I'm definitely a proponent of work/life balance, and I feel that no-one should ever feel pressured to work undue hours, whether on employer time, or one's own.
HOWEVER...
This industry is a bit more unique compared to more traditional engineering/architectural disciplines. For me, the carpenter analogy starts to break down pretty quickly.
Sure, the carpenter isn't building houses in their spare time because of a carpentry blog they read. But at the same time, the carpenter doesn't have to cope with a new kind of wood being invented every 6 months. The framework of what constitutes solid, effective architectural engineering is not likely to change drastically in the next 12-18 months, or even 2, 3, 4 years.
The relatively steady state of architectural engineering and carpentry practices is in direct contrast to that of software engineering. Given an equally passionate developer and carpenter, the developer will have to work a lot harder to just stay up to date on new techniques and advancements, to say nothing of passion projects that simply build on existing technology.
I agree with the premise of the article: it is perfectly acceptable to only code at work. But I think it's important to have realistic expectations about the ceiling of effectiveness for most people, if they put that in to practice.
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I'm definitely a proponent of work/life balance, and I feel that no-one should ever feel pressured to work undue hours, whether on employer time, or one's own.
HOWEVER...
This industry is a bit more unique compared to more traditional engineering/architectural disciplines. For me, the carpenter analogy starts to break down pretty quickly.
Sure, the carpenter isn't building houses in their spare time because of a carpentry blog they read. But at the same time, the carpenter doesn't have to cope with a new kind of wood being invented every 6 months. The framework of what constitutes solid, effective architectural engineering is not likely to change drastically in the next 12-18 months, or even 2, 3, 4 years.
The relatively steady state of architectural engineering and carpentry practices is in direct contrast to that of software engineering. Given an equally passionate developer and carpenter, the developer will have to work a lot harder to just stay up to date on new techniques and advancements, to say nothing of passion projects that simply build on existing technology.
I agree with the premise of the article: it is perfectly acceptable to only code at work. But I think it's important to have realistic expectations about the ceiling of effectiveness for most people, if they put that in to practice.