Programmers who only code at work

Your eagerness to work in your free time will slowly fade only if you are not doing the things you are passionate about. That's why many people become entrepreneurs, instead of being enslaved by someone, because then they have much more control over their lives.

It is very easy to get stuck in the stage of constantly solving problems or learning something because during that process our ego rises and it feels enjoyable, that's why some people who are married to their computer do not need much / any social interaction. The question here is what is your life's purpose (hopefully, you have one) and are you actually going after it, clearly seeing it in front of yourself when you meditate and work or coding it just a way of escapism from the real world for you as it is with many developers (which may feel natural, but again, take away the distractions and activities that boosts ego for few months and you will see what you actually as a human being are without them).

Sorry to hear you still have not realized that you are destroying yourself by substituting sleep for anything else. I guess you are still very young and in case you care about your health and life expectancy, I truly hope that you will educate yourself better on how different things that average human beings do have negative impacts on our lives.

TLDR: I have several experiences.

I have a reputation of having a very disrupted work/life balance. One could argue that there is no balance and my live is spent behind a computer, with occasional dancing and partying of course :) But my main focus is writing code or just making stuff that I just can't keep inside. I have pain in my left thumb, from making that SHIFT key go down every minute. My shoulders are tense and my knee sometimes hurts like I am 80 years old. That is retarded, but it is not as bad as I paint it with words. SO I WILL PREVAIL!

To come back to to what you are asking... I have seen them.... on the workfloor.... ... ... ... .. .... ..
..... (heavy breathing)...THEM!! AAAaaaaah the horror.

Only kidding of course :) I had good and bad experiences with 9 to 5 programmers.

The regular: I had colleagues who did frontend stuff. Learned some at school and when applying for the job they knew some Angular 1. The did what was expected and we finished sprints. Their code gradually improved, because that is natural.. I hope. At some point you get organised or lost, so trying to get a little structure is helpful. Kicking some design patterns into view and it looks daunting at first, if the colleagues are human and reasonable, they will form their own opinions and it will improve their code.
They went home at 5 and came back in the morning. No stress. This is how most developers live I think. It is just a job, like being a fireman/woman, toiletcleaner, whatever. And it probably is a very good way to think about your work.

The good: One colleague was really open for whatever. I worked hard and was really good. He did not read or play every evening, but once in a while he needed to pick up something in his free time. But in general, he learned and worked at the job. I liked that. Very straight forward and a good problem solver. He liked structured code and did not drink the Kool Aid. He was een independent thinker and not a cargo-culter. I personally like these kind of colleagues. Pretty balanced.

The sad: Another colleague worked at this office for his entire professional career. He thought himself all knowing. He never picked up new things and everything he wrote was just to fix it quick. Cowboy code. The cowboy kicks in the door of the bar, shoots holes in the ceiling, drinks all the booze and takes all the girls. It was horrible. He was the authority in the company, so he put his VETO on everything he did not know.. and that was a lot. So we could not have nice things. Aaargh what a devil.

We need different types of people, because that makes the world a fun and crazy place to be.
Originators, rebels, stubborn cows, slackers, ploughers, regulars etc. Keep it up folks.

It is all fine, except...

Never become the sad or become the passionate developer who forgot that life happens offline.

Everybody in the technical workforce(doctors, dentists, hackers, deepsea drillers, car mechanics, etc) need to keep their knowledge up to date. Do this how you see fit, but make sure that when you move from job to job, that you are still relevant. Be as relevant and useful for your boss/field-of-work at 20 as well when you are 60 years old. You will need to work until you retire.. or marry a rich woman/man.
Stay relevant.. and if you want to freak out on books and techniques.. well go for it and become the teacher or 10x developer people talk about.

10x means that you can make the people around you 10x better.
Don't write all the code yourself. Hero's are bad for the team. You, the passionate one, writes enough code already. Use the things you learned from your passion and help those who can not spend as much time as you become mofo elite h4x0rs :D

Good question. I find it paradoxical though. I prefer to work with developers who are passionate and do have side projects. I can't stand working with developers who allow their work product to slip because of their personal projects.

It probably comes down to money. The more you make on the side the less you care about your day job.

Also, some people are married and/or have kids, they don't have much free time outside of work.

I guess it depends.

I am a father of 3. The mental energy necessary to write good code is simply unavailable after work. By the time the kids are fed, dishes are washed, laundry is folded, the lawn is mowed, and my wife and I spend quality time together, it's well past 11 p.m.

When should I code? Other than at work, I mean. The weekends? Maybe. If I don't have to fix the car/dryer/relative's laptop, go visit family who lives 2 hours away, AND if is skip Cheer, soccer, dance, and karate.

its mixed
one might compare programmers to other professions like carpernters, but amount of cognitive effort required daily for a programmer is higher, so it somehow becomes our “hobby”
it occupies our mind too much.

Personally speaking, all developers I knew who were not “involved” were weaker that their colleagues with comparable background and involvment. I was myself a weaker developer when I had a non-programming related hobby. On the other hand, I had a hooby back then, now I dont. This feelingg is also mixed, but in the end I like my new level of expertise )

On a final note, its doest have to be coding at home. For me its reading books and blog posts at spare time. Still keeps you pretty focused on work-related topics all the time )

I'm a "non-trad" programmer, as in I was a professional musician/teacher for a decade after I got my Master's degree in Jazz Studies.

TBH, I feel like I need to study/code outside of my job because

1. I am by no means a master of my craft and have a lot to shore up for where I want to be professionally
2. Competition is real

I really like coding, don't get me wrong, but I know there are plenty like me that don't LOOOOVE coding. It's an interesting job that pays a hell of a lot better than any other job I've had. That said, for me it's a job. I'm not trying to do my job 100 hours a week.

But...

Tech moves FAST (from my perspective). Maybe I'm paranoid from my "starvation days", but I'm afraid of getting comfortable in a technology and getting left behind. I'm also curious where tech is going as an industry and want to be a part of that change. I'll tell you, though, learning new things at 38 is a far cry from learning new things at 23. It takes concerted effort and concentration, IME, which does not always happen 9-5.

As to why - might be the case of "Doing what you're good at feels good". That does not necessarily implies desire to learn.

If there is a desire to learn however, as other pointed out, it's a matter of time and energy and the company should help with that.

Fine by me, fine by them.

it's just that people spend their time differently, there are weeks that I don't want to touch code neither work or mine, other times it reversed.

I think maybe just maybe these people find themselves in a great tech position and there's little they have to do to keep up to date.

Think of this, JavaScript Fatigue. If you want to keep up to date with Everything in the js landscape you will get this fatigue, but if you already have centered for example in a job where is guaranteed that you will only touch angular for the next year, why would you should you worry about other stuff? it's going to work for you and your employer, plus you can catch up in the job with the new angular stuff that may come.

In my case works similar, tough my current job is pure angularjs at the moment (not angular 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9...…...n+) I have already settled down on Vue, Aurelia and some backend technologies, yeah when I feel happy I do research other stuff, granted but If I really feel tired of coding, I can spend months without looking at my side projects's code, in the end if they already have some knowledge it won't be hard to catch up if they need to

at last I guess that if they are looking for another opportunity they will research and get out of "stagnation", if they don't feel like doing it, they can keep it as is it shouldn't hurt them at all you are referring to seniors after all they should have already learned how to keep up to date if needed

I have no opinion about them at all, people do jobs mainly to make ends meet (programmers included) and you shouldn't judge anyone who wants to have code-free time outside work.

Not all programmers are passionate programmers, and that is completely fine.

You can love programming without wanting to do it 24/7. Personally I quickly burn myself out if I let myself program in my free time, so I don't (well I do, but rarely). Instead I focus on other interests, like art or writing or reading, though sometimes I write or read about tech topics. It's important to do things other than program, if only so you can apply those skills to programming and give your brain a break from a difficult problem.

I do think there is a certain amount of passion necessary to become a great programmer, but if you're programming 40 hours a week and not seeing improvements in your ability then there's something wrong.

After many many years in this field and working every job from junior programmer to VP of Development to freelancing, I can tell you there is nothing wrong at all with a developer who doesn't write code in their spare time. Also, there is also nothing wrong with having a passion for programming and pursuing it in your off hours. The danger comes when you try and make anything (programming in this case) your entire life.

You need to learn to have a well rounded life that includes normal sleep routines, eating well, and down-time with friends and/or other interests. Spending to much time in front of the computer is not healthy physically nor emotionally.

Allocate specific times to pursue your interest. For example, I try and take some time in the afternoon on Fridays to focus on sharpening my coding tools and explore new technologies.

At this stage in your life it seems like you can go 24/7 coding but you WILL burn out if you keep that up. Those choices you make now in how you manage your career and personal life will affect you for the rest of your life as you are in the stage where you are "molding" your lifestyle. Build a nice balance now and then you won't burn out and will be a much happier person long-term.

There is nothing wrong at all with being passionate about your craft, but just remember it is your craft, not your life. Go live it!

Good luck to you!

I think it depends on the person and their own passion or enjoyment levels with coding. At first, I was constantly trying to do as much as possible on the side to grow and further my skill set. But as time went on, I realized that it was completely not needed and it would just burn me out. I love to code. I love to learn to code better. I love trying out new languages here and there. When work is over, I SHUT IT DOWN. I typically don't do anything coding oriented outside of work anymore (well, not entirely true, I do play with arduino's and stuff).
I code to live, I don't live to code. But I also LOVE to code.

Side projects are time and energy consuming, and they need funding. I mean side projects that are not just toy projects, but actual useful projects used by a lot of people in production, and maintained for a period of at least 3 years.

Most of the people lack the motivation of doing such a prolonged effort, beyond getting the next paycheck. And that's fine!

And yet we use tons of free OSS projects daily. But I'll tell you something - these projects are not free for everyone! Certainly not for the ones who create and maintain them.

But that's not the point either. It's about whether you want to contribute to the broader community in some meaningful way, without expecting anything in return.

The OSS side project rabbit hole is rather deep, you just have to open your eyes to see it.

Doesn't necessarily make you a bad programmer, but it does rule out any chance of becoming the best, which ultimately hinders your chance of working on rewarding, fun, or higher-paid projects