An Ode to a Slacker

I need to get around to writing this, and more in general, to finish some of the shit I start.

A week later:
Of course, this entry is a lot more complicated than a simple statement such as "get shit done." The issue is a delicate balance of life and work, and the venn diagram where they cross.

Projects start as fun little side things. You play around with them for a few hours, put some things together, and call it a day. Then, you get an email from the user saying, hey this is pretty cool, but it needs to be a lot more to be useful. Sure, you say, I'll add a few more lines of code. Unfortunately, now its not a small little project but a junior system. And not only that, but its a junior system which is poorly tested. You try to maintain the same schedule, but you realize that you can't add the kind of functionality that's needed, or maintain the level of quality necessary for a production system. You make mistakes, take shortcuts. Before you know it, your users are pretty angry. They are starting to question the whole thing. And frankly, so are you. You want to finish it. You desperately need to finish it. You've came this close, dedicated this much, but you realize that finishing will require even more.

This is an interesting struggle. The few lucky of us actually enjoy building things. So, this side little project may seem like work to some but is actually seen as basically a hobby. Unfortunately, some people are relying on your hobby, and that's when the pressure kicks in, and the problems start. On the other hand, unless you had a user who wanted something, you probably wouldn't have choose to build this particular thing as your hobby.

The other interesting observation is you are starting to see this project as something more. Maybe this project is the way out of the rat race. If it works, it could be your ticket. But its so much work you say.

How do you maintain the delicate balance? Is it even possible to maintain the balance? You're working with fixed items. There is a fixed amount of time. That amount is then reduced by constants such as actual work hours, sleeping, eating, showering, spending time with the family.
A week has 168 hours, 45 hours is spent at work, 49 hours is spent sleeping, 14 hours is spent eating, 4 hours is spent on toiletries. What remains is 54 hours to spend time with the family, work on the side projects, wash the dishes, do laundry, go to the movies, sleep in, watch tv, do the bills, etc... What ends up happening is you can probably take maybe 9 hours for the week - 1 per workday and 2 per weekend. Unfortunately, as everyone knows spending 1 hour programming is like watching ballet dancers do hip hop (it's not right). You can't accomplish anything major in 1 hour or even 2 hours. So you may start, but you tend to aim lower, and make a lot of mistakes in the process.

Wish me luck!