Comment by JanezStupar | Hacker News Reader

Comment by JanezStupar | Hacker News Reader

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I did a 36 hour push once. I did it because there was really no other way to achieve the deadline, since there was about three days worth of bug squashing to reach a deadline and I only had two days left.

I am proud that I managed to pull it off, however I tell it as a tale of caution not as a tale of inspiration.

The work I did was objectively atrocious, by the 24 hour mark the simplest operation took me 5-10 minutes. My short term memory was completely gone by then and I had to rely on writing down each step of an operation as simple as refactoring a block of code into its own function, just to be able to pull it of in a "reasonable time frame".

Thus I would call bullshit on anyone claiming that his team made "huge improvements" and that after such a push some piece of software "started behaving like it should".

Unless that means that they introduced a plethora of bugs that they would be busy fixing for months from now.

I find this interesting for two reasons:

> I did it because there was really no other way to achieve the deadline

vs.

> by the 24 hour mark the simplest operation took me 5-10 minutes.

Did you see the incongruity when you wrote this? If it started taking you ages to do things, then there was another way: Take a nap. Speed up substantially.

You are not calling me an idiot are you?

Of course I have seen it. I also felt it. However If I took a "nap" I would probably just sleep for sixteen hours. After which I would have a hard time facing the absurdity of my situation. Also the massive flow and motivation would be completely gone. I would have probably just quit on the spot.

Also when you are this deep down the rabbit hole you are not thinking rationally and normal reasoning doesn't sound the same. The incongruity of the situation is the whole point.

After a certain level of fatigue settles in, you either quit at the right time (say before the 16 hour mark) or you keep going till the bitter end. Taking a nap would just make things worse.

The experience of going for an all-nighter is akin to watching a full season of 24 in one go, only you're the protagonist. It's memorable, and yes, especially if you manage to pull it off.

I tell it as a tale of inspiration: do it, once.

Whether it's good or bad for business/health/morale is a whole other story. Hint: it's not good.

One of the best things about going to university is you can get all of that stuff out of the way without hurting anyone else.

Well, until you graduate and continue your old habits...

That's what Global Game Jam is for, it's a 48h competition for writing games. I attended two of those, and during those 48h took maybe total of 8h naps here and there. Amazing experience. But yes, really, at some points your brain just stops working.

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