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How do I not stop feeling like I am doing nothing outside work? (programming.dev)

submitted 6 months ago by Maddier1993@programming.dev to c/ask_experienced_devs@programming.dev

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I am professionally a software developer for 8 years and I simply don't have ideas for personal projects (Can't find any problem that I can fix with programming). At times I feel like that's natural and I shouldn't worry about it. But on the other hand, I do like to imagine having something personal that I can work on so that even if some days on my main job are not satisfying, I can always work on my hobby project and find that missing satisfaction.

End goal here is obviously to get better sleep as sometimes my mind feels dissatisfied with the day's work.

Funnily, I day-dream about the idea of already having done the boring parts (simply manifesting a project that already exists) of some personal project and only solving exciting problems in relation to adding a new feature or exciting aspects.

This creates a problem as I hate staring at a blank file not knowing what to write.

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[–] sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Whatever you do, don't start down the path of customizing a Linux distro.

Started messing with NixOS in December and it has been the bittersweet curse of a never ending things to do.

More and more of my config now tracks 0 day releases with custom bug fixes.
Started writing my own Gnome Shell.
Started adding support to my favorite TypeScript framework for GJS (Gnome JS) for my shell.
Started writing a a parser combinator to parse GJS stack traces.
Started writing custom source map library for GJS so I know where my errors are.
Started writing a custom test runner because none of the modern ones work on GJS.
Started writing widgets for my new shell.
My veovim config is now its own software suite.
Started writing syntax tree parsers for poorly supported query languages we use at work.
Coding style is enforced with huge linter rule configs and custom plugins.
Sleep is now at 75% of what it was.
My wife is now working double what she did because I'm always busy.
My kids think I'm crazy.
My work has doubled their expectations because they think I'm some inhuman wizard.
The walls of reality are crumbling down.
Brb my morning NixOS update is failing to build (again).

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Brb my morning NixOS update is failing to build (again).

When nixos-rebuild switch suddenly starts compiling GHC, firefox, CEF, or some other large package and you have to find the damn package that caused that rebuild. Always a good time.

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] Maddier1993@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago

The horrors of compiling stuff take me back to my corporate job where I had to compile linux 2.x because a certain hardware vendor only had their driver tested on that.

[–] Kissaki@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Whatever you do, don’t start down the path of […] Started messing with […] in December and it has been the bittersweet curse of a never ending things to do.

Sounds like… any and every project? 😅

[–] Maddier1993@programming.dev 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Whatever you do, don’t start down the path of customizing a Linux distro.

Welp, I am already done with that one in my 20s. I guess I should have specified, I had at one point a running arch install that I used as a daily driver. My main session was xfce and I was tinkering with some openbox stuff. Long story short, an update bricked my arch install. Being a noob and also not having the power of nix back then, I basically lost all my configs and dotfiles.

Thankfully I never tinkered in Gentoo ever. I might try it out this year just as a bucket-list thing.

Nowadays, If I want to run arch I am running Endeavor OS.

(PS: I will try to one up you a more dangerous habit: Mechanical Keyboards. Thankfully my cheapskate-ass won't let me fall into this trap as much as I want to buy one... did I tell you I already have 2 of those in the house?)

[–] sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago

I guess we are in reverse timelines. I've built about 10 keyboards, but its been about 5 years since I built my last one.

The Iris is my favorite.