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petercour
petercour

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Work hours, 9-5?

In offices developers often work a 9-5 schedule. Is this the most efficient?

If you look at what time famous programmers work, that doesn't really overlap.

One does most work between 07:00 and 20:00. Another 10:00 to 17:00. Brad Fitzpatrick has an interesting schedule, he is not working on the projcet between 09:00 to 15:00. Or perhaps he is working 24/7.

Some of these must be automated, which programmers is working 24/7?
Others have a schedule that involves sleep:

00 -   29 ****
01 -    1
02 -    1
03 -    5
04 -    0
05 -    5
06 -   19 **
07 -   62 *********
08 -   80 ***********
09 -  126 ******************
10 -  240 ***********************************
11 -  338 *************************************************
12 -  184 ***************************
13 -  339 **************************************************
14 -  317 **********************************************
15 -  301 ********************************************
16 -  264 **************************************
17 -  224 *********************************
18 -   73 **********
19 -   69 **********
20 -   91 *************
21 -   79 ***********
22 -   64 *********
23 -   51 *******

All of them seem to have a peak time of most commits. It slowly builds up to that peak time. This represents the normal distribution. All seem to follow the normal distribution, only that it is shifted.

That would mean that the optimal time for a programmers most efficient work is not the same. Thus when you have everyone working the same hours, you don't get the optimal result.

My first software manager said that the most you can get out of people is five hours of real work a day. She also said that programmers need to learn to tell when the most productive thing they can do is go look out the window.

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