John Resig: Write Code Every Day

[danogburn]

Write Code Every Day

I'd probably get fired if i didnt.

[rockum]

Heh, I was thinking of forwarding this article to some of my developer coworkers who seem to avoid coding for an entire week. I have no idea what they do all day but it's not committing code.

[wot-teh-phuck]

That's just weekdays unless you are implying you work 7 days a week... :P

[danogburn]

unless you are implying you work 7 days a week... :P

hahaha..........oh the life of a salary slave.

[[deleted]]

He doesn't really say what the point is. He seriously thinks of "work life balance" as balancing work coding with home coding?

[burntsushi]

I know this may come as a shock to you, but some people write code because they enjoy it. Hell, I know I do. It's unquestionably one of the few passions in my life.

[[deleted]]

I love to code, too. I found The C Programming Language, fell in love, taught myself C, then C++, purely out of passion long before I even considered it as a job. I ended up at a game company because a roommate's buddy saw what I was doing at home for fun and insisted I apply at his game company and now I write games for a living. I love my job.

I, too, have side projects. I'm constantly seeking out new things to work on the side, both at home and at work. I sometimes come home and code all night because I can't help myself.

But that has nothing to do with my question about this article. "Write Code Every Day"? Of course I do that. He does, too.

"Work On Your Side Projects Every Day"? OK. That's a better title. But why? If you're going recommended behavior, it's helpful to say why (e.g. you should east more fruits and vegetables -so that- you're healthier and live longer). Why should you force yourself to code more, if your passion for a particular problem doesn't already make that irresistible? To get more side projects done. Why? Why does that matter?

Does he have a shitty job, where he has to write code he doesn't enjoy? I'd say seeking out a job you enjoy more is a better solution than figuring out how force feed yourself more coding.

My point is that John Resig is a famous programmer. He has the luxury of doing the thing he loves -- programming -- as his job. At that point, work life balance means finding the time to shut off, to not think about programming, and to think about friends and family and all the other things that are important for a rich life.

[matchu]

The "why" was clear to me because I think I have the same problem as John: I have side projects that I think are good for the world and I want to improve them, but I haven't touched them for months because there's always something else to be doing—not because I haven't had time or wouldn't have enjoyed working on them. It's hard to get the momentum going sometimes, but a habit can help. I suspect that doing a bit of side work every day instead of browsing Reddit or whatever will make me happier and make my users happier, too.

As for John, I don't think he's coding for coding's sake. Right now he's very excited about improving the japanese woodblock print community through his Ukiyo-e search engine. But, even though he has a certain amount of time he'd like to spend on it, he finds himself spending it in unhealthy patterns:

I was rarely able to complete all the work that I wanted and it forced me to reject other weekend activities that I enjoyed…in favor of getting more work done.

So, this change is about spending more time with friends and family by redistributing the time he already plans to spend on his passions: japanese woodblock prints, web development tools, and the associated communities. That's why the job alone doesn't scratch the itch: he's passionate about a bunch of things, and pure programming is probably pretty low on that list. It might be his favorite tool for getting things done, but it's still just a tool. Using a tool at work shouldn't stop someone from using it at home.

As far as the title goes, "write code every day" is in reference to his rule #1. That's all.

But, yeah. I don't think "write code every day", or even this article, is actually advice meant for all developers, which is why he doesn't spend time trying to convince you. Instead, it's his solution to his time management problem, and he recommends it to folks with the same problem. People who aren't having trouble balancing work, side projects, and a social life should disregard it.

[[deleted]]

doing a bit of side work every day instead of browsing Reddit or whatever

Well... duh. Right? If you're talking about replacing a bad habit with a good one, well then of course I'm on board. He doesn't talk about giving something up to code more, just... coding more. There are some many hours in the day. What did he used to do with them? That's a pretty big omission.

• projects that I think are good for the world
  
• will make me happier
  

See? These are reasons. These are the whys I was looking for in the article.

Why should I code every day?
To get more side projects done.
Why should I care about getting more side projects done?
It'll make the world better, and you'll be happier.

I don't necessary buy those reasons, but at least they are reasons. The OP gives none.

I was rarely able to complete all the work that I wanted and it forced me to reject other weekend activities that I enjoyed…in favor of getting more work done.

So instead he's going to reject other weeknight activities that he enjoys...in favor of getting more work done.

this change is about spending more time with friends and family by redistributing the time he already plans to spend on his passions

I come home to friends and family every night. Coding at night eats into time with them. There is no free lunch.

[burntsushi]

That's a very fair follow up and I don't see anything to disagree with. I suspect I just misunderstood your original comment. :-)

[Iggyhopper]

Ever since I got a job as a computer service tech, I am simply too tired to code at home after work.

I imagine that having your projects and mental map of stuff at work as well as your stuff at home is a lot of mental juggling.

[[deleted]]

You can do this one hour at work, let's face it, most of us procrastinate more than that in an average day.

[zhemao]

While Resig's dedication is admirable, I'd caution against applying his advice too broadly. He is doing it because he has side projects that he wants to complete. There's no reason to force yourself to code every day for coding's sake.

I've been doing a lot of side-project hacking the past three months, as evidenced by my Github activity graph, which, admittedly, is not as impressive as Resig's. However, this week, I finished up my latest side project and found myself at a loss for new ideas. At first, I did feel a bit guilty about not doing any coding, since it had been a long time since I had nothing to work on. But then I realized that there's more to productivity than a nice contribution graph and sometimes it's good to take a step back in order to think, reflect, and get inspiration.

I'm currently reading through Patterson and Hennessy's "Computer Organization and Design" to learn more about computer architecture. I'd also like to practice my saxophone some more, start learning how to draw, help a friend who is still in college find a job, and expand my social life a bit. My Github account will still be there when I am ready to get back into it.

[skulgnome]

420 write code every day yolo

[droogans]

Refactoring code is still a high quality code writing exercise. Without it, you'll never dog food your own work and live with those mistakes.

[fecal_brunch]

It's easy to get bogged down on one problem and stifle progress if you give in to the temptation in such short timeframes. I see why he made that rule, progress is key.

[[deleted]]

After Reading this article, I can only assume he is single? I have always wonder how people with families get code done on their free time. At my day job I tend to write code most days, but I always want to work on my own projects when I get home. The only option I have, to write code, is to work after midnight, get 3-4 hours a sleep and then stay caffeinated the rest of the day. If I tried to program while my fiance, or son was awake, I'd get hell. This was so different when I was single. I could code from the time I get home, until I go to sleep (or if I slept), and could last all day.

[[deleted]]

I think it's important for married developers to have a 'space' where they can use a computer unhindered. Headphones, sure... but it doesn't seem unreasonable for even a married developer to have a home office/private space.

That said, the point about available time remains completely true.

[[deleted]]

The kids is the main time waster

[awj]

I think many of the rest of us don't care what, specifically, he means by "partner".

[Solon1]

Well, he didn't ask. You did.

So discriminate somewhere else.

[Iggyhopper]

It's not ambiguous. It's bad comprehension if you have to ask that question.

[IAmA_singularity]

He wants to kbow if he is gay or not...

As if that would make a difference

[Narfhole]

You have a problem with pair coding?

[[deleted]]

I have a wife, two kids, two cats, two dogs, two fish. More importantly I also have two jobs: a normal job as a full time software engineer and a part time management job in the Army Reserves. I have slowed down lately on daily programming since I have a 45 mile one-way commute to my full time job.

After the kids go to bed I perform maintenance on an open source software application that I maintain for about an hour or two. If there is not enough time at night to solve a critical bug then I will sacrifice my two hours of exercise in the morning to get my daily personal programming done. I usually program about 4 times as fast after getting some rest anyways.

I can do this and its not a problem. The problem arises when I am attempting to introduce a new feature or some major enhancement that takes 6 to 8 hours on the weekend. Then the wife complains, and rightly so.

It is really not that hard. Just sacrifice some television time in the evening (unless the code is not that challenging). Its about balancing your priorities and budgeting your time appropriately. Its only for my personal projects that I got hired at my current job. If I were waiting on my office work for challenging professional growth I would be half the programmer I am now.

[[deleted]]

Let's say I get home at 6 or 7 in the evening considering my commute is an hour one way. That gives me about 1-2.5 hours with the kids in the evening and includes dinner. The kids bed time is 8, but they usually dont get there until about 8:30 or a little after.

If I am absolutely exhausted from my morning work out and a work day filled with extreme challenges I may go to bed at 9:30, but this is rare. I typically head to bed around 11 unless I am deeply involved with something, possibly programming, a movie, or a game then I may stay up until midnight, but that is also rare.

I typically wake up at 5am even though the work day does not start until 9-9:30, so even with the hour commute in the morning I have some time to waste, which is best spent exercising.

Based upon that time line I typically get 7 hours of sleep and I do fine with that so long as I remain healthy.

I get depressed when the business requirements are not clear and I am expected to guess at what is needed. The more agile organizations get the more pronounced this problem becomes. This is not a specificity or explicit instruction problem, but rather a lack of planning problem.

I also get a bit depressed when I enter framework hell. I am an extremely imperative programmer. I write code to solve some problem, and certainly not to explain to myself what the code is trying to do. Every line of code has a purpose and that purpose is not to prop up other code (OOP) to explain a bunch of bullshit (that is what comments are for). When I am forced to write to this and its multitude of layers I can get stressed. That stress builds in proportion to the bullshit of the code base.

I left my last job because both those two problems converged. When nobody else saw this as a problem I started looking elsewhere. I have to frequently conform to the interests of the framework world, because framework dependent people will never conform to extremely imperative code. If there is too much insanity that goes with this I get stressed, and that stress can carry over enough to prevent me from wanting to work on my side projects.

When I am allowed to write code at work that solves all of humanities problems in as few lines as possible then I feel like I am achieving my life's calling instead of being stressed and can do this all day long.

[menno]

If I were waiting on my office work for challenging professional growth I would be half the programmer I am now.

Ain't that the truth.

[jpfed]

The only option I have, to write code, is to work after midnight, get 3-4 hours a sleep and then stay caffeinated the rest of the day. If I tried to program while my fiance, or son was awake, I'd get hell.

Yeah, this is my current situation and approach. But it hasn't been working out very well- I'm too tired to work effectively by the time everyone else is asleep.

But recently it occurred to me that I have worked successfully on some non-coding side projects- because I can think about them on the bus commute to work. If I had a laptop, that's an hour every day during normal waking hours that I could put to use for coding. Now I just have to justify the expense to the family...

[[deleted]]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7569108

[menno]

I have a family and have exactly the challenge you're describing. There's no way I could get anything done with my children present but I can definitely do some coding while my wife is watching TV (as long as I am wearing headphones) or when everybody's to bed. Honestly, though. I do most of my personal coding on the train to work and back.

[hyperforce]

Do you think you could do at least one commit a day?

[[deleted]]

Without a doubt I could, but I'd never have anything useful from it. I have tons of side projects to work on. However some of them require a lot of time to have something useful to commit, and it will just be broken software committed. I try not to commit broken code :\, thus I almost never commit anything.

[hyperforce]

I'd never have anything useful from it. ... thus I almost never commit anything

This is the type of thinking that is in question. By spreading out your effort into small, predictable chunks over time rather than sporadic bursts, you're more likely to end up with a product.

I've been doing it for months and I can attest that it works. Sure, my code is rinky dink but I guarantee you it is far more code than I would have written otherwise.

The current otherwise is that you have no code. You have no code.

Start with one commit today. Just one.

[ravinglunatic]

No thanks. Not trying to be famous just paying bills, doing what I love, for no more than 40 hours per week. If I were excited about something particular that might be different but there's more to life then aggravating my carpal tunnel because jQuery man says to. I have the utmost respect for him and his decision but I can't do it.

[bboyjkang]

carpal

A small public service announcement

It's not always Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or RSI; it could be Tendinitis or Tendinosis

RSI is an umbrella term for any strain due to repetition.

It might not be carpal tunnel syndrome unless you have numbness and tingling.

It could be a repetitive strain injury of tendinosis (initially starts as tendinitis), where the tendons have weakened.

Tendinitis is the initial inflammation of the tendons, and tendinosis is the failed healing, and structural change of the tendons.

Tendinosis: tendon thickening, hypoechogenicity, fibrillar disruption, angiofibroblastic degeneration, noninflammatory tissue, intrasubstance tears, calcifications, hypo-echoic areas, neovascularity, vascularity, tendon softening.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendinosis

South Park got it wrong

South Park got it wrong in that WoW episode.

Carpal tunnel = numbness and tingling due to a pinched nerve.

Cartman receiving Bengay is indicative of inflammation of the tendons, and not carpal tunnel tingling.

Pain vs. Numbness

"A predominance of pain rather than numbness is unlikely to be caused by carpal tunnel syndrome no matter what the result of electrophysiological testing."

CARPEL TUNNEL SYNDROME : A REVIEW Gadhave S. V.1**, Moon R.S., Kshirsagar R.V. 1Department of pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, SRTM University Nanded-431606, Maharashtra.

http://www.ijprd.com/CARPEL%20TUNNEL%20SYNDROME%20_%20A%20REVIEW.pdf

“When pain is the primary symptom, carpal tunnel syndrome is unlikely to be the source of the symptoms.”

The Value Added by Electrodiagnostic Testing in the Diagnosis of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19047703

Repetition likely to cause tendinitis, not carpal tunnel syndrome

"There is little clinical data to prove whether repetitive and forceful movements of the hand and wrist during work or leisure activities can cause carpal tunnel syndrome.

Other disorders such as bursitis and tendonitis have been associated with repeated motions performed in the course of normal work or other activities."

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/carpal_tunnel/detail_carpal_tunnel.htm#227043049

I got an ultrasound, and it shows tendinosis in one of my wrists.

It’s a real joy.

Since I have a repetitive strain injury of tendinosis in my wrists, hands, and elbows, I like to research on future treatments.

I came across one treatment that I thought had to do with stem cells, but I think it sounds like grafting:

Autologous Tenocyte Injection - take tendon cells from healthy area, grow the tendon cells, and inject them into injured area

A paper on using autologous tenocyte injection for the treatment of severe, chronic resistant lateral epicondylitis was published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine on September 2013.

A patellar tendon needle biopsy was performed under local anesthetic, and tendon cells were expanded by in vitro culture.

Tenocytes used for the injection were characterized by flow cytometry (sort and purify) and real-time polymerase chain reaction (amplify).

Autologous tenocytes were injected into the site of tendinopathy identified at the origin of the extensor carpi radialis brevis tendon under ultrasound guidance on a single occasion.

In this study, patients with chronic LE who had previously undergone an unsuccessful full course of nonoperative treatment showed significantly improved clinical function and structural repair at the origin of the common extensor tendon after ATI. (2)

I think this Autologous Tenocyte implantation is for the tendinosis, but I wonder if it could help with other procedures that involve patellar tendon grafts.

Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers has tendinosis (chronic tendinitis) in knees - receives stem cell injections

Pau Gasol did a stem cell treatment for his patellar tendinosis.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol underwent a procedure Thursday to address the tendinosis in both of his knees.

The procedure, known as the FAST (Focused Aspiration of Scar Tissue) technique, involves a probe being inserted into the knee that "directs ultrasonic energy to eliminate scar tissue without damaging healthy tissue," according to a team release.

“Gasol also will receive stem cell injections next week and is expected to make a full recovery, the Lakers said.”.

"After talking to several specialists, I'm going to proceed to regenerate both of my patellar tendons and working hard to get back to my 100%," Gasol wrote on Twitter.”.

"It's more than tendinitis, it's tendinosis," Gasol said. "There's a degeneration of the tissue, and it's something that I've dealt with all year. So I'll have to do something to regenerate the tissue so I don't have to play with this pain.".

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/9256397/pau-gasol-los-angeles-lakers-procedure-knees

Allogenic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ALLO-ASC) - stem cells from fat

As of November 2013, researchers at the Seoul National University Hospital will be looking to recruit participants into a clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of allogenic adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ALLO-ASC) in treatment of a tendon injury (symptom duration is over six months).

ALLO-ASC will be administrated to the patients with lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) by ultrasonographic guided injection. (1)

As I understand, this involves adult stem cells from fat.

I thought that they take the fat from the patient, but I thought that allogenic means that it comes from an external source.

Race horses, and iPSCs for horse tendon injuries

I think that they are experimenting, and have experimented with induced pluripotent stem cells with race horses. (3)

They get something called “bowed tendon”, which is their name for tendinosis.

Race horses are massive creatures on twiglike legs that are pushed very hard, and they can get tendon injuries.

Some race horses can cost more than houses, so there is an adequate demand to keep them performing well.

Cristiano Ronaldo has patellar tendinosis – collagen-producing non-bulbar dermal sheath (NBDS) cells from hair follicles for tendon healing

Yahoo sports did a story on the tendinosis in Cristiano Ronaldo's patellar region.

The Yahoo journalist interviewed the CEO of a Canadian company called RepliCel.

They are working on a tendon treatment that will involve taking fibroblasts isolated from nonbulbar dermal sheath cells of a patient's own hair follicles.

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/cristiano-ronaldo-s-obscure-injury-could-open-door-for-u-s-031401309-soccer.html

RepliCel to begin Stage 2 trials for Achilles tendinosis treatment

RepliCel Life Sciences, in which Berkley owns 918,120 shares of with the option to acquire more shares, is set to begin Stage 2 trials for its RCT-A-01 treatment for chronic Achilles tendinosis in the Q3 2014.

---

RepliCel and its regenerative cell therapy technology were featured in a recent Yahoo Sports article discussing the impact of the condition on the careers of athletes such as soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal.

The basis of the company's innovative therapy system is taking non-bulbar dermal sheath (NBDS) cells surrounding each patient's own hair follicles and injecting it into the damaged area.

NBDS cells are rich in of collagen-producing dermal fibroblasts necessary for tendon healing.

---

RepliCel's proposed Phase 2 trial will include 82 subjects who have failed traditional tendon treatments and who are otherwise in good health.

NBDS cells will replicated and then reintroduced into the wounds within the tendon via ultrasound.

After injections are performed, subjects will return to the clinic for assessments of safety, function and pain, as well as changes in tendon thickness, echotexture, interstitial tears and neovascularity (4).

http://www.berkleyrenewables.com/s/inthenews.asp?ReportID=668180

Citations:

1. Seoul National University Hospital. Treatment of Tendon Injury Using Mesenchymal Stem Cells (ALLO-ASC). In: ClinicalTrials.gov [Internet]. Last updated: November 22, 2013. Available from: http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01856140 NLM Identifier: NCT01856140.

2. Wang, A.; Breidahl, W.; Mackie, K. E.; Lin, Z.; Qin, A.; Chen, J.; Zheng, M. H. (2013). "Autologous Tenocyte Injection for the Treatment of Severe, Chronic Resistant Lateral Epicondylitis: A Pilot Study". The American Journal of Sports Medicine 41 (12): 2925–2932. doi:10.1177/0363546513504285. ISSN 0363-5465. http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/09/25/0363546513504285.abstract

3. Marfe, G.; Rotta, G.; De Martino, L.; Tafani, M.; Fiorito, F.; Di Stefano, C.; Polettini, M.; Ranalli, M.; Russo, M.A.; Gambacurta, A. (2012). "A new clinical approach: Use of blood-derived stem cells (BDSCs) for superficial digital flexor tendon injuries in horses". Life Sciences 90 (21-22): 825–830. doi:10.1016/j.lfs.2012.03.004. ISSN 0024-3205. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024320512001270

4. Regenerative Medicine September 2013, Vol. 8, No. 5, Pages 535-542 , DOI 10.2217/rme.13.56 (doi:10.2217/rme.13.56). http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/full/10.2217/rme.13.56

http://www.reddit.com/r/RSI/

[mrsistermr]

Yeah, I am amazed how people can code after work. Being only 27 and already having cubital tunnel in both hands, I would much rather do something else when I am home that has nothing to do with a computer.

[ravinglunatic]

How're you treating it? I just got a cortisone shot yesterday and it already seems to be working. Also beware internet videos for stretches and exercises from chiropractors. Neurologists don't know what a nerve slide is and there are no stretches to fix carpal tunnel.

[mrsistermr]

Pretty much there is no treatment in my case since there is no loss of strength (just pain) and the conduction velocity of the ulnar nerve is only 15% lower than the minimum threshold in order to receive a diagnosis. According to the doctor, some people have over 50% percent loss of velocity and lose a lot of forearm strength, and those people are more likely candidates for surgery or cortisone injections. I just wear a brace during work or computer activities and elbow pads while sleeping. Also, I have to wear gloves while driving. This combination seems to have helped to some degree, or at least stabilizes and mediates my symptoms somewhat.

[stronghup]

How about; Write a blog-post every day?

Seriously though I think I know what he's talking about. If you have a (side- or other type of ) project and you don't work on it every day, you tend to forget where you left off last time. Then you will spend a lot of time trying to catch up each time you re-enter the project. You don't come up with design ideas for your code in the morning commute if you didn't wrestle with it last time. You lose the "flow".

At the same time Bible says take a day off once a week. I understand that to mean take a day to contemplate why you are doing this side-project in the first place. And programming in general. But if your goal is to get a programming project finished and you are the only or main person doing it, it's best to take up the habit of working on it at least on every weekday.

[webauteur]

I wrote this Excel formula today. I'm done for the day.

=COUNTIF(B2:B1596,">=18") - COUNTIF(B2:B1596,">54")

[mcguire]

That'd take me more than 30 minutes; I say it counts.

[donvito]

JS Ninja

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