Many devs strictly believe that resting and family time is equally important as work, leaving weekends code-free:
Do you code on weekends?
If so, what type of projects are you working on?
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Top comments (79)
Of course. I think coding has transcended from being just a job to being a way of life. It's just far too competitive and there's far too much to learn and know, so you'd be losing your edge in the job market if you don't code in your free time. It's an uncomfortable reality.
If you're writing code because you feel pressured I think that could lead to quite an unhealthy situation mentally. Code for work, code for fun, just don't code without passion...
This is very important, and a great comment.
We shouldn't code outside of work just to stay competitive; that very quickly leads to burnout and extra stress. I only code outside of work when I feel like it, not because I feel like I "have to".
Do you truly believe everyone who codes professionally is passionate about coding? I think that's a spurious claim. And coding outside of work just to stay competitive is how most people prepare for coding interviews.
Im sure they exist but I haven't personally worked with anyone who got into coding because they just needed some sort of job.
Most of us love what we do every day, and we are in a privileged position as I don't think there are many jobs out there where you get to do what you love for good money.
Don't get me wrong, sometimes I have to slog for an upcoming interview or something. But outside of those instances, when I'm writing code in my free time and hating it, I feel like something was wrong and usually means I need to take a break for a bit.
@anujpancholi You are right, I was being idealistic. Not everybody has the luxury to only code outside of work when they choose to.
I would still caution those people to be mindful of their mental health when practicing for interviews and such. If someone doesn't enjoy coding, but still spends a large amount of free time doing it, they are even more prone to excess stress. Spending work hours and free hours on things we don't enjoy will make us miserable in the long run, and my hope for those people is that they're able to find a career where they are not only effective, but also happy.
On reflection of my last comment I may have also have been a bit naive so I apologise. My point was really that we should be conscious of things that affect our mental wellbeing.
We seem to have wildly different experiences. I know maybe 2 people who are truly passionate. It's just about making a half-decent career for everyone else. Anyway, I'm glad you've found a passion in your career as a coder.
Put it so nicely
@cariehl You are so right about developers and their mental health. We should just take menta health as important if not more important than physical health.
I don't agree with this. Our lives revolve around more than just giving instructions to computers, we have family, friends and other things we need to attend to. You should try to pick some time when you rest, without doing anything related to coding.
As much as I (or anyone) would love to believe this, free time for anything unrelated to coding has become a luxury that's becoming harder by the day for professional software engineers to obtain.
True.. But i place a lot of value on free time.. I try as much as possible to squeeze as much free time as possible
One should code every moment
It is not that healthy. Believe me :)
@miftau You need to go out. The sacrifice of your wellbeing is not worth it
It's an uncomfortable reality perhaps; but it's something all developers should be pushing against. I do code outside work to satisfy personal interests. This can be relevant to what I do at work; but when i need to do research specific to a work task I log that as work time.
It's in your employer's interests to support your personal development and they should provide resources to enable this rather than exploiting your passion and enthusiasm. This is standard practice in many industries; so why not web-dev also?
It's about passion, persistence, and how bad do you want it 🎯🚀
I think "coding" is an incorrect way to define a developer. I don't think "coding" is something a seasoned developer would look after for. The correct word is "development". It involves researching the subject and learning about it, and occasionally, translate it into code. I think "learning" is the way of life of a developer which never ceases to stop. We "developers" continue to learn and improve ourselves and it does require effort outside of office hours as well because it is not just what we are paid for but a pursuit of knowledge and improvement.
Edit: rephrased with an appropriate opening statement to clarify the intent.
The terms "coder" and "coding" are a bit anachronistic, I don't think many people have those kinds of roles anymore. When I first entered the field, coders would take pretty detailed psuedo-code and then implement it, often in COBOL or RPG. Today, even junior level people tend to have more freedom of movement, often they start out on fixing bugs.
Personally, I think if "coder" being another word for "developer". 😉
This^
Well now we don’t know what this is pointing to /s
'Developer', or 'Software Engineer' ?
Since the pandemic began, there's no more difference between weekdays and weekends.
Other than my monthly rental car Geocaching trip, the rest is fair game.
This is well put 😉😀😀
I love coding on weekends, or more generally, coding outside of work. I chose programming as a profession because I just love writing code, and having it as a profession hasn't stopped me from enjoying it as a hobby.
I never force myself to work on projects outside of work hours, but when I have the inspiration/motivation to work on my personal projects, I have no problem doing so. It's a great way to learn new skills, and improve my existing ones, so it does pay itself off. But I don't code on weekends to stay competitive, I do it because I genuinely enjoy it!
Yes, I sometimes code on the weekends when I have time. I have a bunch of hobby projects like a little game, a chicken scheme wrapper for Qt, and so on. It also does feel very different to what I do at work; coding in my free time feels more like a puzzle game than actual programming to me.
Absolutely. In weekends I code after kids go to sleep, usually time is split between spending time with my wife, watching something but there's always room for a couple of hours of coding, usually towards some OSS
Coding is work and a hobby so yes I code on weekends.
Yes. I'm coding on weekend. And contribute my favorite open source projects on GitHub or write some code on CoreWars.
I remember doing quite a lot of challenges in CodeWars back in the day, I think I had like 500+ completed... 😀😀
Me too. I write some code on CodeWars and also complete many challenges :)...
hahah, turns out I was 3kyu, too 😀😀 just checked mine 😉
Almost never. Mental health is far more important. If you spend your working life in front of a computer it's so important to get a change of scenery and completely switch off.
Coding is one of my passions and it's not always easy to tell myself to stop but there's more to life than just one passion.
Time to experience the world we all share.
What is a weekend? Geeks have none!
In these unprecedented times, weekends don't feel any different from any other day of the week. You can do coding/development stuff on a weekend, and so can you spend some family time on a regular weekday, especially if you're one of us who are able to work from home anyway.
Development work doesn't have to take over your entire life, I'm just saying that during this pandemic, it doesn't matter much which day of the week you spend time coding.
If I'm not too tired from work, I usually code on the weekends to work on personal projects and to tinker around with new stuff I've learned over the week. But there are times when I just want to curl up in bed and read a book or watch a movie 😅
Rarely. Sometimes I may have a little personal project I'd like to work on but for the most part I'm a firm believer in a work / home life balance. I've got other things, kids, places to go etc. I spend all day in front of a computer, I'm damned if I going to spend my spare time doing exactly the same thing!
For example if you're an Olympic runner and train all the time, when you get a day off you're not going to go running! ;)
That's when I get the most time to code; during the week I have to spend more time taking care of my home and family (my kids are still in virtual learning and I help them most of the day) and then and I'll code in the evening, but I get a little more "me" time on the weekend. Right now I'm building the base code of a suite of cli tools (a utils package) for use with Linux escape sequencing in C++; started as a 16+ mil color rgb tool, but the class system I've built is capable of manipulating any type of sequence so I'm expanding it.
No, no, no…”code-free” isn’t healthier at all. It takes away my paycheck 🤡.
Hahah, yeah lack of a better term 😂😂