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Josefine Schfr
Josefine Schfr

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What's stopping you from coding like this...?

We've all seen the memes, haven't we? A picture of someone with a laptop, working, in all different sorts of settings - under water, on a slope in fresh powdery snow, on a beach, ... all topped with the (ironic) caption "What's stopping you from coding like this?".

In case you missed it, here is an example (more below):

(There's also a variety of these where people are sitting on each others lap while coding - I don't even want to get into those 😅)

But while of course, these are clearly meant to entertain - for me, they do raise an issue that goes a little beyond just programmer humor and memes:

It feels like there is a lot of pressure to always be better. To keep up with the latest technologies, to ship faster, to always take it one step further.

Guy eating pizza in a sort of hammock above his computer, while working

People sharing their GitHub contributions, badges, yearly round ups, talking about consistency and how you can make it as well, if you just stick to xyz (and maybe purchase a course from them ^^).

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with consistency, coding in a hammock, on the beach or in a yoga pose, liking your job so much that you don't want to stop on the weekends. You do you.

But there is also lots of value in prioritising a work-life-balance, having hobbies away from a screen, or seeing coding as "just a job".

Just because it seems like some other people are pushing out new content every hour of the day, contribute to open-source while having a full-time job and a side hustle and apparently need no sleep - you don't have to.

So who ever needs to hear this - here's your friendly reminder, that it is perfectly ok to take things a little slower. That quality usually beats quantity, faster is not always better, and fancy coding locations usually come with a stiff neck and dust on your keyboard 😉

And, of course, there are always people gaming the system and hacking their GitHub contributions (like with this script) to make them look a lot more productive, than they actually are. So don't believe everything you see 🙏

Top comments (10)

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bwca profile image
Volodymyr Yepishev

It is really unwise to judge someone by the GitHub contributions, I saw people using it to record chess game moves, not to mention I wrote a commit polluter myself at one point, I could be having green GitHub from before I was born if I wanted 😄

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josefine profile image
Josefine Schfr

Wooww, that's the ultimate achievement 😅 I feel like I was waaay too naive in the whole GitHub game ^^

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jess profile image
Jess Lee

fancy coding locations usually come with a stiff neck and dust on your keyboard

YUP!!

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Well said on all counts!

While it's def good to have some discipline and consistency, there's a point of diminishing returns. And well... priorities! Don't do coding all your days away unless that's really what ya wanna do.

As for the fancy coding locations/positions, they are fun to look at, but ooof, no thanks, haha! 😅

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josefine profile image
Josefine Schfr

Absolutely @michaeltharrington - I know some of these memes are already quiet old, but it completely cracks me up to read the comments in those threads 😅

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learosema profile image
Lea Rosema (she/her)

I do the Github thing on a regulalr basis, mostly just silly stuff that isn't work-related. But I don't care about green squares. Also (and especially), I don't like commits with a huge amount of changes. They're just impossible to review.

One thing where it's getting unhealthy is when there's contract work/employment involved and you are measured by commits/day, where you can't even afford requesting a day off because that would mean screwing the performance bonus.

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josefine profile image
Josefine Schfr

Wow yeah, that sounds really messed up 😳 Such unnecessary pressure 😕

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cubiclesocial profile image
cubiclesocial

Just because an activity graph on GitHub looks devoid of activity does not mean that there isn't anything going on behind the scenes. Sometimes the developer is busy working on a massive skunkworks project and needs to be left alone in their own thoughts. Turning off GitHub, email, etc. is a good way to get some focus.

I don't ascribe to the "commit often" philosophy. I prefer committing when a stable state has been reached.

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josefine profile image
Josefine Schfr

Absolutely :) Turning of distractions from time to time can be so freeing!

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mandrasch profile image
Matthias Andrasch

👍👍 Great post

I also liked reading articles about "developer burnout prevention" like myhatchpad.com/insight/11-ways-to-...

Guess the fast-paced tech world (especially in frontend) with new trends every week, working in a weekly-sprint setting (where work never seems to end), hearing about lay-offs, etc. can increase the mental health risks as well. But this is true for a lot of current jobs. Guess mindfulness is key.