[volaski]

I work 40hr/week yet I have plenty of time to work on my stuff. Of course it would be much better if I could fully commit to my project but hey i still need money to sustain myself and need to compromise with reality. Anyway, sometimes when I really get into it I can even work more hours than my day job. In extreme cases, I would leave work at 6pm, get home by 6:30, take a shower and start working at 7pm. Work on my project for 11 hours until 6am, and go to sleep and wake up at 9am to get to work by 10am. I take nap during lunchtime (45 minutes to 1 hour). Of course I can't keep this up forever so I only do this when I am super motivated and can probably do it for a couple of weeks to a month at a time. But even when I'm not in this crazy mode there's plenty of time to work. Just doing half of what I described will give you 5 hours * 5 days = 25 hours per week, plus if you're really committed you can work all weekend 12 hour * 2 = 24 hours (for saturday and sunday), which adds up to around 50 hour/week. "Not having time" just means you're not motivated enough. Before you say "yeah right you can do that because you're some abnormal crazy guy, no sane person can do that and it's not even healthy" I want to tell you that motivation is not something people are born with. Instead of trying to wait till motivation finds you, actually start "doing" something and you will gain momentum and next thing you know you will be super motivated and don't have to worry about these things.

[reedlaw]

Only do this if you want to be totally turned off by programming within a few months/years. Working 40 hours a week at a computer and then coming home for more is bad enough for your body. But beyond that, any single activity reaches a point of diminishing returns when engaged in to the exclusion of all others. It might not happen right away, but at some point there will likely be regret that you didn't spend more time with people you cared about or that you didn't take more time off to enjoy life's other activities.

[volaski]

Since you bring this up, let me tell you what really happens. You are right there is a burnout factor. In fact it does happen and I have grown to live with it. But the cool thing about burnout is it doesn't last forever. If you have lots of ideas and you like to build things, chances are your motivation will come back soon enough. I personally think working passionately for a few months and taking a break for a week and going back and forth is much more productive than doing it half-assed and wondering how others "find time" to work on things. Also, this is a subjective thing, I'm giving my point of view based on how i think and you're writing your advice based on how you think but neither of us are absolutely correct because every human being is different. Some people put higher priority in socializing and enjoying life's other activities when it comes to living a life. Some people put higher priority in building something that they will be proud of. Most people belong to the former group and that's why it's hard for them to find time to work on stuff. Sure you can live a well-balanced life like 90% of the population and live a normal life, or you can be different. Most people will think the latter group of people are heartless and idiotic, etc. but those people have highest ratio of success statistically. Lastly, I have been doing this for years and I am not "totally turned off by programming". I do get burned out time to time but after a couple of weeks of taking a break i'm fully energized and back at it. Like I said, it's just a difference in mindset. If you have something that you feel is meaningful enough to build, nothing else matters.

[joe563323]

> Working 40 hours a week at a computer and then coming home for more is bad enough for your body.

If this is the case then how to get financial independence? Are you suggesting that it is good to work forever?

[volaski]

Most people live their lives just fine without financial independence, because they put higher priority in other activities in their lives. Entrepreneurs are different types of people, they put higher priority on being able to control their own destiny and because of that they can push through the comfort zone. If you're not motivated enough, of course it would be hard to do this. If entrepreneurship was that easy and rewarding for everyone, everyone would be doing it.