The Hacker Lifecycle 77
An anonymous reader writes "Hacker Benjamin Smith deconstructs the cycle of education, production, and rest that will be familiar to many software and hardware engineers. He breaks it down into four steps: 1) Focused effort toward a goal, 2) structured self-education, 3) side-projects to sharpen skills, and 4) burnout and rest. He writes, 'As my motivation waxes at the beginning of a cycle, I find myself with a craving to take steps towards that goal. I do so by starting a project which focuses on one thing only: building a new income stream. As a result of this single-mindedness, the content or subject of the project is often less interesting than it otherwise might have been. ... [Later], I almost always decide to teach myself a new technical skill or pick up some new technology. ... This is usually the most satisfying period of my cycle. I am learning a new skill or technology which I know will enhance my employability, allow me to build things I previously could only have daydreamed about, and will ultimately be useful for many years to come. ... [In the burnout phase], I'll spend this period as ferociously devoted to my leisure activities as I was to my productive tasks. But after a few months of this, I start to feel an itch...'"
Not just for software (Score:5, Insightful)
I think this is a reasonable description of 'most everyone's productivity cycles. Granted I'm just another more-or-less Asperger's engineer/physicist with a strong love of music, but take a look at writers, artists, or almost any field of endeavor. You'll find people's output varies significantly over time. Vacations help too. :-) . The ability to take on side-projects without feeling guilty is probably a very handy thing in one's life.
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this is the other side of engineering, i don't how this became a programming only issue. One of the early intel engineers would randomly fly somewhere at the end of the week to relax.
Why couldn't they just go out and get drunk on Friday night like everyone else does to relax?
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Smart ones don't drown themselves in alcohol....
Indeed. We all smoke pot.
Re:Not just for software (Score:4, Insightful)
I think this is a reasonable description of 'most everyone's productivity cycles. Granted I'm just another more-or-less Asperger's engineer/physicist with a strong love of music, but take a look at writers, artists, or almost any field of endeavor. You'll find people's output varies significantly over time. Vacations help too. :-) . The ability to take on side-projects without feeling guilty is probably a very handy thing in one's life.
Paid vacations (or similar) and adequate non-work time are a key in maintaining long-term productivity. The occasional side-project on the job is essential in maintaining your intellectual capital. Alas, if you are unfortunate enough to work for a major corporation in a fungible role (i.e. one where you can be easily replaced), then your long-term productivity and intellectual development are mere costs to be eliminated. This results in significant differences:
1) Focused effort toward a goal, This is good, provided the goal came from Marketing, was approved by numerous committees, and was not one you dreamed up yourself
2) structured self-education, Unnecessary, as you should know everything required for your job already
3) side-projects to sharpen skills, Time-wasting, especially because you should know everything required for your job already
4) burnout and rest. Burnout happens, then you're discarded and can rest without remuneration
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Men of lofty genius are most active when they are doing the least work. - Leonardo da Vinci
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You should watch Stefan Sagmeister's "The Power of Time Off" [ted.com] -- great TED talk on the value of taking a break.
Hacker Specific? (Score:2)
CC.
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From my experience, the cycle more describes a "typical" workaholic.
CC.
A Hacker Specific addition would be a remarkably short number of cycles before age related obsolescence is reached.
Not the way to bliss. (Score:1)
You're focussing on the result, rather than the activity.
A no-no in most spritual guides inspired by Hindu philosophy or Buddhism.
-- hendrik
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Here the intended result, of course, is an "income stream".
New API? (Score:1)
Here the intended result, of course, is an "income stream".
Yeah, WTF! The guy was writing a library to support a new API called IncomeStream - I guess IOStream would be the parent?
1. money = new IncomeStream
2. compile and run
3. Profit?
Need a lot of other classes (Score:2)
Re:Not the way to bliss. (Score:4, Insightful)
You misinterpret.
Hacking is a joy unto itself; the ostensible goal is only an object, something to hack. Hacking isn't random, it's purposeful. But if the enjoyment doesn't come from the hacking, but from the ostensible goal, well, the enjoyment is fleeting.
-- hendrik
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Taking pleasure only in the end results of your work != thought.
Taking pleasure in your work != ignorance.
There is always far more work than there are end results. If you enjoy your work, you will be far happier than you will be if you only enjoy the end results.
Hmm... for me it's a bit different (Score:5, Interesting)
It's more like
1) Yay, a new project!
2) Yay, I learn stuff!
3) Ok, let's start implementing.
4) Bah, it's trivial, it's boring.
It's really hard to motivate me to do something trivial. Sadly, that's also what works is like in most areas. You do stuff you already know quite well. And that is just simply boring.
I guess I suffer more often from bore-out than burnout.
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More AD than HD, but yes.
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Re:Hmm... for me it's a bit different (Score:5, Insightful)
Ditto.
Fucked me in school.
"Write a paper on X". Cool. Read about X, learn about X, sit down to write paper that will be read once and thrown in the trash and that a billion other people have already written... motivation goes out the window. I can already write well (I've written 1,000 of these goddamn things) and I already know the material that's going in the paper. No one truly cares about what I'm about to write—no one needs it, and no one really even wants it. Suddenly a blank wall is more interesting.
Give me a real need to learn something or just let my curiosity take me where it will, and I'm the world's most dangerous carnivore. I'll run a problem down and eat its damn heart, then take out the rest of the herd for funsies. Otherwise? I'm probably boned.
The elimination of the uselessness of the end product that comes with doing actual work rather than "homework" has helped a lot, but it's still something I have to fight, years later. The multi-year process of adjusting my image of the way thought I ought to be to accommodate the fact that I simply was not compatible with a formal educational setting really sucked. Those were some sad years full of serious self-loathing. My self-loathing is far more lighthearted now :-)
I still hate maintaining systems and chasing bugs that don't require much sleuthing. Any time I'm required to make some "quick hacks" to fix something in an ugly way for lack of time is a bad day, and I'll go home in a bad mood and show up the next day in a bad mood. I'm probably the happiest at work either designing systems or fixing things that have broken in strange ways, when I'm fully engaged in a problem for hours on end. Exercising the clever-muscle in my brain is great and makes the hours fly like nothing else, and playing grown-up legos when designing is fun. Practically everything else about being a programmer sucks, but WTF else am I going to do? At least it's fun some of the time, which beats most jobs.
As with any personal trait or behavior I'd guess I'm far from being alone.
Forget the parasites (Score:1)
I am learning a new skill or technology which I know will enhance my employability
After 40 I just don't care what gives Lumberg a stiffy anymore, new skills entertain me. Business's needs change daily and it's always the shiny new skill they gotta have, proficiency is always an afterthought. Like a room full of tweens waiting for Beiber to puke up something new. I hate peppy, gushing with all that enthusiasm (its like a tampon commercial), they'll beat that out of ya after a few years kid.
Rabbit Out of Hat (Score:2)
The trick is; to multitask all the steps at once.
or
Have several focuses juggled at once.
and
Be at different steps in multiple projects.
but
Hurry up and wait.
therefore
You have the node to begin yet another branch, let's try applied recursion in complex systems through archaeological evidence on various timelines, compare, contrast and map the algorithm to natural phenomena. That should hold us til dinner.
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The trick is; to multitask all the steps at once.
But that strengthens the burnout when it hits.
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The deeper you go , the higher you fly
The higher you fly, the deeper you go
so c'mon -"everbody's got something to hide 'cept for me and my monkey " -Lennon/McArtney
Stupid n00b. (Score:1, Insightful)
Those goals still form the focus of my motivation, even 7 years after I first wrote them down.
lol n00b
One of the most important is financial independence – I want my day job to be a lifestyle choice, not a requirement.
Translation: "I can't function in a society, and never will have any joy until I am rich enough to do whatever I want".
Here is the reality: you will never be that rich. No one ever will.
Re:Stupid n00b. (Score:5, Insightful)
You are the noob because you don't know what financial independence means. It isn't about having as much money to do whatever you want, it is about having enough that you will be "secure" regardless of the other circumstances of your life. And if you have a family then security for them as well.
1. First come basic survival needs - shelter, food, clothing
2. Then basic "emotional fulfillment" needs - communication, entertainment (internet, in person socialization, access to common culture).
3. And finally, after the personal needs are met, the opportunity to contribute to a chosen cause or idea that the individual deems as worthwhile. Working so some executive can afford more hookers and blow, or so stockholders get a bigger dividend is not my personal choice for a worthy cause but I understand that others don't feel the same way.
Sadly on this planet only a relatively small percentage of people get past phase 1. In the "developed" world only a handful, mostly who inherit their wealth, make it past stage 2.
"Joy" as you put it is difficult to truly experience when you know you are one accident away from being jobless and then homeless. Doubly so if you are providing for a family.
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This is a very insightful comment.
I did not inherit money but I did receive a good education so I am fortunate in that I have been able to provide level 1 for all of my working life. Level 2 has been easy with friends and family (and not too much focus on work). Of course, you have to get past level 1 to avoid the "nose to the grindstone" but it's also about setting priorities. Having a business in town allowed me to fully participate in raising our children (such as going to all of their soccer gam
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Very interesting comments, both yours and GP.
However, money is not the issue.
To quote Saint Francis: I need little and the little I need, I need little.
As someone else pointed out, I'll never be a rich man, like Gates, Buffet o Slim. However, being poor means not having that which you need, if you need little, then you are rich with little money.
Years ago I used to work 18 hours a day (true), going about with 2-3 hours of sleep per night. I was not happy, was making a lot of money but was NOT happy.
One day,
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"Joy" as you put it is difficult to truly experience when you know you are one accident away from being jobless and then homeless.
But everyone always is. Actually everyone is one accident away from being dead, it just depends on the accident, however all those things are pretty common, people just don't realize that until it happens to them.
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Thanks for the Insightful post. Is there a souce for where this three phase idea comes from?
It's just a simplified version of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs [wikipedia.org]
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I did this for the first decade of my working life and then didn't *need* to work any more.
Minimal food cost for 50 years: at least $400K.
House: $200K-$2M depending on the location.
Alternatively, somewhat modest apartment rent for 50 years: $300K-2M depending on the location.
Utilities for 50 years: $60K-$200K.
Total: $660K-4.6M
Required "savings" per year: $66K.
Hi, Mark [wikipedia.org]!
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>> you will never be that rich. No one ever will.
If you mean that humans are essentially insatiable, I agree. However, it's pretty uncomplicated to become financial independent at a young age. Work hard and save most of your money. I did this for the first decade of my working life and then didn't *need* to work any more. I now only work on projects I am interested in and could go full time retired whenever I chose.
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
You would need to be earning a pretty exceptional salary and have no social or other life to do this. It's not easy, uncomplicated or anything else.
Only a fool would waste their youth working hard chasing the chimera of financial independence.
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The guy feels guilty every time he's not working towards his 'life goals' (which mainly to him seems to be getting rich). Then since he feels guilty he just mopes around.
It may take decades or even full lifetimes before he finally reaches the 'rich enough to not work' goal. In the meantime, he needs to realize that money is only a means to an end, and he should arrange his work so it helps him reach that end. If he wants to invent the f
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n00b. You think, we didn't use the word "n00b" in 1997?
meh... I blame the internet (Score:3)
Sounds to me this cycle he describes is mostly because he's yet another developer who only does web-based stuff to get rich quick and thinks the minimal requirement to run any software includes a browser and a backend server. The internet is a short-term fickle place so isn't going to be a good environment for building something satisfying.
Believe it or not there are still jobs developing software that has nothing to do with the internet. These usually are more intrinsically deep and longer-term tasks so often more deeply satisfying. I mean find a job developing a new way to do a speech recognition engine or an autopilot or something. I find that type of work much more personally meaningful than just continually trying to develop the next faddy website in the naive pursuit of getting rich quick.
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Trust me there's FAR more to it than that. Not only would your solution have passengers throwing up, spilling drinks etc, but it would fly the aircraft into mountains, the ground, other aircraft, and also be clueless about air spaces, air law, weather, speed, flight phases, controlled ascent, descent, merging and spacing, optimal flight paths for fuel saving and many other real-world issues that actual autopilots deal with.
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Sounds to me this cycle he describes is mostly because he's yet another developer who only does web-based stuff to get rich quick and thinks the minimal requirement to run any software includes a browser and a backend server. The internet is a short-term fickle place so isn't going to be a good environment for building something satisfying.
Believe it or not there are still jobs developing software that has nothing to do with the internet. These usually are more intrinsically deep and longer-term tasks so often more deeply satisfying. I mean find a job developing a new way to do a speech recognition engine or an autopilot or something. I find that type of work much more personally meaningful than just continually trying to develop the next faddy website in the naive pursuit of getting rich quick.
Uhm, speach recognition is a solved problem. So is autopilot. You don't see more speech to text stuff because it's either slower / less intuitive than other input methods, or the application is great, but you discover the patent minefield that exists there. I can tell my digital assistant to dim the lights, or have it turn them back on and pause the show automatically when I get up and go get a snack -- That's easy. It's hooked into Linux MCE. However, if I want to sell the AI and whole home AV / autom
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You have to be joking. Speech recognition is FAR from a solved problem. Our current systems suck ass compared to the ability of a human to understand speech. OK you want more of a challenge? try natural language processing or software that can do cognitive language reasoning.
>> When your life is measured in decades, I'm afraid that short term is the only way to go if you want to accomplish anything at all.
Not true at all. There are many individuals who have gone from 0 to changing the world in less th
This would be my very fantastic lifecycle process. (Score:1)
1) hey I could learn that new thing, it could be very useful in a year
2) hey, I should learn that thing, it would be useful in a year
3) hey, that sounds interesting, maybe I should learn it?
4) hey, that sounds interesting.
5) neat.
6) Hey, what is this thing in my To Learn bookmarks? [ Site unavailable or resource moved ] Oh well.
Not to mentioning balancing my no learning with no ability to do much because of my Crohns Disease being very easily activated by medium-ish activity.
Luckily I knew a lot previous
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Yeah.. I've been reviving some old code, too. 1978 old. It was greate while I was busy with it, then I got to a part of the spec I didn't care much about (because I thought the design was wrong) and it became a drag. I also spent some time on an unfinished novel, threw together an absolutely trivial 3D video game, tinkered witl the lumiera documentation. All in spare time, and it's great!
Where's communication? (Score:2)
So, you've built something, or at least you've learned something. Then you need to go to conferences, meetups, bars, whatever floats your social boat and explain what you did. Memorialize it in blog posts, articles, or documentation (please?). Even a failed project will spin off some small piece that stands by itself and fills a need somewhere.
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Insightful beyond all the other insightful posts for this discussion. Communication is so often ignored by engineers and technical creatives. A blog post, article, whatever can be found by potential new employers or clients. This can pay off big, perhaps as income or perhaps as an excellent opportunity beneficial in other ways.
One time, I landed a key position in an exciting project because one decision-maker saw some of my paintings online. Another time, it was my web pages on some personal side proje
for me,that's a good sharing (Score:1)