most of my best ideas for the side projects and perfect tech stack combos come late at night, when i am procrastinating to even sleep.
in chinese it's called 報復性熬夜, which translates to something like "retaliatory staying up late", it's a phenomena happening more in china where people just get stuck scrolling on social media because of the feeling that they want to use or own all of the free time they have left, and then it gets squandered and you hate yourself in the morning.
bill gates used to say that he valued engineers who turn procrastination into an art.
This is me right now. Work starts in 4.7 hours. Retaliatory is an interesting word to apply to this behaviour, I hadn't thought of it like that but it's kind of true: I am struggling with the bounds of my weekend (or spare time in general) and trying to make the most of it while the clock ticks down. I'm not scrolling a feed exactly, but I logically know that I should be sleeping so it's also not good use of my time. Thanks for sharing this.
Idleness is important. You get your best thinking done in the shower because there is little else to do there. We got really good at filling that time with music, podcasts and feeds, but we should leave some of it to process our thoughts and let new ideas in.
I miss walking to work for those 20 minutes of reflection before and after my shift.
Now I ride motorcycles. That gives me hours to think.
Here's my take on it (and why I don't do side projects anymore).
Roughly:
As musician you grab your instrument and play.
As a writer you pick pen and paper and write.
As a chef you slice your stuff and cook.
Me, starting with an idea:
- Turn on computer. Oh no, updates galore. Ok fine.
- Those updates broke my IDE/dependencies/network driver etc. Let's fix that as well.
- Let's research a gazillion libs to see which one can help with my idea. Ah, none of them. So let's first implement this (for the actual problem) irrelevant, but elaborate base module.
- Meanwhile: more updates.
- Grrr. I should have picked another language. Or no, let's start again with new shiny, because it's better suited (also not BLUB programmer).
- My wife got the updates too. Guess what I have to fix now because I'm into computers.
- Damn, hours passed and I achieved nothing valuable so far. Back to work. Wait what? Work?.
- Screw that, I'm spending the time with my son playing electric guitar.
I wish it was that easy. Idea generation; research; plot outlines; character sketches; continuity; deliberate discontinuity; word choice; dialogue flow; action scene planning ...
Editing the first draft is so much easier than writing it.
This should be at the top. This is why at home I read about tech and at work I execute tech. There's reading and then there's doing. Reading should be considered a side project when you work full time executing.
I've felt this way before. The only thing that's worked is to either take a bunch of time off, or change jobs.
I don't really try to do "productive side projects" on weekends; mostly I read books, go outside, play music, spend time with friends and family, etc. But if my 9-5 job doesn't scratch the itch of "using my hard-earned talents for a constructive purpose", then the inexorable approach of Sunday night brings with it a deep feeling of dread: freedom to pursue things I enjoy is coming to an end, mandatory drudgery is fast approaching.
The author of the page we're discussing recommends unproductive side projects and presents us with one. This is worth emulating. Productive side projects are just more work, and sometimes you're tired of work. A good unproductive side project gives you something fun to think about all the time. If your mind wanders at work, this gives it a good place to go. It only works if you're having fun though.
Reading all of the opinions on side projects is interesting. Particularly those of you who think rather negatively of it (or the expectation of it). And probably rightfully so. When I was picking my major/profession, I liked coding as a hobby and thought hard about going the CS route. Even just taking a few 100 level courses turned me off because it wasn’t fun. I even took on a small consulting gig and didn’t enjoy building things to someone else’s spec. Or working on things that I subjectively found boring. I realized coding was my hobby and making it my profession would take away the joy. Some 20 years later, I work in finance. I don’t love it. It pays the bills. I don’t keep up with finance, markets, etc. in my off time but I still code as a hobby and enjoy my side projects. No chance I’d be happy as a software engineer. It’s dizzying seeing how much has changed in past 20 years and how much you have to keep up with. I have the flexibility to ignore things that don’t interest me (eg. I have no interest in the cloud or learning 500 products offering of AWS). I don’t know if that helps you feel better or worse, but it’s at least one alternative reality to the one some of you are living.
I was just thinking about this yesterday. During the week I do my 9-5 and my mind is mostly numb after that. Enough for some exploratory stuff, but hard to get a lot of 'real' grind work done.
Then it's Friday night and you think how great it is that the weekend is here to get stuff done. Saturday arrives and if you're a home owner like me it's full of house and yard work (which in itself is fine, just time consuming).
So what you have left is Sunday. Relax in the morning with a cup of coffee and watch a relaxing show with the wife. The rest of the day is ahead, and based on how relatable this article is you know where that goes. Welcome to Sunday night and the cycle continues.
I spent today walking around a gorgeous park I didn't know existed in a city I've lived in for almost thirty years total, then hung out in a cafe discussing the interpretation of a favorite piece of fiction online, and drawing a goofy Halloween image.
Sunday is what you make of it. Get the hell out of the house and you're less likely to sit on your ass scrolling all the endless scrolls. It helps if you forgot to charge your phone last night so you have barely enough battery for stuff you actually need, too.
I was just speaking to a friend about this a few hours ago -- there's always some feeling of guilt that creeps up on me on Sunday evening, like I'm questioning if I spent the weekend well. But honestly, I don't think I would avoid that feeling if the weekend went completely unproductive, productive, or a combination of that. I've come to accept this, and I know I only need to stave off this feeling for a few hours per week.
I've been sitting on a nice domain name (no specifics...) and it's been a "someday, I'm going to build this simple idea" application.
A few days ago, someone offered to buy the domain. Not for much money, but still, it's a kick in the pants.
I'm going to build that thing. Probably take me a few weeks, it'll scratch the itch, and it might even be useful. I've spent a couple hours fleshing out some user interaction and it looks like it'll be fun.
- Really? I... I did forty hours of my actual job this week. I, also...
Well, okay. Forty is the minimum, okay?
- Okay.
Now, you know it's up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum. Or... well, like Brian, for example, has three side projects, okay. And a terrific smile.
- Okay. So you... you want me to work more?
Look. Joanna.
- Yeah.
Companies can get software engineers anywhere, okay? They look to side projects for the atmosphere and the attitude. Okay? That's what side projects are about. It's about fun.
- Yeah. Okay. So more then, yeah?
Look, we want you to express yourself, okay? Now if you feel that the bare minimum is enough, then okay. But some people choose to work on side projects and we encourage that, okay? You do want to express yourself, don't you?
That’s why I’m such a huge proponent of company sponsored open source.
You wrap your infra/core functionality into an os project, and keep the businessy things in the private repo.
You get to work on it during your work hours. It inevitably ends up much better documented and tested code than the usual company developed tooling. And you get to keep it when you leave.
No need to spend time on it at home if you don’t want to.
And the company benefits as well as it now has much better internal codebase, people might consider maintaining it even after they’ve left the company, and it acts like a pr/recruitment hook.
Daddy's little tax deduction... er... side project.
Also, doing a view source it's funny that "minimal CSS" is sort of like my "minimal python", which includes at least 10 lines of magic preamble devoted to import and argparse that I sprinkle in every script I write.
I’m taking a month off work and it is amazing. I was sitting quietly thinking about how not doing anything important frees you up to just be a good person. Listen to a friends story? sacrifice sleep or a workout to do someone a favor? It’s easy once you remove that constant feeling of needing to be somewhere or be doing something. It sucks that work forces us to not only make the most of our working hours, but also our free ones.
I can relate to the feeling of anxiety when the all-too-short weekend is drawing to a close. Glad you put this up! Hope it helps you feel a little more in control and able to do something creative. It makes sense that you chose to just get something out there without worrying about the details or polishing up the rough edges.
Love it - this is so relatable. Having so much time to myself recently has really made me reflect on my job and its impact on my personal life.
I have managed to keep up some of my hobbies and relationships during isolation, but it is certainly much more difficult when I don't feel engaged or valued at work.
I'm seriously worried about this generation's inability to stop scrolling their social feeds nonstop. You don't have to start a company in your free time. You don't have to create things or contribute to the world. But please enjoy your lives. Read a book. Do some gardening. Learn to bake. Watch junk TV. Do anything other than constantly comparing yourself to what acquaintances are doing this second.
It’s also the need to monetize everything in your life. The “hustle” life, glorifying entrepreneurship, and the need to “advance your personal brand” were big statements made when I was in college. This was right when LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter were hitting exponential growth (Facebook already had many years earlier).
Either it’s because I personally experienced the Great Recession, the launch of social media and the iPhone, and my worldview expanded greatly as one does in undergrad all at once, or it really is a new phenomenon that your employer has no loyalty to you, so one must rely on their own. With social media, these themes are just further perpetuated and there’s a pressure to start companies.
I’ve already worked my ass off at my day job, and just want my hobbies to not turn into side projects or “side hustles”. I don’t intend on starting companies based on them.
Agreed with you until this point. At least the junk TV I know also involves (be it consciously or not) comparing yourself, this time with celebrities instead of acquaintances.
I’m seriously worried about my own ability to do those things. I’d throw my smartphone away, but there’s so many things that currently expect you to have one that it’s frankly impossible.
In fact, it's useful to consider that many, if not most people do the job that they do not because they enjoy it or find it fulfilling, but because if they don't, they and/or their family will starve in the street.
If you have a job/career that's intellectually stimulating and personally satisfying, you already have it much better than a whole lot of other people.
And if that's the case for you, celebrate that!
While it may seem like if you aren't spending every waking moment focused on being able to write the most beautiful or performant code, or trying to found the next unicorn, that you're wasting your life.
And depending on who you are, that may be enough.
But I guarantee you, that when you're lying on your deathbed, you won't be thinking about how many patches you submitted to open source projects, how optimized your code is, or how numerous and helpful your StackExchange posts were.
It might surprise you to know that a very large number of people's primary interests/focus have absolutely nothing to do with how they support themselves.
In fact, there's a whole big world out there that has absolutely nothing to do with technology.
I'm not trying to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do, but as someone whose identity was strongly tied to my career for decades, while it was certainly worth it in many respects, my world could have been much richer and fuller if I'd taken the time to metaphorically stop and smell the roses.
So if you feel like you need to be "always on" and permanently focused on the next professional challenge/opportunity, maybe you could step back once in a while and consider not just what's good for you professionally, or will make you more competitive in the marketplace, but what gives you joy as a person.
For a lot of us, that's building technology. And that's a good thing.
But technology isn't the entire universe, and if you limit your focus and interests really narrowly, you're going to miss out on the beauty and the worthy challenges in the wider world.
Even more, having those non-work related interests/experiences can, give one a broader perspective on your professional life that makes you better and more useful/productive/engaged in your professional life.
I suggest taking Bill Shatner's advice[0] as a metaphor. Or don't. It's your life and that's (as it's always been) up to you.
I have been fortunate enough to be able to focus on nothing but AI for the past year or so. I don't talk about it as much as I'd like, because it feels like talking about the mansion you got to live in for a year, among people who don't have mansions.
I just try to work as hard as possible every day and hope it benefits others in the end, somehow.
There are some lessons that might be worth sharing, though, so maybe I should talk about it anyway. When I was much younger, a sharp programmer in #gamedev on Afternet – a sort of guru figure named Washu – was talking with me, which is to say I was rambling to him in the way teenagers do about hopes, dreams, life, all the ways you want to change the world, etc. I was saying things like, "If only I didn't have to work. I would do so much. It feels like my potential is being drained."
He replied, "If you're not productive at work, you won't be productive outside of work."
That always stayed with me, partly because it made me mad. Who does he think he is? He doesn't know me or my situation at all. And yet, over the last decade-and-change, it's been an inescapable truth. I left that job a couple years later with $15k in the bank, exhausted, and thoroughly not looking forward to the next one. So I sat down, finally free of job, and started to change the world...
... by playing dota. All day, every day.
Now, I wouldn't trade those days for anything. It was necessary soul-searching, and it prepared me for this last year, where I was able to be productive. But you must understand: unless you're disciplined, you need to focus on simply being happy at work, before you can be happy outside of work.
There's a very good chance that you're making yourself unhappier than you need to be, because instead of simply choosing to be happy (which is often, but not always, a choice), you are choosing to be unhappy (by dreading that alarm).
The flipside is, once you're ready, you really can do so much more, when you get to focus for multiple days on problems of your choosing. Or multiple weeks.
I don't know if anyone needed to hear that, but... just remember, you can choose your mindset, even though you can't choose your emotions. Mindset != emotion, and emotions tend to follow mindset in the long run.
I think you're talking about something slightly different to what I felt reading the article.
I think there are two reasons to say fuck Sunday, one is dreading the work day that's coming up because it stresses you out and you hate it. Which I think is what you're talking about.
And the other, which I feel the website is talking about, is dreading the fact that the weekend is over and you haven't done any of the things you wanted to use the weekend for, such as working on your personal projects, hitting the gym, getting that cabinet in order, finally putting a budget together, etc. Which comes to you with a feeling of guilt and having wasted the weekend and your time.
You can obviously have both feelings at ounce, but I think you can also only suffer from one of these. I for example enjoy my work, but I have that latter feeling which is that none of my other goals are being worked on and met.
I don't necessarily agree with that axiom. I'm far more productive in my hobbies (art) than my actual IT job. Theres no correlation between my performance or enthusiasm for my real work and other stuff, unless my work is just making me extremely miserable. In that case it's closer to suffering from depression than a lack of 'productivity'
That axiom is not necessarily true. You could be unproductive at work due to crappy managers and crazy productive outside of work. Maybe that's a sign you should be starting a company? Or at least I hope it is.
OMG, so I actually pushed to gh my latest sunnday project with that repo name.
It's yet another ( unfinished ) template using my TypeScript fav stack.
I managed to make AcccountsJS work in nextjs API which was an awesome feeling after weeks of struggling with it lol. at the end I managed to provide my TypeORM connection in a differeent way using conneecctionManager instead of createConnection, which didn't work nicely with Next's HMR
I think creating a side project just because all the cool kids are making money doing it can make you exasperated.
It looks like when the reason for doing it is not to solve your own or anybody else's problem, your focus becomes more and more about technology, competition, process, etc.
Otoh when you're alleviating the pain, your focus is always to get it done as quickly as possible no matter how many corners you need to cut.
So yes it's time to take a step back and figure out what your goals are and if they align with whatever it is you're doing with your time.
I work on side projects as an escape of competence because all the cool kids complain about how hard life is and cry about unnecessary framework bullshit.
[+] [-] dluan|5 years ago|reply
in chinese it's called 報復性熬夜, which translates to something like "retaliatory staying up late", it's a phenomena happening more in china where people just get stuck scrolling on social media because of the feeling that they want to use or own all of the free time they have left, and then it gets squandered and you hate yourself in the morning.
bill gates used to say that he valued engineers who turn procrastination into an art.
[+] [-] lucb1e|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicbou|5 years ago|reply
I miss walking to work for those 20 minutes of reflection before and after my shift.
Now I ride motorcycles. That gives me hours to think.
[+] [-] taxcoder|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thelazydogsback|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] angled|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sai_c|5 years ago|reply
Roughly:
As musician you grab your instrument and play. As a writer you pick pen and paper and write. As a chef you slice your stuff and cook.
Me, starting with an idea:
- Turn on computer. Oh no, updates galore. Ok fine.
- Those updates broke my IDE/dependencies/network driver etc. Let's fix that as well.
- Let's research a gazillion libs to see which one can help with my idea. Ah, none of them. So let's first implement this (for the actual problem) irrelevant, but elaborate base module.
- Meanwhile: more updates.
- Grrr. I should have picked another language. Or no, let's start again with new shiny, because it's better suited (also not BLUB programmer).
- My wife got the updates too. Guess what I have to fix now because I'm into computers.
- Damn, hours passed and I achieved nothing valuable so far. Back to work. Wait what? Work?.
- Screw that, I'm spending the time with my son playing electric guitar.
So, there you have it.
Edit: Corrected typos.
[+] [-] rikroots|5 years ago|reply
I wish it was that easy. Idea generation; research; plot outlines; character sketches; continuity; deliberate discontinuity; word choice; dialogue flow; action scene planning ...
Editing the first draft is so much easier than writing it.
[+] [-] codersteve|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] titanomachy|5 years ago|reply
I don't really try to do "productive side projects" on weekends; mostly I read books, go outside, play music, spend time with friends and family, etc. But if my 9-5 job doesn't scratch the itch of "using my hard-earned talents for a constructive purpose", then the inexorable approach of Sunday night brings with it a deep feeling of dread: freedom to pursue things I enjoy is coming to an end, mandatory drudgery is fast approaching.
[+] [-] sevensor|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicbou|5 years ago|reply
If I could spend the rest of my life having similar days, then it was a good day. That metric allows for more than just productive work.
[+] [-] dang|5 years ago|reply
(I've taken "Show HN" out of the title now.)
[+] [-] conductr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] quaffapint|5 years ago|reply
Then it's Friday night and you think how great it is that the weekend is here to get stuff done. Saturday arrives and if you're a home owner like me it's full of house and yard work (which in itself is fine, just time consuming).
So what you have left is Sunday. Relax in the morning with a cup of coffee and watch a relaxing show with the wife. The rest of the day is ahead, and based on how relatable this article is you know where that goes. Welcome to Sunday night and the cycle continues.
[+] [-] egypturnash|5 years ago|reply
Sunday is what you make of it. Get the hell out of the house and you're less likely to sit on your ass scrolling all the endless scrolls. It helps if you forgot to charge your phone last night so you have barely enough battery for stuff you actually need, too.
[+] [-] malwarebytess|5 years ago|reply
Call me a Hedonist but the point of life is to enjoy it. If you spend your time with people who make you happy your weekend is a success at minimum.
[+] [-] CameronNemo|5 years ago|reply
I wish I had friends.
[+] [-] chiefofgxbxl|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kabdib|5 years ago|reply
A few days ago, someone offered to buy the domain. Not for much money, but still, it's a kick in the pants.
I'm going to build that thing. Probably take me a few weeks, it'll scratch the itch, and it might even be useful. I've spent a couple hours fleshing out some user interaction and it looks like it'll be fun.
What else are rainy days for?
[+] [-] interestica|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zinckiwi|5 years ago|reply
- Really? I... I did forty hours of my actual job this week. I, also...
Well, okay. Forty is the minimum, okay?
- Okay.
Now, you know it's up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum. Or... well, like Brian, for example, has three side projects, okay. And a terrific smile.
- Okay. So you... you want me to work more?
Look. Joanna.
- Yeah.
Companies can get software engineers anywhere, okay? They look to side projects for the atmosphere and the attitude. Okay? That's what side projects are about. It's about fun.
- Yeah. Okay. So more then, yeah?
Look, we want you to express yourself, okay? Now if you feel that the bare minimum is enough, then okay. But some people choose to work on side projects and we encourage that, okay? You do want to express yourself, don't you?
- Yeah, yeah.
Okay. Great. Great. That's all I ask.
[+] [-] mjevans|5 years ago|reply
Office Space https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/
[+] [-] seer|5 years ago|reply
You wrap your infra/core functionality into an os project, and keep the businessy things in the private repo.
You get to work on it during your work hours. It inevitably ends up much better documented and tested code than the usual company developed tooling. And you get to keep it when you leave.
No need to spend time on it at home if you don’t want to.
And the company benefits as well as it now has much better internal codebase, people might consider maintaining it even after they’ve left the company, and it acts like a pr/recruitment hook.
[+] [-] xivzgrev|5 years ago|reply
Btw did anyone ever say a side project had to be coding? Maybe you like to paint, or do dances on Tiktok, or read mystery thrillers.
[+] [-] m463|5 years ago|reply
Also, doing a view source it's funny that "minimal CSS" is sort of like my "minimal python", which includes at least 10 lines of magic preamble devoted to import and argparse that I sprinkle in every script I write.
[+] [-] KingFelix|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ericmcer|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gitgud|5 years ago|reply
- Build what you're interested in, not what other people on the social feeds are doing.
- Things that were built for fun can end up making money. So why not aim to build for fun first!
- Build pointless things! (like this). They're great to express yourself and they're much easier to finish and release (less pressure).
- You don't need to finish anything!! But if you really want to finish that side-project, try a pointless project to boost your morale.
- Divide and conquer - Large side-projects can be overwhelming. Divide that MMO game into smaller projects which are easier to finish.
Maybe this is all pretty evident to most people... but it doesn't hurt to see it written explicitly.
[+] [-] murftown|5 years ago|reply
Happy Sunday! :)
[+] [-] greatNespresso|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] om12|5 years ago|reply
I have managed to keep up some of my hobbies and relationships during isolation, but it is certainly much more difficult when I don't feel engaged or valued at work.
[+] [-] Touche|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] acwan93|5 years ago|reply
Either it’s because I personally experienced the Great Recession, the launch of social media and the iPhone, and my worldview expanded greatly as one does in undergrad all at once, or it really is a new phenomenon that your employer has no loyalty to you, so one must rely on their own. With social media, these themes are just further perpetuated and there’s a pressure to start companies.
I’ve already worked my ass off at my day job, and just want my hobbies to not turn into side projects or “side hustles”. I don’t intend on starting companies based on them.
[+] [-] xavierlint|5 years ago|reply
Agreed with you until this point. At least the junk TV I know also involves (be it consciously or not) comparing yourself, this time with celebrities instead of acquaintances.
[+] [-] Aeolun|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] nobody9999|5 years ago|reply
In fact, it's useful to consider that many, if not most people do the job that they do not because they enjoy it or find it fulfilling, but because if they don't, they and/or their family will starve in the street.
If you have a job/career that's intellectually stimulating and personally satisfying, you already have it much better than a whole lot of other people.
And if that's the case for you, celebrate that!
While it may seem like if you aren't spending every waking moment focused on being able to write the most beautiful or performant code, or trying to found the next unicorn, that you're wasting your life.
And depending on who you are, that may be enough.
But I guarantee you, that when you're lying on your deathbed, you won't be thinking about how many patches you submitted to open source projects, how optimized your code is, or how numerous and helpful your StackExchange posts were.
It might surprise you to know that a very large number of people's primary interests/focus have absolutely nothing to do with how they support themselves.
In fact, there's a whole big world out there that has absolutely nothing to do with technology.
I'm not trying to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do, but as someone whose identity was strongly tied to my career for decades, while it was certainly worth it in many respects, my world could have been much richer and fuller if I'd taken the time to metaphorically stop and smell the roses.
So if you feel like you need to be "always on" and permanently focused on the next professional challenge/opportunity, maybe you could step back once in a while and consider not just what's good for you professionally, or will make you more competitive in the marketplace, but what gives you joy as a person.
For a lot of us, that's building technology. And that's a good thing.
But technology isn't the entire universe, and if you limit your focus and interests really narrowly, you're going to miss out on the beauty and the worthy challenges in the wider world.
Even more, having those non-work related interests/experiences can, give one a broader perspective on your professional life that makes you better and more useful/productive/engaged in your professional life.
I suggest taking Bill Shatner's advice[0] as a metaphor. Or don't. It's your life and that's (as it's always been) up to you.
[0] https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmagzq
[+] [-] sillysaurusx|5 years ago|reply
I just try to work as hard as possible every day and hope it benefits others in the end, somehow.
There are some lessons that might be worth sharing, though, so maybe I should talk about it anyway. When I was much younger, a sharp programmer in #gamedev on Afternet – a sort of guru figure named Washu – was talking with me, which is to say I was rambling to him in the way teenagers do about hopes, dreams, life, all the ways you want to change the world, etc. I was saying things like, "If only I didn't have to work. I would do so much. It feels like my potential is being drained."
He replied, "If you're not productive at work, you won't be productive outside of work."
That always stayed with me, partly because it made me mad. Who does he think he is? He doesn't know me or my situation at all. And yet, over the last decade-and-change, it's been an inescapable truth. I left that job a couple years later with $15k in the bank, exhausted, and thoroughly not looking forward to the next one. So I sat down, finally free of job, and started to change the world...
... by playing dota. All day, every day.
Now, I wouldn't trade those days for anything. It was necessary soul-searching, and it prepared me for this last year, where I was able to be productive. But you must understand: unless you're disciplined, you need to focus on simply being happy at work, before you can be happy outside of work.
There's a very good chance that you're making yourself unhappier than you need to be, because instead of simply choosing to be happy (which is often, but not always, a choice), you are choosing to be unhappy (by dreading that alarm).
The flipside is, once you're ready, you really can do so much more, when you get to focus for multiple days on problems of your choosing. Or multiple weeks.
I don't know if anyone needed to hear that, but... just remember, you can choose your mindset, even though you can't choose your emotions. Mindset != emotion, and emotions tend to follow mindset in the long run.
[+] [-] didibus|5 years ago|reply
I think there are two reasons to say fuck Sunday, one is dreading the work day that's coming up because it stresses you out and you hate it. Which I think is what you're talking about.
And the other, which I feel the website is talking about, is dreading the fact that the weekend is over and you haven't done any of the things you wanted to use the weekend for, such as working on your personal projects, hitting the gym, getting that cabinet in order, finally putting a budget together, etc. Which comes to you with a feeling of guilt and having wasted the weekend and your time.
You can obviously have both feelings at ounce, but I think you can also only suffer from one of these. I for example enjoy my work, but I have that latter feeling which is that none of my other goals are being worked on and met.
[+] [-] pram|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dnautics|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] agustif|5 years ago|reply
It's yet another ( unfinished ) template using my TypeScript fav stack.
I managed to make AcccountsJS work in nextjs API which was an awesome feeling after weeks of struggling with it lol. at the end I managed to provide my TypeORM connection in a differeent way using conneecctionManager instead of createConnection, which didn't work nicely with Next's HMR
Now I need to get the fontend apollo parts...
Anyway just in case someeone is interested: https://github.com/agustif/sunday/
AccountsJS Boilerplate template with TypeScript, NextJS, Apollo and GraphQL.
Also under the hood TypeORM and Postgres for the ORM and DB.
Working on the frontend now, gonna use bumbag.style for UI frontend.
[+] [-] maerF0x0|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] greatNespresso|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] superasn|5 years ago|reply
It looks like when the reason for doing it is not to solve your own or anybody else's problem, your focus becomes more and more about technology, competition, process, etc.
Otoh when you're alleviating the pain, your focus is always to get it done as quickly as possible no matter how many corners you need to cut.
So yes it's time to take a step back and figure out what your goals are and if they align with whatever it is you're doing with your time.
[+] [-] austincheney|5 years ago|reply