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16 hours ago, Awoken said:Once [in a] while though I feel inspired to program and 'want' to program, usually on those days I do my best work and those days can be 16 hours long or more.
I'm not a programmer. I get that way about design work. It's important to stop yourself when it's time to stop (~8 hours), so that the next time you still have that inspiration to continue. It also makes it easier to iterate or edit, if you haven't already burned your candle from both ends.
I do programming for a living and also as a hobby. I started out in it because I wanted to create my own video games and see program as a way to bring a world to life and to control everything in it. It's kind of like playing God in cyberspace. I like learning about how things get done and why they are done that way - like taking apart a car and just seeing how it works. For me programming as a hobby is very fulfilling but by itself it can suck unless it is tied to a project - like Math it must have a purpose for me otherwise I just think it's a bunch of bologna and BBQ sauce. As for a living I just wing it because I can program and it pays my bills. My true passion is to create the game Bluejay's Quest in 2D and then 3D and then to play the game by myself. I essentially like to program so I can create me own games and play them - if I see a title that doesn't exist I try to create it so I can have something new to play.
Programming can take my time so I do program whenever I get a chance but it doesn't not keep me indoors when the weather is nice - I take a break to ride my bike. Sometimes I take a laptop on my bike and stop at a park and program right there. So you could say I am passionate about programming, cycling, and video games. My life rules!
I program rarely in my daily job and my work is not so demanding (though in the last few weeks I've been designing a fully automated machine), yet when I arrive home (I hardly work more than 8 hours a day) mostly I'm only capable to read news portals. My Lego hobby suffered from this (I'm quitting that), though I found that much more demanding than hobby programming.
Since the last few months, we are looking for a house (however it's expressed in English...) with my wife, but we don't have kids yet. I can only imagine that I have to quit pretty much all hobbies for a while if we'll have kids.
Nowadays only I do some javascript and webdesign things as hobby. That's brainfuck, much more random and backstabbing than any other programming I did, so much for a relaxing hobby... Still more manageable than designing Lego models.
I have an idea for a long term but slow pace hobby programming: simple rookie javascript games and to make a website with a bunch of those. I'd port some of the games I already have (like the Kraken game, a tank wars clone), and maybe can invent some new ones. I'll try to do my best to produce self commenting code. Or whatever.
1 hour ago, szecs said:we are looking for a house (however it's expressed in English...)
In America we call it "house hunting."
3 hours ago, TheComet said:In contrast, I think most people's approach to hobby projects is a "do whatever tf you want" approach where you have little concerns about the scope, you have a very vague idea of what you actually want, you have no idea how long it will take, and you don't care whether what you're working on is a waste of time or not in respect to the rest of the project. In fact, you might not even know if what you're doing works or not. You do whatever is fun to you in that moment in time.
This is actually the exact opposite of how I tackle my project. I have a very clear idea of what I'm going for and it is usually gruelling work. About the only part of the programming I enjoy is when I get to make the world look better. Otherwise it's just crunch.
16 hours ago, Awoken said:This is actually the exact opposite of how I tackle my project. I have a very clear idea of what I'm going for and it is usually gruelling work. About the only part of the programming I enjoy is when I get to make the world look better. Otherwise it's just crunch.
Interesting!
I suppose it depends on what you're developing. My projects are always based on something I don't understand yet and wish to learn more about, so running into brick walls and having to rethink and redesign is a common occurance.
