When to take a break?
When programming how often should I take a break? How long should that break be? What should I do and avoid doing during that time? ...
mental-health
Programmer’s block
Do you suffer from programmer’s block? If so, how do you kick-start your brain again? I’ve been working on a project since I returned from two weeks holiday, it’s a piece of cake to finish, but I’ve done everything except pull my finger out and finish the damn thing. ...
Developer Burnout Stories
In question: "What causes developer burnout?" I told of a co-worker who got burned out and ended up leaving the profession. Have you seen developer burnout? Tell the story here. Whether it is funny or just plain sad and touching I'm sure it will tell us something about our profession. This will give us a sense of how common it is as w...
Work Life Balance
I'm sure we've all been in situations where a key date is approaching (launch, beta, etc.) and we need to put in long hours. However, even day-to-day there is more work to be done than time to do it. I'm curious how people manage their work life balance? When I interned, and I was working towards getting a full time offer, I didn't rea...
How do you maintain your mental health in your programming job?
I burned out a few years back, really bad. Like my nervous system partially shut down for a while because I pushed myself too hard. Thankfully I had good benefits and came back (after I stubbornly took my time and over a year off). Working as a programmer didn't help, it turned out my source of the problem wasn't work, work just exace...
How do you clear your mind after a day of coding?
I'm having a hard time taking my mind off of work projects in my personal time. It's not that I have a stressful job or tight deadlines; I love my job. I find that after spending the whole day (8-10 hours) writing code and trying to solve problems, I have an extremely hard time getting it out of my mind. I'm constantly thinking about ...
How do I tell the difference between a success that is preceded by a momentary failure and failure?
When I'm trying out a new technology, I often fail. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I continue to fail. So, in the first few moments after I try a new technology and experience failure, I cannot tell if I am on the path to success and have just experienced a momentary failure or if I am going to fail. I am wondering if anyone has a way...
How to promote a good work/life balance?
Most companies I have worked at always talk about having a good work/life balance. Saying that it is very important for your success. But yet they seldom allow the time for it. So what are some good ways to actually promote this mindset and not fall into the old situation of always letting project demand dictate this? I realize that th...