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Comment by jondubois | Hacker News Reader

Today I just wasted the second half of the day doing nothing at all; just watching mind-numbing videos on Youtube.

I had been working on a side project most weekends for the last 10 years and been particularly busy in the last year so I forgot what it felt like to just waste time. Wasting time feels great.

In this cut-throat competitive industry, it does feel like a luxury through.

As a software engineer, I can't afford to not be on the cutting edge. I have the feeling that if I stopped working for just 6 months, my career would be over.

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Just as a counter-point: I took off 3 years to stay home with kids.

I recently started a new position after very little time looking with a >80k raise.

I've felt the same pressure to stay current. But, turns out it's all about how you can frame what you bring to the table vs what you can't.

More and more I think this is true. But with a huge caveat that you actually have to be able to bring something to the table and know well what it is.

> I have the feeling that if I stopped working for just 6 months, my career would be over.

That's not true. There are many companies who are still writing and maintaining new code in Java 1.6 for example.

> Today I just wasted the second half of the day doing nothing at all; just watching mind-numbing videos on Youtube.

I try to do this and just can't. I get antsy. When I 'binge' Netflix is max 2 episodes and I have to go do something. Usually, I just go workout. If I've already worked out twice, then I'll read a book. Or, I'll work on the long list of home projects I have going on, etc...

Maybe that's fine if you want to be writing Java 1.6, but you've basically given up at that point if that doesn't bother you slightly. I've seen Java 1.4 in production as late as 2017 but I didn't have to work on it, nor would I be happy doing so. Some people are though I guess. And I'd say that's exactly right as we need those people to maintain that system. Or we just need clients who aren't such hellish tire kickers about upgrading.

The OP said their career would be over if they jumped off the cutting edge. My point was that many people have fine careers in software without staying out on the edge. In fact, that is how the very large majority of software engineers function.

Do these people work at FAANG? Probably not, but if you want to work there you are accepting the stress that comes along the position.

Wasting, or more generally, not paying attention to time is my favorite state of being. Us Mediterrans are known for being "lazy" and wishy-washy with our time. That's why I keep Saturdays open on my calendar, no appointments with friends, nothing. Even if I get myself into something I usually don't commit to a specific time, I might say around "6 pm" which in Med timing is really 8pm.

Since I moved to the US I've been working 60 hour weeks, which I don't mind since I'm doing what I love and largely on my own terms. However, the act of keeping time is the thing that stresses me out the most.

When I started transitioning from a programmer to a CEO I have weeks where my calendar has 20 events and meetings on it and the thought of it in itself is stressful. Since then I've learned what my limits are and keep large blocks of time on my calendar to myself which I use to code or to just squander it on something semi productive like brainstorming future product ideas with one of our engineers.

As Kanye says "time is extremely valuable and I prefer to waste it."

> As a software engineer, I can't afford to not be on the cutting edge. I have the feeling that if I stopped working for just 6 months, my career would be over.

Stop following hype and focus on practical business solutions. You'll have no problem finding work after doing so.

You need to remember that things like Wordpress solve the majority of business needs and skills related to it are in demand next time you feel like you need to keep a constant pulse on what's popular to the HN crowd.

Isn't that just something WordPress developers say?

I work on enterprise "Line of Business" applications and WordPress has no place in that world.

I'd agree it solves most of the "we need a website" needs. And some of the "we need to be able to sell shit through our website" needs. But not "the majority of business needs".

Though I agree with your fundamental assessment of just focus on how to deliver business value and less on hype. It's true. But I'm going to hazard a guess and say it's possibly more true for some segments of the population than others.

> Isn't that just something WordPress developers say?

I don't know, I don't ask for their take on the market. However, I've consulted with businesses where "We use Wordpress for X" is incredibly common to hear and they don't have problems with it, even if it wouldn't be my first choice of a platform.

> But not "the majority of business needs".

The majority of businesses are small or medium-sized, where Wordpress with a few standard or custom plugins are enough to suit their needs.

Wordpress certainly isn't a good platform for IT and software, and I'm not aware of any SaaS companies trying to use it for their business.

https://www.wpinventory.com

Wow. Ok. Some businesses even use it for inventory management. Can't work out whether that's slightly better or slightly worse than a spreadsheet. I guess there are all kinds of options on the market and someone somewhere has whipped up a WordPress version.

I've seen payroll, scheduling and appointments and a Blackboard-esque system built on top of Wordpress.

Barrier to entry is low and there's a glut of cheap Wordpress developers out there, too, so companies that don't have a budget for an entire IT department can still get by with hiring a few engineers when they're needed.

Again, not my first choice, but it seems to work.

> As a software engineer, I can't afford to not be on the cutting edge

If you are referring to the framework of the month and the buzzword of the year - no, you can stay away from the type of company that follows the hype.

There are many companies that prefer stability over hype. They usually do industrial automation, aeronautics, civil infrastructure, banking and all sort of non-flashy things.

I'm not convinced that's true. I guess it depends on what your goals are, but I would argue the majority of devs in the American workforce don't stay on the cutting edge of anything. Getting a software dev job is still quite easy as long as you are mildly competent.

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