
Converting 600k lines of code to TypeScript in 72 hours - stringham
https://www.lucidchart.com/techblog/2017/11/16/converting-600k-lines-to-typescript-in-72-hours/
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fny
> The six of us worked around the clock, sleeping only a few hours during the
> two-day hackathon

Do you guys at least get paid extra for this type of insanity? I honestly
can't see myself working for a company that promotes this type of Insanity.

~~~
stringham
It was not feasible to stop the entire organization from writing new code to
do a migration, which is why most migrations like this happen slowly over
time. However, we got a lot of benefits by doing a "big bang translation" like
not having to link two different module systems (Google closure and TS)

The hackathon was an ideal time to attempt something like this and we knew the
scale of the project was huge. Once the project was complete we each got a
couple of extra personal days.

It was really cool tackling a project that many thought was impossible and
succeeding. We all had the vision that we were doing something that had the
potential to significantly improve our satisfaction and productivity on the
daily basis for the long term.

This kind of thing is completely voluntary and everyone who participated
really wanted to do it. I think we have a really good work-life balance at
lucid.

It's awesome having leadership that supports us in moving forward with a
project like this.

~~~
fny
> It's awesome having leadership that supports us in moving forward with a
> project like this.

So I really applaud what you guys pulled off as a technical feat, but you need
to realize that leadership disproportionately benefits from all this. From you
6 alone, they gain something like 48 * 6 = 288 free working hours. _Rounding
down, that 's 6 man-weeks packed into a weekend!_ In cash, that's $15K, which
means you've each forgone something like $2,500 in opportunity cost dollars.

> Once the project was complete we each got a couple of extra personal days.

If you all really worked for 48 hours you should get at least an additional
week off or get paid $2500 especially given the value of what you all built.

