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Comment by movedx | Hacker News Reader

> if you're programing for your day job and your side project involves more programming, you will burn out.

Then as stated in the article, only work on the side project for an hour a day over 365 days. Time is on your side and it's OK if it takes a year to get to an MVP. Look at Stardew Valley, for example.

> better yet you will need a very easy day job that doesn't use up the bulk of your daily creativity and problem solving stamina. Yes, it is a finite resource.

This is a fair point. That being said you can always focus on side projects that aren't related to the day job (and in some cases that might have to be the case contractually.) For example I'm a DevOp by day, but my business is moving into VR.

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> Then as stated in the article, only work on the side project for an hour a day over 365 days. Time is on your side and it's OK if it takes a year to get to an MVP. Look at Stardew Valley, for example.

That's actually not true. According to the GQ interview:

"It took him four and a half years to design, program, animate, draw, compose, record, and write everything in the game, working 12-hour days, seven days a week."

Stardew Valley is the antithesis to the article. Eric Barone worked full time on the game while his girlfriend supported him.

https://www.gq.com/story/stardew-valley-eric-barone-profile

imo if you're programming, it'll take a lot longer to finish anything if you're only doing it in 1 hour daily increments vs a few hours in a single day a week. Flow is important. That's not counting the mental stamina that's been drained by the day job.

The other scenario that can happen is that your performance at your day job will suffer, if you continue programming after your typical 10-14 hour programmer work shift.

You misunderstand me.

I never said it took him 12 months to complete the game. I never stated he worked on the game on the side. My point is simply that it's OK for something simple to take a long time; it's OK to work on something over a long period of time, on the side or otherwise.

If you want to make something and it takes five years: OK. If you want to make something and it takes five months: OK. The point is: do it, and do it by managing time better and staying focused.

Stardew Valley is a weird example because the guy spent four and a half years working 12-hour days and did _everything_ themselves.. not sure that's the comparison you want here. (and their family/girlfriend supported them, they did work as a theatre usher occasionally apparently, but their "day job" was largely the game above even normal standards)

> Stardew Valley is a weird example because the guy spent four and a half years working 12-hour days and did _everything_ themselves.. not sure that's the comparison you want here

That's exactly the comparison I want: he took his time and demonstrated that it can be done give the time available to us. If you can only give six hours, then I guess it would take eight years. There's also another lesson to be learnt here: don't do everything form scratch :P

> and their family/girlfriend supported them

I'd replace a girlfriend that doesn't support me; I'd disconnect from a family who doesn't support me.

You were saying "1 hour a day!" and then mentioned a guy who didn't work anything close to full time at a paying job for nearly 5 years to work 12 hours 7 days a week on something that _might_ pay on release..

With the quality of his work and the proven market for his niche (Harvest moon) he was all bug guaranteed a good release.

The unknowns where how much time it would take a single developer to make such an ambitious project and the degree of the payoff.

And you've misunderstood what I said.

He worked on something over a long period of time knowing simply that it's OK for something to take time to complete. He understood the challenges ahead and planned his days accordingly.

The point of the Steph's article isn't to only think inside of eight hours, but to think about time management, patience, focus, and other key aspects as a whole, to get the better picture of the path forward.

It doesn't matter if it takes four months or forty years to make a project: it's making it that counts.

> That's exactly the comparison I want

It actually runs counter to your point and aligns with mine better. His day job as an usher was not mentally draining compared to his work on Stardew Valley

> If you can only give six hours, then I guess it would take eight years.

And with an hour a day it would have taken fifty years...

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