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The 1 hour challenge, can you survive it?

DeChamp on September 25, 2019

So I'm in the middle of moving, and my new place won't have internet until tomorrow. I was up late working, trying to make up time for work due t...

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Oleksii Filonenko • Sep 26 '19

1 hour challenge
Survived: true
Cheated: false
Cheat method: n/a
Access denied (no net) count: 0
Access Denied List: n/a
Better Dev from experience: true
Reason for being better:
Reminded me how you can prepare for (limited) offline development sessions and have fun with it. Also, I learned to use the tools given to me fuller.
Thoughts/Comments:
Decided to do some Rust web dev with WASM (preparing for async/await).

rustup doc is so, so great. All the core books and reference on Rust, offline.
DevDocs works offline and gives me the web docs I need.
cargo (Rust package manager) caches all installed packages locally, and it ensures no network connections are attempted when run with --frozen - thus allowing for 0 "access denied" hits ;)
tldr pages help me to remember my tar flags :)

Ian Wilson • Sep 27 '19

I did exactly this when I was on a 4hr flight, Rust comes with just about everything you need to be productive offline!

DeChamp • Sep 27 '19

I see that Rust is setup for this apparently, since you're not the only one saying this. I haven't personally used it but maybe I'll take a glance.

Cécile Lebleu • Sep 27 '19 • Edited

Ha ha ha, well...
Where I live, the electricity cuts off for at least a few seconds every day. And internet is sometimes just not there for hours, even days at a time. Water can also be cut off for a day or two out of nowhere, but there’s a huge water tank to make up for that. There is no huge internet tank, though. It is extremely frustrating.
Just why does it happen? Because this a very residential area, bordering rural, so the already relatively mediocre providers just don’t care because “it’s just houses, nobody is actually working there”. There’s a dip every evening, especially on weekends when everyone is sucking on Netflix.

I take that time first to keep going on the same task for as long as I can. Sometimes, if I really really wish for it, the connection will be back in a few minutes. When it doesn’t, I review my local study notes, build something new locally from scratch and beef up my vanilla skills, clean my computer, clean my workspace, read books on kindle, etc. I think it comes to accepting entropy in life and making the most from it. I could say “this is unacceptable!” and call the providers, only to wait for an hour before someone picks up and says “it’s a local error, it will be back in the next 8 hours”)... I’d rather spend that time reading about something interesting. I sometimes even go to sleep in the middle of the day to be able to work in the wee hours of the morning (2–8 am), when the connection is better.

As a full-time freelancer, I make sure I never take on responsibilities that involve being online 24/7, or at a specific time, because things most likely will go wrong. (I do have a coworking space available 30 minutes away in case of disaster). When shit hits the fan, I’m usually prepared for it, and it doesn’t affect me as much as, I think, it would affect someone who relies on their tools to be available at all times without interruption. After a while, you stop resorting to stress and instead you can welcome some zen in your life, it’s nice.

5 hour? 2 day? challenge
Survived: every day
Cheated: impossible
Cheat method: n/a
Access denied (no net) count: every few minutes until it’s back, after a minute or after a day... nobody knows (might as well check the quality of the connection on the shape of the leaves in my tea)
Access Denied List: dev.to (to at least have a doodle)

DeChamp • Sep 27 '19

This fascinated me. I had a realization. I better damn well be grateful for having solid internet, and not having to worry about it.

It's good to get a reminder of how good I have it. I wish I could share in the good internet and power source with you.

I think it's great that you have learned to overcome this and adapted.

In a way, it seems it's almost a gift, because you are able to break away and focus on other parts of life as well. The internet can be so addicting, especially now since tv, movies and music are just a simple part of it.

It brings up another great point, why it's important to build "offline" mode in to your apps.

Thank you so very much for you reply.

Cécile Lebleu • Sep 27 '19

Thanks for the thoughtful response! It definitely is almost a gift, it helps to build up strength in a way, and also helps consider the people who —for any reason— have it harder. Some people have slow computers, slow or non-existent internet connections, etc. I know I have it easy, I'm lucky I can work from home and work freely, but it definitely is a lot harder for others. I remember reading that in a big tech company (can't remember which) all of the developers had to switch down to 2G for one full day each week so that they wouldn't forget the users who don't have blazing-fast developed-city connections or devices.

For me, I think of it as if I was living in the mountains. It's normal, or even to be expected, that you won't have such great services if you're living in a remote area. I am about an hour away from the closest moderately-sized city in a developing country, so... I'm glad I have any internet at all! 😅

DeChamp • Sep 30 '19

wow that sounds like a nice setup then. Remote without a lot of people and being able to work at home. Ya, I totally get being blessed to have your internet at all. I mean i feel blessed having mine for sure. Thanks again for reminding me to be considerate of those without fast internet.

Cosmic Lightning • Sep 26 '19

1 hour challenge
Survived: true 24 hrs without
Cheated: false
Cheat method: n/a
Access denied (no net) count: n/a

Access Denied List: n/a

Better Dev from experience: n/a
Reason for being better: n/a
Thoughts/Comments:
Went a whole day without internet. I do it on purpose so if someone try's to mind control us all I might be immune or lucky because I wasn't using technology of any kind that day.

DeChamp • Sep 27 '19

ha ha well let's hope it lands on the day you're not on. I'm pretty sure they already control our minds with "free" software and ads. I find myself always affected by what I see online.

DeChamp • Sep 25 '19

1 hour challenge
Survived: false
Cheated: true
Cheat method: iPhone hotspot
Access denied (no net) count: 7
Access Denied List:

npm install
google to look up error
slack message reference
email reference
dev.to bookmark
aws connection within code
itunes album

Better Dev from experience: true
Reason for being better:
forced to use man and read local docs. Forced to think and use my memory to dig up answer.
Thoughts/Comments:
I honestly feel like this is a great way to learn to work without leaning heavily on the internet for your answers. Forces you to use your memory and to remember your knowledge, not just reference them. Is it realistic, probably not. Would I do it again, maybe but doubtful.