<story><title>Is There Any Room for the Not-Passionate Developer?</title><url>http://philippe.bourgau.net/is-there-any-room-for-the-not-passionate-developer/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>daviross</author><text>This is always worrying to see when set as an expectation. I mean, I enjoy coding. My employer gets my 40-ish hours of attention. But I just can&amp;#x27;t seem to get into after-hours or weekend coding side projects.&lt;p&gt;I have ideas to explore (Nothing I&amp;#x27;d ever want to turn into a business, perish the thought), but I just... can&amp;#x27;t  find the motivation to spend more hours doing what I already spend about a third of my life doing. I enjoy reading articles and the like, sure, but if I wanted to work on side projects, I&amp;#x27;d need to take extended time away from work to &amp;quot;reset&amp;quot; and get into something.&lt;p&gt;Does this make me destined to fall behind? I&amp;#x27;m hoping not, but given how many people talk about needing one&amp;#x27;s job to be their all-consuming passion, to be something they spend spare time and weekends on... I&amp;#x27;m not always hopeful.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>greyskull</author><text>I was the same way. I spent my college years poring over HN, &amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;programming, various blogs and articles. An older software engineer I knew was always surprised at how many &lt;i&gt;things&lt;/i&gt; I knew and had opinions about, even though I was inexperienced. But I never actually wrote up a &amp;quot;complete&amp;quot; project in my own time, not a single one, I couldn&amp;#x27;t stick to anything. And I kept worrying that it would make me less employable. Yet I got my offer at [large, popular software company] before I graduated, only on my merits.&lt;p&gt;I think the best that can be expected is that you do your work, do it well, and never stop growing. You don&amp;#x27;t have to dump time into coding outside of work, just don&amp;#x27;t get complacent. That&amp;#x27;s assuming you don&amp;#x27;t have crappy leadership, in which case you may want to consider a different team or company.&lt;p&gt;As an example: I know a guy who&amp;#x27;s about to become a 3rd level developer at [large, popular software company] at the age of 28, which is a pretty big deal from a career development perspective. I don&amp;#x27;t think he&amp;#x27;s touched a line of code, or a single technical article, outside of work in the 5 years he&amp;#x27;s been here. He regularly works 25-30 hour weeks. He&amp;#x27;s just smart, puts out good projects, and is productive when he needs to be.</text></comment>
<story><title>Is There Any Room for the Not-Passionate Developer?</title><url>http://philippe.bourgau.net/is-there-any-room-for-the-not-passionate-developer/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>daviross</author><text>This is always worrying to see when set as an expectation. I mean, I enjoy coding. My employer gets my 40-ish hours of attention. But I just can&amp;#x27;t seem to get into after-hours or weekend coding side projects.&lt;p&gt;I have ideas to explore (Nothing I&amp;#x27;d ever want to turn into a business, perish the thought), but I just... can&amp;#x27;t  find the motivation to spend more hours doing what I already spend about a third of my life doing. I enjoy reading articles and the like, sure, but if I wanted to work on side projects, I&amp;#x27;d need to take extended time away from work to &amp;quot;reset&amp;quot; and get into something.&lt;p&gt;Does this make me destined to fall behind? I&amp;#x27;m hoping not, but given how many people talk about needing one&amp;#x27;s job to be their all-consuming passion, to be something they spend spare time and weekends on... I&amp;#x27;m not always hopeful.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>keymon-o</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think coding side projects should be anything more than a hobby. Difference between coding for work and coding as a hobby is that with hobby you don&amp;#x27;t stress out yourself, but it relaxes you and makes you feel good.&lt;p&gt;If you take coding at home serious as you (presumably) do at work, like following deadlines, doing stuff you don&amp;#x27;t enjoy, stress yourself out, then it is a very unhealthy expectation.</text></comment>