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What developers do in free time?

Ali Abbas on September 12, 2019

I am very curious to know what developers do in their free time. When I am done with all the projects, I lay down on my bed and open Chrome and st...
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Andreas Jakof

Mostly Netflix and Chill or having a good time with my wife. Nothing too heavy on the brain, just relax.
And since I already have passed the 40, I try to hit the gym twice a week and at the weekend I go for a run, to fight the deterioration of my body.

I also read mostly SF/F and listen to podcasts/audio books.
Currently I am rereading the Dune Cycle by Frank Herbert.

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Ronald Flores Sequeira

This one is a Key in order to really have a Free Time "Nothing too heavy on the brain"

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Andreas Jakof

With a word of Teal'c: "Indeed!"

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jess unrein

Love to see so many fellow readers in the comments on this post <3 <3 <3

I'm a big reader. I read pretty broadly, but the last couple years I've been really into horror and science fiction. I also play video games while listening to audiobooks. It feels almost like relaxation multitasking!

In the last six months I've been playing a lot of Stardew Valley, Darkest Dungeon, Papers Please, Hollow Knight, and Celeste. All great games for getting into the zone with a good audiobook. It also helps if you have some cats to keep you company.

When I was earlier in my career I used to feel a lot of guilt about not doing more programming things in my spare time, but it's really essential for my mental health to have that break from work.

Side note, I've noticed that, often, when I'm working on a lot of side projects outside of work, it's because I'm unhappy at work for some reason, and I'm getting my code fix elsewhere. So when I notice myself spending a lot of time on side projects it's usually a good time to check in with my manager to see how to improve things in the workplace :)

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Debashis Dip • Edited

At this moment of my life, I feel like I am stressing out too much and everything going in the wrong direction. So in my free time, I try to spend as much as time possible with my friends or family.
Watch some Netflix, some youtube. Read posts in dev.to, try to read some tech articles here and there.

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Ali Abbas

Reading a post on Dev.to is worth of time❤

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Alejandro López

I picked up cycling about a year and a half ago. This saturday I'm taking my first jab at Yerba Loca (translates to Crazy Grass) - a hilly route of about 70km and 1500m of climbing. Fun stuff!

In weekdays, mostly watch some Netflix, exercise and chill.

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Saurabh Daware 🌻

I love astronomy so I usually see astronomy related videos and I'm also reading "The grand design" by stephan hawkings & leonard mlodinow.

Also, sometimes I go out to see planets and stars (though very few are visible from mumbai but planets usually shine bright so can see them)

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Fulton Browne

I really enjoy reading a good book.

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Ali Abbas

Genre Startup? Or Development or horror? 🙄

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Fulton Browne

I really enjoy fantasy and sci-fi ,I would recommend the book for 2001 a space odyssey it is much better than the movie (and I love that movie). I also like The Lord of The Rings, 20,000 leagues under the sea, and Treasure Island.

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Andreas Jakof • Edited

Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn
Dan Wells - Mirador
Andy Weir - The Martian and of course
Frank Herbert - Dune

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Fulton Browne

oh yeah I forgot to mention the martian (LOVE that book)

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Miroslav Glamuzina

Practice, practice, practice. Try to find new challenges or projects to do. Doesn't already have to be new, but could be useful like some sort of automation or bots.

Recently I've found that building smart home devices from scratch with Arduinos and RPis is a great way to keep things interesting when you feel you need something new and interesting to do. Connect those to a server, put some hookd in there to connect to those devices to the internet and boom!, You got a house full of smart devices you can control from your phone.

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Kobe Raypole

I used to push myself to learn new technologies every day, but as I started to burn out I realized that I needed to offload my brain from my workday in order to come back with fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

I workout 4-5 times a week with free weights(I'm no powerlifter but I like to look good)

I watch movies and read quite a lot as well.

Make sure you hang out with friends and go out every once in a while to maintain a social life. In our profession, it is really easy to get caught up in learning and not take time for yourself.

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Ronald Flores Sequeira

I'm an anxious person. I'm being a full-time Web Developer for almost 4 years now, mostly all of this time I couldn't get real free time for me, it's until now that all that is costing, both mental and physical health, that I realize how much important is to be disconnected in order to have some real free time. We are full-time developers in our minds, but we don't need that to be a good developer, in this path we just burn our self out.

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Andreas Jakof • Edited

Even though I try to get disconnected and do nothing heavy on the brain. I still think about work from time to time. Mostly it is synectic though.

All over sudden the back of my brain squirts out an idea, how to tackle something. That is the time, I write an email to my work address with some keywords or phrases. Enough to remember the idea the next day. And that already calms it and puts work back out of my head.

Also I am unreachable except for some very specific colleagues, when I am not at work. No phone, no email, tomorrow is early enough, nobody will die, if I am not reachable, we are no ER surgeons.

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Ali Abbas

But I think, you should take some break in between. That wont hurt. It will decrease the anxiety

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Dave

Between family, friends and the office, free time is a myth.

However, I'm currently on vacation - first week was the all-inclusive adrenaline based activities (parasailing, jetboarding etc). This last week, I hired a boat & dive equipment, and spent more time below the waves than above them.

Back in the office next week, I'll start reading emails on Monday morning.

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Adrian Bece

I usually work on my personal coding projects, but I do try to avoid staring at the screen all day.

I love reading Sci-fi novels and Calvin & Hobbes comics. Last year I've read through all 6 Dune novels.

I also play guitar, cook and I want to create stuff from cardboard. On some occasions, I watch plays at the local theatre, go to movies or simply go out with my friends.

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David Pereira

Play games, watch talks and tv shows + anime on netflix👌

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Ali Abbas

Which anime? David

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hcs devs

Well, its already a nice thing you are doing from the comfort of your own interest. If I say so I would always love to have a cup of coffee. Writing my own blog to share the knowledge.

Work is worship for most of the mortals. I always tried to work in office hours and left the work in office when I leave the office in the evening.

Oh! Yes I am freak about watching movies goes to hangouts. And before going to bed I command my mind to walk up early and plan your day to know the things to do.

Health is always first, I always prefer to workout at least 3-4 times or more in a week. To keep myself healthy. I love to cook for myself.

Everything matters but the gaming matters to me the most. Ahh! I am not a gamer, but I always found energetic t play games and know about what is actually trending. And playing the new games at least once gives me a really good satisfaction.

Moreover, everyone loves sleep so I sleep in the weekends.

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Felix Deibert

I'm working on the stack overflow review queues alot in my free time/when im bored :P

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Chris Achard

That's so useful - It's no good when you find exactly the question you want on SO... but there are no answers :/ So thanks for being one of the people who answers them!

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Bo Vandersteene

I try to spend my time to my family and fire fighting.
In the weekends I try to go for a day in the nature.

But it happens a lot that I'm behind my computer tryout some new stuff, just because I like it

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Abdullah Javaid

I do the same as you said detecting the technology through Wappalyzer, check the console. I also sometimes check what requests they are sending to the server, their responses and what they are saving locally 😁.
And more importantly, I just watch a movie 😎.

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Lukas Derksen

I don't really do much of developing outside of work. I've always been an enormous fan of playing musical instruments, and I play guitar and sing in a band, so a lot of my spare time goes into doing that. I've also recently taken on Kung Fu as a new hobby, as I've always wanted to learn a martial art. This takes up a lot of time as well, as we've got three classes a week and you're supposed to be practicing forms and stretches at home in order to improve faster. And I also enjoy watching series and do nothing some of the time, so I just leave the developing for work hours most of the time.

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mememe

I have recently discovered dev.to and it has been eating up my time, time usually spent binge-watching netflix.

Just before commenting, I have been reading code from open source projects on github.

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Ryan Olson

Read fiction (mostly Fantasy and Sci Fi) and enjoy being with my wife and kids. Sometimes I go running or long boarding.

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Eddie

Before kids, I was an amateur boxer so I spent a lot of time at the gym and sparring. I also compose music. After kids, I spend most of my free time with them and their extra curricular activities.

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Nadir

Bouldering <3 !

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JustinKaffenberger

Competitive Table Tennis, Gym, Video Games, Reading, etc. In order to have the best mindset and provide long term value to my company, I take care of myself.

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Orlando Brown

Sleep!!

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Max Ong Zong Bao

Reading books, watching youtube, reading manga

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Marlon Ugocioni Marcello

Workout an read. I just finished the last book on The Witcher series!
Definitely recommend it.

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Kushagra Gour

I:

  • play Piano
  • speed solve rubiks cube
  • draw
  • practice card magic
  • play table tennis
  • watch webseries
  • play video games
  • write blog posts
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Dave Parr

Run meetups, organise conferences and contribute to open source!

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Olisun

Run. Run with my Labrador Retreiver. Play the guitar

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io

Gardening, walking our dogs, reading, hiking, quality time with family.

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WEPUKHULU TIMOTHY

Listening to some code podcasts like syntax.fm

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demetriuschar

Code and browse here for advice

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Patrick Schmitz

Mostly focussing on my main two hobbies: playing on my guitar and keyboard and nature photography. And sometimes a bit of gaming.

 
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David Pereira

Demon slayer (ofc 😄); black clover; fire force. I mean, as soon as season 2 of mob psycho drops I'll watch that too😁

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Ali Abbas

Its the brain that still remains stuck in the developer mode 😂