper than an $800 piano 😁

I'm sure there are other great tools. When I had an actual guitar, I used guitarix as a virtual amp.

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Pierre-Louis Deschamps

I would like to play bass but I moved to the countryside without it. So I spend more time coding.
How can you play Half-Life? The screen makes me sick after 10 minutes playing!

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arswaw profile image
Arswaw

I use the Vive to do it. What's your rig?

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Jasmin Virdi

Yes, this is the best time to upgrade. I've started learning new tech stack which was there in my bucket list 😅

Apart from this, I am also attending a few meetups and conferences online. All this keeps me motivated to learn and utilize my time efficiently.

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Domenico Solazzo

I think I am coding the same amount but trying to work out every day because I am not moving outside as much as before. As well as I increased my meditation practice since the Covid-19🦠 crisis started..

Healthy mind and body for better Clean Code. 😆

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Amruth Pillai

I've been recently coding a lot and working on a personal project of mine. Those who are on DEV might have caught the post about Reactive Resume.

But while I'm at my maximum capacity, I've also been trying to get my girlfriend to learn Frontend Development. She had secured an internship recently, but due to the COVID-19 fears, the company withdrew the offer. I found this amazing post by another DEV member here, about Frontend Mentor. So I've been asking her to take up those challenges and try to mentor her through building these solutions. I feel much better about her future now, but knowing that the job market is going to be really difficult in the coming days, we have to do all that we can to sustain.

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Anshuman Singh

Thanks for sharing

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Sean M Davis • Edited

I seem to have the opposite experience as many people. I am coding much less in my spare time than before the stay at home order. Part of the reason is that I am coding much more during work hours with no meetings or distractions. I usually get in 8 solid hours of coding during the workday. Once work is done I feel burnt out with coding so I mostly just rest my brain.

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ImTheDeveloper

Less for me. Working half hours remotely at work but spare time is spent looking after the kids to remove some pressure from my wife. The routine right now ks necessary but I do miss having some time to code.

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Jan Wedel

Seems to be that a lot of people here don’t have kids.

I'm working half a day, then my wife starts working and I care for the kids until we have dinner. There is not much time for hobbies (that includes coding) nowadays.

Stay healthy everyone 💚

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Barry

I modified a couple of python scripts, merged them, to make an Office 365 relay verification program, because, well, so many are working from home right now, gotta make sure your relay is a valid one! github.com/barrypittman/O365relays

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Brian Rinaldi

Definitely yes. Mostly on the weekends as it provides some needed distraction (and I can't play video games or watch Netflix all day long). It's been kinda nice too as I have made updates to a side project that I'd pushed off for months.

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Carol Skelly

I think a lot of devs are. I've seen a huge uptick in user sessions on Codeply since the middle of March when significant stay-at-home restrictions started around the globe. I also mentor on CodeMentor, and am getting pinged constantly. I've been working for home for more that 8 years, and I think along of #newbies are seeing the benefits of a developer career!

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Jesse M. Holmes

I'm not sure, really. I'm definitely not coding extra, fun things outside of work, and I feel my productivity has gone down a lot now that I am unable to escape the constant context switching with a three-year-old at home and two parents working during the day. We're doing the best we can, of course.

I am still reading and learning as often as I can, so I'm not completely burned out!

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Arthur Vincent Simon

I have the opposite feeling. After rendering my work hours, the last thing that I want to do is to sit down in front of a computer and code. I already have budgeted time for career development pre-COVID but I don't plan on expanding that.

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