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Comment by notepad0x90 | Hacker News Reader

> Waking up at 6am to make some commits, reading documentation on the subway, and coding to dubstep at night wasn’t getting me anywhere. But I was happy.

That's the key friend. put in your 8hrs and do what your bosses want at your job. but if open source work makes you happy, why not do that on your free time? don't do it to get a job or to pad a resume, but because it is fun. pick projects you enjoy and limit your contribution so that it won't affect your happiness.

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Also do this while you can if it makes you happy/fulfilled. I've found that having kids and just getting older means I have almost no spare time or energy outside of my 40ish hours per week for technical work. I wish I understood in my 20s and 30s just how much spare time and energy I had.

> "I wish I understood in my 20s and 30s just how much spare time and energy I had."

Wait I'm in my 30s and it feels like I have a lot less energy than in my 20s, does it get worse? Hey at least I'm mature enough to understand that I should be enjoying now.

Energy pretty much gets worse every decade. One can compensate by experience. It would be great to have the twenty-something energy back but with the experience. :)

Besides working out and taking care of mental health, I would advise you to make an appointment to check your vitamins and testosterone levels. I had problems with that in my 20s. Sure, your energy will drop with age, but it should not be "a lot less" in your 30s if everything is good with your hormones.

Oh I only see it at the extremes, e.g. all-night flight, coding, or drinking will ruin my next 1-2 days, while in my 20s I'd be up and running almost immediately. I also did gain a bunch of weight during covid and now I'm getting it back out though, so that also makes a diff.

Edit: also, I'm comparing now with a full-time job + studying a language + free-time coding vs on my early 20s as an undergrad with all the free time in the world so...

Yes, especially if you don't take care of your body and your mental health.

Life is literally all "use it or lose it". Stay active and fit, and you'll be active and fit.

The strategy works until you get badly injured or sick. Rebounding is harder with age, then you die.

I didn't really notice much decline in my 30s versus 20s. I was at my peak fitness around 41 (not as powerful or fast as my 20s, but way more endurance and strength). But my early 40s were a pretty rapid decline as I had a bad knee injury that involved a long recovery and we had two kids which meant sleep deprivation. At 43 now I'm on an upward trajectory again in energy/fitness but time is total dumpster fire - getting good at very efficient workouts and mental health breaks!

If you maintain the same baseline level of activity, not in my experience.

That's going to vary person to person I bet. Even if I had the time there's no way I could work out in my 40s now as much as I did and with the same intensity as my 20s, my body just won't take it and I need more recovery.

Oh definitely. Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I think you can be in like the top 20% of physical fitness by just consistently moving and lifting weights.

That’s a significant part of why the wife & children lifestyle never appealed to me.

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