
The hustle is dumb and killing you - CodeLikeAJedi
https://code.likeagirl.io/the-hustle-is-dumb-and-killing-you-3177cfa2cdc5
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OtterCoder
Yep. Turns out you can write better code faster when you aren't drooling on
your keyboard or buzzed on fifteen espressos.

The problems come when people compare _real_ engineering work with
programming. I studied mechanical engineering. Real engineering is a very,
very old art, and 99% of what you do is plugging numbers and adding margins,
and physical constraints mostly dictate what you can do. Programming is mostly
navigating blind in an infinite sea of possibility, and the only constraints
are time and space. It's much more by-feel than real engineering, and I expect
it to be that way for another half-millennium at least.

All that is to say, you can push a real engineer harder and get ok results
still. A programmer will just die under the whip.

~~~
z_open
Wow I really think this is nonsense. I'm a mechanical design engineer. My job
is most certainly not just calculating shit. There is a substantial amount of
thinking about how to solve problems in a way similar to software engineers.
I'm a hobbyist programmer and programming can sometimes be "plugging in" code
to solve a problem they already know to solve.

Edit: I want to amend this to say it's not just mechanical design engineers
that have to figure stuff out. The electrical, industrial, and all other
engineers I have worked with have to be creative in some form. And that
includes classical mechanical engineers. Calculating the stress on a part may
require you to really think about what sort of assumptions you can make or
bizarre scenarios it may run into before doing anything.

~~~
OtterCoder
I've done both as well, and while engineering does require real and serious
thought, the traditions, literature, and science behind what you're doing is a
trillion miles ahead of where programming is.

To put it in perspective, programming has barely had its Archimedes and its Da
Vinci by this point. Best practices are a joke, and are usually based around
superstition, personality cults, and faith instead of actual empiricism.
Standardization is moving _backwards_ , and computer 'scientists' rarely solve
the problems software 'engineers' actually have.

It's a mess. Engineering can fall back on the basics, but programmers, at the
end of the day, are mostly relying on instinct.

Edit: I'm _not_ saying programmers are smarter or better. The opposite, in
fact. The mistakes and oversights we get away with would likely get a real
engineer arrested.

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carlmr
>To put it in perspective, programming has barely had its Archimedes and its
Da Vinci by this point. Best practices are a joke, and are usually based
around superstition, personality cults, and faith instead of actual
empiricism. Standardization is moving backwards, and computer 'scientists'
rarely solve the problems software 'engineers' actually have.

I think a lot of software engineering is quite hard to measure reliably.
That's why you get all these _cults_. Software engineering to me is kind of
like writing an essay. It's all about having a structure that other people can
understand. But like essays, it's hard to put clarity of thought and
readability into metrics.

Putting your essay into easily digestible paragraphs and chapters is like
splitting up your program into functions and modules. One idea per paragraph
is the same as a function doing what we can express in the function signature
etc.

These are all tried and tested methods which have been working over millenia
of writing and carry over in software as well.

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aje403
Stress (and honestly, a little insanity) from constant 80 hour weeks of coding
lead to me splitting with what felt like the love of my life (at the time) and
also lead to me leaving my first job (lost my cool with execs a few times),
which paid very well and I had a few devs reporting to me, 2 years out of
school.

I really love working 80+ hours, I love hacking shit together as much as the
next person here, and I'd like my own company someday so I will likely be
working those hours again.

However, I am aware of the damage it will cause to any balance existing in my
life and that's a decision I (and anybody else who does so) have (has) to
make.

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hinkley
Do yourself and the rest of us a favor.

The Winter Olympics are starting in a week. Pay attention to the interviews
with the athletes and the behind the scenes footage. These are some of the
best athletes in the world, and they spend a great deal of their time doing
exercises that barely look like the sport they compete in.

If you want to be great at something, you have to work very hard but some of
that work _has to be doing something else_.

Take ten or twenty or thirty of those hours and do something else. Write a
video game, blog, learn linear algebra, maybe again. Get some cardio. Meet new
people and learn how to talk to them. Read some philosophy and ethics.

Any and all of these will further your goal.

~~~
tdfx
+1 from "the rest of the us". The people that wear their long work week on
their sleeve as a badge of honor are, at best, very naive, and at worst, self-
destructive.

In reference to the movie "Election", don't be a Tracy Flick in the workplace.

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hinkley
Some of my most trying encounters have been dealing with prolific people with
bad ideas or sketchy ethics. People who think writing a pile of the wrong code
will make things better.

Running as fast as you can in the wrong direction helps nobody. It’s the
difference between being efficient and being effective. You need to step back
and think about what you’re doing frequently.

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throwaway1748
One thing I realized when doing my own startup is how much of the startup and
business advice you see on Twitter is purely personal marketing

Gary V is a good example. Hustling is his brand. When he tweets inspirational
quotes or instagrams hustle mantras, he's just marketing himself.

A lot of times these "thought leaders" are pushing very unhealthy advice. They
encourage people to set unrealistic goals for themselves and when they aren't
reaching them, encourage pushing even harder.

An 80 hour work week is nothing to be proud about. Take care of yourself.

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joeblow9999
"We need to take a page from Sweden’s book and push for a 6 hour work day.
None of this 14 hour, grind-until-you-die, chase-the-money, bootstrap-your-
life, live-lean-and-stay-hungry crap."

Please. Feel free to spend your day however you like but don't presume to tell
me how to spend my day.

~~~
blackdivine
IMO She's sharing her experience and opinion, I don't think she specifically
pointed out that YOU or ME should do it

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Spivak
I think this article is a victim of a title/content disconnect. Why editors
insist on a 'catchier' title that undermines the content is beyond me. It's
not like CLaG is fighting for ad revenue.

