About coding outside of work

I've read a tweet the other day with someone asking wether or not doing no coding at all besides your dayjob is a problem or not. This person was clearly someone not doing much coding besides his own dayjob and was curious to learn if that's ok or not.

First of all, if that's what you are comfortable with and doing your job makes you feel accomplished at the end of the week. Why would you care what the internet thinks of this. You are doing great and have a lot of time and attention for other things in your private life.

I myself am someone who enjoys living and breathing code. Does this conflicht with my private life sometimes? Oh yes.

Do I get a lot of enjoyment out of these additional coding related activities. Most of the time, yes.

Do I have to do these extra things besides my dayjob. Probably not.

But obviously I probably wouldn't be in Developer Relations if I didn't start my podcast. But… I never started my podcast to achieve some career goal. I started it as an experiment and I wanted to learn if I could actually do a podcast.

You could say my podcast is a large chunk of additional work I take on besides my dayjob. But should I feel bad if I wouldn't do this? Or any other additional substantial piece of work that is coding related but not my main job?

Again, I think people should do what they enjoy doing with their spare time. And someone on Twitter telling you you are doing too much, or too little besides your dayjob. Hey, it is your choice. Your life. Nobody gets to tell you what you should and should not do.

Are there benefits to do coding related things besides a job? Ofcourse! Some people even make a significant portion of their income through something that started out as a fun little hobby project. It does get you exposure and other tangential benefits like speaking engagements, maybe at some point being able to make the switch to venture out on you own even. But if what makes you happy beyond your dayjob is not coding related in any way… Good on you on for following your own heart.

Coding at night, side husstling, doing even more work type things beyond your dayjob? Not wanting to do any of the above? That's all fine. You just be you. That can make things hard enough sometimes already. ❤️