Programmer Humor

After 5PM stop looking for a fix, start looking for a stopping point and write up some notes to review when you’re fresh again.

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No. My best successes were when I stayed on point and pushed through the fatigue and solved the problem. Taking a 'go to bed and come back to the office fresh' type of break would inevitably set me back, as I would have to pick up my train of thought again, to get back "into the zone" of the problem and solving it. Its another form of an interruption while you are trying to concentrate, and can interrupt an 'Eureka!' moment in problem solving.

It truly sucks having to work the extra hours, and if the project management is so bad that you're doing it all the time, then you need to find other work, but sometimes, 'sticking it out' is the solution to the problem, finishing what you started.

Having said that, if I've pushed through the fatigue multiple times in multiple hours, so that its super hard to push again, THEN that would be the point where I walk away from the problem for the evening. Its not an either/or thing, but its definately stick around and try to solve longer than the advice I'm replying to would suggest.

One last thing. The above advice was given by someone who spent most of their career self-employeed and working an hourly rate. You're expected to solve the problems others can't because you're getting paid more, and your time is compensated accordingly to the amount of work you are putting in. If you are a salaried employee, especially one who is low paid, I would then advise you to consider other things than strict professionalism, like QoL issues vs compensation gained, etc.

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