I'm in my early twenties and I work a lot. Is it unhealthy to program this much and often much more? I know this is subjective, but the question has been nagging me a lot lately.
EDIT: To clarify, despite spending a massive amount of time at the keyboard, I have an otherwise relatively healthy lifestyle. Eat (mostly) right, exercise a few times per week, and take 1-2 nights per week to just socialize.
I wouldn't say it's unhealthy, but if you slack off like that how do you expect to get anything done?
I don't think so. Even more interesting, a company from NY has a methodology which involves deep immersion in programming in order to achieve deadlines. THe methodology is called RRapido from Torrenegra Labs.This methodology has proven successfully and many of the developers would do it again.
Note: I found this blogpost regarding such immersions
The biggest danger with working a lot of hours is that your clarity may decrease, causing you to make errors that you wouldn't make if you were more clear-headed.
I've found that spending a couple of extra hours working 10pm to 12am, would often cost me far more than two hours in debugging down the road. Even without those errors, I also found that "mandatory overtime" often led to decreased productivity throughout the day - I just didn't push myself as hard, knowing that no matter what happened, I had a 10-12 hour day in front of me (and sometimes weekends).
Also, in your early twenties, having a social life and building a social network are also important, not only for sanity's sake but for the benefit of building a business network. It may sound crazy, but those types of "soft" skills and benefits can really be important in years to come.
It also depends on how often this is happening. A few weeks a year? Probably okay, and is a fact of life in this industry. Every week for 6 months or a year straight? You should probably think about backing off a bit.
Long hours programming can obviously lead to workplace related problems like RSI (carpal tunnel, back problems, etc.) but as long as you take proper ergonomic precautions and make regular breaks between long stretches of programming it should help mitigate those problems.
I believe it is and is also setting you up for a bad long term habit. Working long hours (over a long period or habitually) in any line of work will tear your body down slowly over time and often we don't notice until it has taken a very good toll on us.
Working long hours is not winning you anything I have found. In fact, you are often rewarded with more work. When you have seen the one performing given less work? Unfortunately, you will create a bad cycle for yourself and your employer often is not going to stop you.
If you look at many of the latest "thoughts" on programming such as Agile they stress working less (get back to 40 hours) and use other techniques to boost performance and throughput.
It's good to hear you are still finding time to take care of yourself which is definitely a plus.
Striking a life balance is what's important and isn't going to be the same for everyone.
I can charge you $100/hr for programming advice, or $400/hr for medical advice.
In this case, you are likely to suffer from eye strain, sleeplessness, stress-induced ulcers, and wrist strain. You should come and see me at doctoroverflow.com, where my charges are reversed and I can recommend some nice programming exercises that will keep you going.
In general it is not unhealthy to work very hard - provided you are balancing this hard work with the right supplement of nutrients for your body needs and peace for your mind/soul.
You need to introspect,the capabilities of your mind and body to take this - and if need be increment the stamina with the help of exercise/meditation.
This is manageable if periodic breaks are given after every few weeks.
If you "think" you are working a lot , then you are working a lot. It doesn't matter how many hours per week. I think in terms of work vs reward. If you are working with a great team and a good boss, then you are socializing + working at the same time. But if you are counting hours and looking at the clock, then it's certainly unhealthy to put in that many hours.
I can tell you my experience.
In my early twenty I got very involved in Linux and programming in general. I spent nights in front of the computer, for many years (and I still do, here is 6:40 in the morning, did an all-nighter, but I can't help it, I'm doing cool stuff).
There are two major issues:
Except from these issues, there's nothing wrong in spending a lot of time in front of a computer. If you like what you do, everything is fine. Remember you live only once, and you have to enjoy it as much as you can.
I do eventually perform more than that, but hopefully quiet diversified things, for example the night, after a normal work day, I'm forced to maintain both my maths master studies and scripting for some old computer servers :)
Anyway, a familly is very important in life you know, having a cute women waiting for you the night is very inspiring!
I used to code for 60 or even 70 hours a week when I was younger with no problems.
The only danger is when you either run out of coffee or you only realise you're hungry when the pizza delivery place has shut for the night.
As for maintaining clarity during long stints, that's completely up to you. If you can maintain it then do it.
Having said that though, your health may degrade over time and I don't mean a lot of time either.
Working like that over even a two week period will take its toll. The danger is that you may have set a precendent with your boss and he may now be expecting you to finish the project like you have every other time.
So, you need to balance long working hours with leisure and down time. Even if by down time you mean going home and studying if that's what floats your boat.
So long as you're young, building your carreer and above all, having fun then go for it.
It's only unhealthy if you're neglecting everything else you should be doing (eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom, etc.) and you feel like you are working too much.
If you're in the zone and feeling a natural flow, and every day whizzes by, then by all means stop reading this post and get back to work, those periods of awesomeness are the best.
Edit: I would suggest trying to take more breaks if you don't.
I spent probably 50+ hours a week programming when I was around 9-14. Spent a good part of my high school years trying to become normal. Didn't have trouble making friends or anything, but never really "fit in" completely.
I'm also 5'2" -- which is pretty small even for a Japanese person, and I can definitely attribute it to my lifestyle choices during my growth spurt.
At 24 now, programming is to me either a chore or an addiction -- I'm not sure which.
I'm sure many if not most of the successful people in any endeavor spend more than 60+ hours on whatever it is that they do. On the other hand, if you're like me and have no prospect or intention of becoming successful, it's probably not a good idea at any age.