The software developer's life manual | Hacker News Reader

The software developer's life manual

github.com

23 pointsmichael2ib198915 comments

This list is great if all you care about is being productive for some corporation. I'm sure they will love you.

But sooner or later you ask yourself... Why am I spending my life working hard so someone else gets richer? When you reach that career goal, you will absolutely wonder....is this it? What now?

The good thing about people working a lot is that we dont have time to think about how pointless it is. :)

> Why am I spending my life working hard so someone else gets richer?

Personally, "because it allows me to be rich enough that I don't have to work as hard as I might otherwise have to" is the answer here.

Unfortunately for many, "why do I have to work so hard" is answered by any of a number of worse answers, not the least of which might be "because life handed me a raw deal" or "because I otherwise spent time that could have been spent improving my skills".

What an empty answer. What would you have done if you were born before (or after) money?

The amount of work to be done at any time is pretty constant--money only transfers the responsibility to someone else. With that in mind, you want to make enough money to make other people do all of your work for you? Seems like passing the buck.

I believe you've misinterpreted my meaning. I make enough that I can live with minimal debt, own the things I consider necessary, and provide for my family. It means I don't have to spend time thinking about work beyond 40 hours a week (most weeks). I have no desire to make more in return for "being the boss".

Working effectively is a noble goal by itself, whether you work solo or as a part of a team (corporation may just not be the best form of organization). Being productive can remove the need for “working a lot” if one so desire.

What's the alternative? Entrepreneurship? Last I've heard it's 1% doing what you want, and 99% dealing with incidental nonsense - sales, hiring, managing, paperwork, compliance, marketing, etc.

> make the tough choices that have to be made - often at their own expense - for the purpose of doing what they know is right

Just make sure you're not finishing that statement as "what is right for the company", because that is not often "what is right" in a more holistic sense.

> Pomodoro technique

Works amazing for some people and terribly for others, also depends entirely on what kind of work you do. Not sure why we're writing such a narrow viewpoint into a supposed universal developer's life manual.

> Get away from time wasters: Watching TV, Social media, Unnecessary meetings, Playing videogames(especially online games)

I'm a fan of anything and everything people do to decompress in their free time, and it's very important that they do so. Saying black and white things like "video games are bad" is not just hilariously misguided and outdated (hello, Mom, is that you?), but actively harmful if it discourages someone from enjoying their downtime. As with many things in life, "time wasters" are fine in moderation.

Hmm. Perhaps it has something to do with the nature of distilled publication on GitHub (since it also has little mention of research or reasoning), but I see nothing in your post that engages the point with counterlogic.

Would you mind editing your post to substantiate your mostly anecdotal critique? There is plenty of data available for your opponent's claims--especially in terms of flow research. Unfortunately, I could not find anything to help your side--perhaps you have an ace up your sleeve.

I'm guessing you're objecting to my questioning of the pomodoro technique, based on your mention of flow state.

To me, it's pretty obvious that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity. There's plenty of techniques that are better than the average person's natural approaches, which is where the pomodoro technique excels. What it's not is a way for those who are already high performers to eke out the sixth sigma.

But I'm not defending a thesis here, feel free to believe whatever you want.

It’s great to see other people openly sharing their book notes too. I started organizing my notes for books, articles, conferences, etc in a public repo a few years ago and it’s become my most popular repo on GitHub (https://github.com/tedmiston/notes). I’ll have to add Soft Skills to it as well — from the notes it looks like a good guide for the non-technical side of software development.

The title of the book sounds a little depressing (spending your whole life as a developer for various corporations?), but chapters 11-15 sound good!

> 11. Freedom: How to quit your job

> 12. Freelancing: Going out on your own

> 13. Creating your first product

> 14. Do you want to start a startup?

> 15. Working remotely survival strategies

Where does the title imply working for corporations?

Just the first impression when I read "Software developer's life manual". I've never really liked the idea of pursuing a "career" as a software developer, so I'm glad the book talks about some alternatives.

I like this one: https://www.manning.com/books/soft-skills

It's good in general and gives great life lesson how to navigate your career and the choices you may face.

That is the book that the repo linked in the OP references.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com