Ben Northrop
bennorthrop.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
Ben Northrop is a software architect who writes about programming careers, architecture, code ownership, testing, and reuse.
What HN saysCommenters find his "Always Do Extra" argument convincing, that spending some work time on exploratory efforts is worthwhile, and relate to his reflections on being a novice.
29HN people shared it
2linked it in comments
31stories submitted
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What HN people wrote when they linked it
jplrssn · 2023-11-17
Did you follow the link in the footnote? [0] I thought it made the case for doing extra quite convincingly.
The gist of the argument is that it's worth spending some small proportion of your work time on exploratory work that might or might not pay off, as opposed to doing more "normal" work (another sprint task or whatever).
For me it described pretty well what I'd already been doing subconsciously for some time. I thought it was interesting to see it framed that way.
[0] https://www.bennorthrop.com/Essays/2021/always-do-extra.php
muzster · 2016-10-07
I remember those novice days with fond memories. I've observed, in the twilight hours or when I'm playing with my kids, that I am attracted to things that make me feel a novice. However, this is not compatible with my day time job, where my paid expertise is often required. sigh
It would be interesting to see the graph of the careers stages with happiness overlaid.
Source: http://www.bennorthrop.com/Essays/2016/career-stages-programmer.png