Ask HN: How do you keep up with tech development and having personal life?

[jediunplugged]

I have 10 yrs of software dev. experience. I am already working with all hot technologies - Hadoop, Hive, AWS etc. Lately, I feel like there is so much stuff created everyday, I just can't keep up. I spent my 20s keeping my head in books and missed out all fun.

Machine learning and AI is becoming another buzz word like big data. Suddenly, there are thousands of people with ML knowledge in last few years. Although, I studied engineering I lost mathematical touch. I used to be best in math, but by the time I graduated I hated it.

I dont know where to start? Following are top things on my list.

1. Learn ML and AI - i don't know underlying math so its a long journey.

2. Earn master's degree- A master's is new bachelor's degree in US. Almost everyone I know has it.

3. Get a life - talk to people and talk to women. Be little fun and smile a bit. Exercise more to avoid low energy.

4. Startup - It looks like despite working for well known companies, I haven't got much wealth. I would like to do startup, earn big and become financially independent.

How do you keep up with so much stuff? If I get married and have kids, I don't know if I will be able to ever do these things as kids take a lot of time.

What's your secret to productivity and becoming secure financially (on US west coast)?

[coralreef]

Don't make the mistake of abstracting your life's meaning from what other people value. You don't live their lives.

If you don't care about ML and AI then don't learn it.

If you don't care about education then don't get a masters.

If you don't care about a social life then don't talk to women.

If you're asking if you should do a startup, the fact that you asked means its no.

You need to figure out what you truly value and want, all the details are just noise.

[michalpt]

I don’t know if this is going to help you, but one of the biggest mistakes I did in the past was that I constantly tried to keep up with "cool" programming kids and technologies and wanted to learn everything. You see, you learn something and then 1 month later a new hyped framework comes, and all hipster startup programmers are switching to it (so do you) and you abandon the previous framework you have learned, then try to learn a new one and so on because you don’t want to be out. It is like a neverending circle :). So when I finally realized this I decided to stop folllowing trends so much and focus on a certain technology/part of programming and get good at it.

The result is that today I have more free personal time and I am still able to create basically anything with PHP and React by today’s standards, even though I realise I probably don’t use the coolest technology on the market.

[wayn3]

Maybe get a therapist and figure out what you actually want out of life first.

How do I keep up with so much stuff? I learn to set boundaries. If my company slack goes off at weird times and I dont want to deal with it, I turn notifications off.

I get up at 5AM to exercise. Then I do all the work that requires a fresh brain. Until 10AM tops. Then I read things I want to read. Then I babysit whoever needs babysitting at work. By 2PM I'm done with work. I could pretend to be busy until 7PM but I won't be productive anyway, so why pretend? If someone calls me out on it I show them the things I've built while they were putting in "longer hours".

The remaining hours, until 11pm can be spent whichever way I want.

Fitting your 1-4 into one schedule isnt difficult at all. You just have to learn to say no first.

Nobody in the world "needs" access to you 24/7. Not really. If you tell people that you are available during X hours, they will learn to communicate efficiently. It'll be painful at first. For both parties. But they will learn to deal with it after the third time they had to wait for a response for 20 hours because they tried to be inefficient again.

They will threaten you. Absolutely. The social norm is that you shit people tell you to do. Just don't do it. You'll be amazed.

The primary reason a startup consumes ALL your time is because the guy at the top, the CEO, is a 22 year old bumbling idiot who hides his inefficiency behind requiring his employees to be available to him at all times. Kick his butt a couple times and he will learn faster how to be a better boss.

[kzisme → wayn3]

How long have you been a morning person and is it easy to get into the habit of waking up early?

[wayn3 → kzisme]

no its not. its painful every day. when my alarm rings, i'd rather not get up and my brain comes up with a million reasons about why I should really not get up. just like everyone else.

the trick is to accept that life is not about comfort. when you get out of your comfort zone and do things that make you feel uneasy, you feel a lot more alive, though. you have to force it hard for 3 weeks. then you're hooked.

[kzisme → wayn3]

Do you still have late evenings at all, or is it easy to get "out of sync"?

[wayn3 → kzisme]

its hard to stay in sync either way.

[matt_s]

Productivity is about producing something. You can read up on "all the latest" all you want but until you actually produce something with it, consider it just entertainment reading.

You may start to notice that technologies don't change all that much. Sure you may hear about some new shiny thing - the question to ask yourself is will it help you produce something faster, with more quality or help in some way? Or is it just new and shiny?

A lot of your questions focus on what other people are doing... what is it that you want to do?

Specific answers: 1. Learn ML and AI for what? what are you going to produce with it? How would that apply to your field? My guess is 95% of software engineers have no use for this since we are doing Information Systems, not science. Where is the line between logic tree and ML/AI?

2. Master's Degree. This is a good way to get into debt. Sure you can tick a box on the resume that states Masters Degree. Try to get your employer to pay. I doubt this will advance your career at all.

3. Get a life - yes - do more of that. There is way more to life than writing software. Find things that interest you outside of tech.

4. Startup: not a way to financial independence. Read stuff on this site - talk to people about what % of companies get to an IPO/buyout stage vs ones that fail (if that is your measure stick)

Keeping up with stuff I answered above - a lot of it is just noise. The way to become financially secure/independent is to reduce your spending and save money. Google Mr. Money Mustache for some good reads on that.

[itamarst]

1. Stop trying to keep up with other people. Coralreef's comment is to the point. I know many successful programmers with no bachelor's degree, for example.

2. Having a broad set of technology tools is a useful job skill. But often it doesn't require you to spend all your free time on it. Often just knowing it exists is good enough and that can be done in very little time (https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/04/15/40-hour-programmer/).

3. Working for a startup is not a good way to become wealthy. It's a gamble. If you want to be secure financially you should live below your means and save money.

In general it's perfectly possible to have a reasonable workweek, do fine as a programmer, and still have a life outside work (more at https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/).

[atsaloli]

I make time for the things important to me. This has meant letting some tech things go. I'm on the US West Coast and am working on my own business as a path to financial security for my family (wife and daughter depend on my technical and business success).

When you have kids, you MAKE time for them. It's my favorite time.

[runT1ME]

Don't have kids so I can't comment on that, but I reserve time for fun. I almost without fail reserve friday night as a night out with either my wife or friends doing something that's not related to work/tech/programming.

I love programming, sometimes I even want to spend friday night doing it, but none the less it's good for my long term mental health to get away and do something else.

I spend a few hours on the weekend learning 'long term' stuff, like math or technology not related to my job. I try to do this in a coffee shop or outdoors so it's a pleasant experience. A little over half the time I eat lunch while wokring but I never work through dinner. That's time for socializing or with friends, even if I have to go back to work.

[alashley]

I actually started asking myself a different question. How do you keep up with tech without having a personal life?

In my case, the answer was, you don't. Unless you want to burn out fast.

[jklein11 → s00000]

care to elaborate?