to explore the idea of separating work
programming from play programming I want
to talk about how you can become more
productive and improved faster or doing
silly side projects lately I’ve been
intentionally trying to do a lot more
silly experiments I didn’t always do
this so I want to talk about some things
that led me up to this point when I
started programming it was purely
because it was something that I wanted
to do I can’t put exactly into words
what was driving me but it definitely
came from inside me somehow nobody told
me to start programming I I just did I
don’t know it was some kind of farm in a
fire over time I got good at programming
and it turned out that other people
wanted programming done and they were
willing to pay money for it nice but the
problem was that when I started doing
programming because others wanted me to
the inner fire that had got me into
programming from the first place
disappeared it was weird because the
very same program the exact same
programming that I previously have been
doing for fun and for relaxation when I
came home was now like this horrible
homework I didn’t know it back then but
I now know that there is term in
psychology for this it’s called the over
justification effect it’s when an
external incentive is added to a
previously unrecorded activity and that
shifts the motivation from inner
motivation to outer motivation and that
undermines the pre-existing in
motivation to stay motivated I started
doing how do i discuss extra curricular
work i started doing work that was not
asked of me that i so what’s a good idea
it could be extra features with
drinks using new tools so building new
tools installing new editor plugins
learning new shortcuts tweaking the
build system and you know that kind of
thing
and it was good for both my motivation
and growth my inner fire returned and I
was learning and growing because of the
new things that I was constantly trying
out however my actual work output
suffered for it in some cases the
extracurricular activities were
appreciated by the customer or the end
user but mostly to be honest they just
made me less focused on shipping what
people were actually asking for I was
sort of like this plumber who instead of
just replacing a leaking pipe went out
and replaced the plumbing in the entire
house and then went in and painted it in
rainbow colors the end user didn’t get
any happier and I spent a lot of time on
something that should just have taken a
fraction of the time instead what I’ve
tried to do lately is to define and
separate the concepts of work and play
programming I still consider them both
important but I try to no longer mix
them work programming is programming
that I do because there is an external
incentive external incentives that’s
normally money but it might also be
things like playing guilt for instance
on Sundays is sometimes put out an
episode just because I I know that you
people are awaiting one play programming
on the other hand is programming that I
do even though there is no external
incentive at all I do it only because I
think it’s worthwhile nowadays I try to
keep play programming completely out of
work projects and the opposite is also
true I try to keep work programming out
of play programming I’ve had played
programming projects become work several
times ton fun function is actually a
great example of that
was initially something that I did just
for play but that turn into work because
there was a play demand for it and don’t
get me wrong I really like doing these
videos and I like that they are
successful but they are no longer play
and that is why I’ve started to do side
projects that are intentionally silly am
i silly I mean that they have no obvious
business value and no obvious market or
anything like that that way this less
risk of them sliding into work mode
their idea with this is to allow me to
switch between the mode where I’m a
professional focused on shipping what
the customer wants and the mad scientist
mode where I’m focused on doing the
things that I would like to see done and
that switching keeps me motivated
growing and having fun while still being
fed and having a focus on output and
helping people that’s it make sure that
you keep play out of your work but make
sure that you do play a lot and make
sure that your play is intentionally
silly so that it doesn’t accidentally
become work you have watched an episode
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