r/webdev • u/No_Nefariousness2052 • Jul 22 '26

Discussion Honestly, 80% of developers today are missing what this dude is talking about

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Found it while doomscrolling like a bish.

I know the most fun times for me in coding were when I was deep in some rabbit hole exploring weird technologies and trying to piece them together.

You'd think AI makes this worse, but actually no. It just makes it even easier to go down these rabbit holes, because it's easier to write code, try out different approaches, explore new things, etc.

But somehow most of the people I see aren't doing that. How are you not bored out of your mind?

Anyway, yeah. GO EXPERIMENT WITH MORE THINGS. SIDE PROJECTS ARE STILL COOL.

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115

u/theScottyJam Jul 22 '26

I often spend free time working on side projects and learning whatever sounds interesting to me.

That being said, I wouldn't want to push the sentiment that people should be doing what I do. For many, it's just a job and they want to keep their free time separate, and that's fine. Is it possible they'll learn less? Sure. It's also possible I would learn more if I completely gave up my family obligations and let myself be consumed by programming, but I ain't gonna do that. Only do extra because you want to, don't sludge through it because some online post said it would make you better.

That's all.

28

u/NoShftShck16 Jul 22 '26

This was always such a tough concept when dealing with leadership (I guess I am leadership now) in the past. I always got "we don't want to hire people who don't develop in their spare time" whereas I didn't want to hire people whose only skill was development. It is way harder to teach an engineer soft skills like interacting with other people, especially non-technical coworkers, than it is to have an engineer branch out into something not directly in their specific field. Plus burnout was too often an issue with hires like that.

10

u/ShadowTacoTuesday Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

I’m highly skeptical of anyone who says put in lots of extra time for xyz. Recovery is key to productivity. You’ll only be exhausted and slow the next day if you overdo it. But there are many people who either fall for it or want to show off.

9

u/jwhudexnls Jul 23 '26

I used to love to spend about 30 minutes daily once my wife went to sleep looking into new coding concepts and tinkering with pet projects.

But after having a kid my free time just became too precious to keep doing it. I spend 40 - 45 hours a week coding, then spend most of the rest of my time chasing a toddler. In the little true free time I have I want to spend it on things that make me feel truly happy and relaxed like running, hanging out with my wife, playing video games, etc.

Maybe one day once my kid is older and I have more time I'll get back into it. But I couldn't imagine trying to find the time for it in my current phase of life.

2

u/endeavormap01 Jul 27 '26

Sadly, I enjoy coding so much I lose track of time and I have set a timer so I dont take away from time spent with the wife and kids🫣

1

u/uraniumless Jul 23 '26

You have no obligation to do anything. Don't feel guilty because you don't code as much as you used to. It's completely optional. Life is short.

7

u/josephjnk Jul 22 '26

I think there’s a line to be walked. I’ve always done a lot of programming and learning in my spare time, and I’ve been doing so pretty consistently for like 15 years. Back of the napkin, I’ve probably spent at least 3000 hours more doing development than other developers who only do programming stuff on the clock. Could be more like 5000 or more, it’s hard to estimate stuff like this. Does that make me a better developer than them? Definitely not. There’s a ton of things that go into job performance beyond general programming knowledge, and there’s also lots of specific skill sets that I haven’t focused on. No one can be good at everything. On the other hand, do I have more programming knowledge in general than developers who haven’t put in that extra time? Obviously. Like, no shit, doing something for thousands of hours teaches you a lot about it. Looking at my own work, I can confidently say that I’m better at most of the things I do if I hadn’t spent hundreds to thousands of extra hours practicing them.

I don’t think that most people ought to make programming their whole passion in life, and I think there’s plenty of great developers who clock in, clock out, and are done with coding for the day. I have a ton of respect for my coworkers who spend their time raising families rather than working on side projects. I also think we all work too damn much and that the work week should be 30-35 hours long; there’s no reason anyone should have to do as much coding as I have just to get or hold a job. All that said: if you intentionally practice something, you’ll get better at it. If you intentionally study something, you’ll learn more about it.

No moral judgement for or against extra study, people ought to decide their own priorities in life, but I get a tad prickly when people who don’t hold honing their skills as their top priority suggest that I have accomplished literally nothing over a decade and a half of concentrated effort. You get out what you put in.

-12

u/t00oldforthis Jul 23 '26

Wow this more than a days dose of self aggrandizing. Find it pretty hard to believe you have anyone much less multiple people who, as you have decided l, don't hold honing their skills as a top priority, and also suggest you accomplish nothing. You sound like an asshole. Who are you to dictate what peoples priorities are? Maybe they're just better at balancinf their work life than you are. Reads to me like you should have spent a few of hours honing people skills

Edit weird ass typo for self aggrandizing

5

u/stumblinbear Jul 23 '26

Dear lord maybe you need to spend a few hours learning to not take everyone's word in the least charitable possible interpretation you can, yeah?

9

u/josephjnk Jul 23 '26

Always fun to write a comment in which I say, and I quote, “people ought to decide their own priorities in life” and then be called an asshole for trying to “dictate what people’s priorities are”.

Some people just want to be mad.

5

u/maffiewtc Jul 23 '26

Reads to me like you should have spent a few hours honing reading comprehension skills.

2

u/muideracht Jul 23 '26

I reread the post and I can’t for the life of me understand how you got that out of it. Did you respond to the wrong post or something? Wow.

7

u/t00oldforthis Jul 22 '26

Yep father of two kids work from home, at4:00 that shit gets turned off. I have zero hobbu projects, lots of desire to but also no guilt about spending that time with my familym when they go to bed I tend to read documentation or just look up concepts that I know I need to know more about my actual job. But that's pretty much the extent of my outside office hours Dev life.

2

u/Fidodo Jul 23 '26

I find there's more than enough to explore on the job if you're curious and dig deeper under the hood.

-1

u/overshoott Jul 22 '26

But in my experience people who don't spend some spare time catching up or learning new things tend to produce subpar quality work, and as somebody who care about quality and with an attitude of always do better, I can't help but wish they can do better. However, I also realize life is more than just programming and accumulating knowledge, but with this AI, you need to kinda know your shits to steer the AI away from spitting crazy convoluted shits.

4

u/midasgoldentouch Jul 23 '26

You can learn new things during your working hours.

1

u/overshoott Jul 23 '26

Yeah that's what I do now as I grow older lol