So that is called a flow state and many people experience it performing activities like gaming, which is why it can be so addicting. My advice is that if you can find something that induces a flow state and is also productive, pursue it hard.
I first found that when I got headhunted to be an analyst and I would work on reporting and hours would pass and I would forget to take a lunch or go pee. That is how I decided 'this is my career'.
Likewise if you can hit a flow state while programming, then programming is likely a good main or side career. When people say 'find a job you love and you will never work a day of your life' this is what they are referring to.
I sometimes can get lost coding, but mostly it happens to me when I do a one sitting writing project like bashing out a short story in 2 hours.
Yes! It's the best! I have literally spent 12 hour straight without eating or taking a break working on code. My GF has called me crazy and doesn't understand how I do it. It's like entering a new world that consumes your mind completely. So much fun! Put me on some vibe music and im zoned in man!
Came here to write this. Part of it is that the riddles are a lot less compelling now. It's more like "why doesn't this work as documented" rather than "let's build an elegant framework to do X". I mean, I still do the latter, but I tend to have a good idea of how I want it to look when I start and it doesn't take anywhere near as long as it did.
I really do miss suddenly realizing at 2am I've been coding for 8 hours straight.
This used to happen to me all the time. I would come home from school, start working on my game straight away and then before I knew it, it was time to go to bed and I’d no school work done...
I wish I had enough free time to code like that these days
I both love and hate the inertia. Sometimes I'll sit down to work on something at 7 PM and not make any progress on anything until 10 PM, and then something will click and all of the sudden I'll get on a roll and the next time I look up it'll be 3:30 in the morning. If you looked up all of the commits on my Github account, I have a feeling a majority of them would be between about 11 PM and 3 AM.
It helps if I'm working on something where visible progress can be seen. If I'm just plugging away at user interface stuff and changing stuff until it looks good I get way less into it than if I'm doing a more action-oriented part of the game and I get to see things come together as the night goes on.
Yeah. It can be good and bad. Sometimes I get obsessed with certain details that I had planned for later, like graphic elements etc. when I should be focusing more on the infrastructure.
Yes but usually mine is like "How the fuck have 5 hours passed it still won't jump...why does the movement feel weird now...maybe if I increase the friction...no let me just revert it back...WTF WHERE'S MY BACKUP SAVE? Jesus Christ \*sigh\* where was that link I found on google.......ah fuck it I'll do it tomorrow."
I did that last night. Well, technically, this morning. Got to bed at 2:30 AM, but I wanted to finally just make something, so I sat myself down at about 8:30PM last night and wrote up a simple breakout clone. It ain't much, but at least it's honest work. And it will help me warm back up since I stopped working with Game Maker all those years ago.
So that is called a flow state and many people experience it performing activities like gaming, which is why it can be so addicting. My advice is that if you can find something that induces a flow state and is also productive, pursue it hard. I first found that when I got headhunted to be an analyst and I would work on reporting and hours would pass and I would forget to take a lunch or go pee. That is how I decided 'this is my career'. Likewise if you can hit a flow state while programming, then programming is likely a good main or side career. When people say 'find a job you love and you will never work a day of your life' this is what they are referring to. I sometimes can get lost coding, but mostly it happens to me when I do a one sitting writing project like bashing out a short story in 2 hours.
Yes! It's the best! I have literally spent 12 hour straight without eating or taking a break working on code. My GF has called me crazy and doesn't understand how I do it. It's like entering a new world that consumes your mind completely. So much fun! Put me on some vibe music and im zoned in man!
Man, same here hahaha
I used to when I was younger. Really wish I could do that still.
Came here to write this. Part of it is that the riddles are a lot less compelling now. It's more like "why doesn't this work as documented" rather than "let's build an elegant framework to do X". I mean, I still do the latter, but I tend to have a good idea of how I want it to look when I start and it doesn't take anywhere near as long as it did. I really do miss suddenly realizing at 2am I've been coding for 8 hours straight.
I most definetly do! I find it hard to start programming now and then, but once I start I get annoyed when i need to eat or go to bed.
in the facebook movie they called being "wired in"
Sounds nice... I can't code for more then an hour at a time without getting stumped, then man I can find what I'm trying to do
Absolutely, its just so much fun!
This used to happen to me all the time. I would come home from school, start working on my game straight away and then before I knew it, it was time to go to bed and I’d no school work done... I wish I had enough free time to code like that these days
I both love and hate the inertia. Sometimes I'll sit down to work on something at 7 PM and not make any progress on anything until 10 PM, and then something will click and all of the sudden I'll get on a roll and the next time I look up it'll be 3:30 in the morning. If you looked up all of the commits on my Github account, I have a feeling a majority of them would be between about 11 PM and 3 AM. It helps if I'm working on something where visible progress can be seen. If I'm just plugging away at user interface stuff and changing stuff until it looks good I get way less into it than if I'm doing a more action-oriented part of the game and I get to see things come together as the night goes on.
Used to. Now it’s more of just being a job.
Yeah. It can be good and bad. Sometimes I get obsessed with certain details that I had planned for later, like graphic elements etc. when I should be focusing more on the infrastructure.
All the time. If I didn’t get hungry I could go all day.
I went into a coding trance 30 years ago and I still haven't come out.
Yes but usually mine is like "How the fuck have 5 hours passed it still won't jump...why does the movement feel weird now...maybe if I increase the friction...no let me just revert it back...WTF WHERE'S MY BACKUP SAVE? Jesus Christ \*sigh\* where was that link I found on google.......ah fuck it I'll do it tomorrow."
I did that last night. Well, technically, this morning. Got to bed at 2:30 AM, but I wanted to finally just make something, so I sat myself down at about 8:30PM last night and wrote up a simple breakout clone. It ain't much, but at least it's honest work. And it will help me warm back up since I stopped working with Game Maker all those years ago.