Ask HN: How long are you able to “hack” in a sitting | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How long are you able to “hack” in a sitting

7 pointshahnchen13 comments

Straightforward question. How long until you’re either too tired or bogged down by a certain problem/task to the point where it’s more productive to take a break?

I feel like I always hit this mark but don’t realize in the moment that I’m just wasting time sitting at the computer

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Depends on what it is. my own thing: 10-14 hours in the zone, very little mental fatigue. A work thing: much closer to 10-14 minutes before I tab over to HN.

> my own thing: 10-14 hours in the zone

I can relate, however I've noticed that when I do that I tend to burn out in a few days with a feeling that I don't want to ever touch the project I was working on again.

Depending on one's personality it might be better to slow things down on purpose.

If there's no distractions (it's a weekend or a holiday, I have no external obligations, the family is completely gone from the house) I can sustain about 3-4 hours before I need a big break. If I'm close to a solution, maybe 6 hours. Eventually I get super hungry and so hungry I can't make forward progress.

Bogged down only happens when I am taken out of the zone or not coding, or, finally, what you mean I guess: when I am too hungry. When I start coding early morning (6-7am) and people do not interrupt, I forget to eat and the day just passes until I get really hungry in the evening. And sometimes even not even that until late. Unfortunately, interruption usually happens and the context switch will just take a bite out so then the sitting is over.

I used to work for long stretches, especially in an office, but now I know that when I get tired the solutions get further and further away. I can take a break from programming, get something else done (cook, clean, nap, exercise) and come back to it later and work 10x more efficiently. I actively try not to work for too long at a stretch.

I have a consulting gig where I pair program with my client. We do up to a four hour session before I can’t really think too much.

Unfortunately, nowadays I dont have large blocks of personal time where I also have the energy and motivation to do programming.

When I had my own company, it wasn’t uncommon for me to put in 6 hours of straight development after hours since there were no distractions.

It depends on how well I know the codebase and the tech. Something newer, where I'm still in a learning curve is short, maybe a couple hours. My legacy tech and codebase that I've been hacking on for a decade, I can hack on that all day without stress or fatigue.

As you get older, nature will prompt you to take frequent breaks. Other than those, I'm good for the 3 hours that google kickstart rounds take. I've always assumed you could get 4 really focused hours per day, and the rest would be admin, or non-focused work.

If I'm working on an interesting problem I can stay on it an infinite number of hours. For a lot of the tasks I get at work it's 5 minutes max: I start doing it then when I realize I'm already typing this comment. Time to go back to it.

76 hours was my longest stint.

After repeating that ballpark of effort a few times, I burnt out. Now I can sustain maximum an hour before existential dread starts creeping back in.

Depends on what I’m working on, but maybe 2-3 hours before I get stuck on a hard block or get bored from something.

Potentially a bit more if it really into it and isolated from the environment with music or the Ballmer peak

If it's boring and/or stupid, around 10 minute sessions.

If it's just boring, about 30 minute stretches.

If it's really interesting, between 4 and 6 hours (toilet and coffee breaks included).

12 hours for 2 days in a row. Less than 5 minutes breaks, when I feel like or to pee.

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