[fro]

In the description of the book the author is pushing, I find this sentence, "A popular trend is to get up at 4am and get some work done before the day’s craziness begins. Others like going to bed at 4am."

Do real, professional programmers work this way? It is romantic to think of hacking away in front of a glowing screen at 3am, but I believe most work gets done during the actual work day. Often hacking at night means you are writing code but not making progress, which seems to be the problem with this "disgruntled developer".

Set a schedule, start working in the morning and stop working in the evening, and your sessions will be much more productive and produce higher quality work than these late night, crazed, caffeine-fueled sessions.

[jdowner]

I think you may be reading more into that sentence than it says. While I don't doubt that there are programmers working 'late night, crazed, caffeine-fueled session' you're extrapolating well beyond what the author said. Do professionals work earlier or later to avoid disruptive times? Yes. My least productive period (for coding) is in the middle of the day (between 10am - 2pm). So, that is when I plan to do things that are not coding. I tend to come into work early for two reasons: (1) it makes my commute easier, and (2) I get most of my coding done before the majority of the people in the office come in. I don't think it is a controversial idea that software engineers tend to find they do their best work in quiet or low-distraction environments.

I have to confess, I do have the unusual habit of starting my day with a cup of coffee so maybe I am one of those caffiene-fueled crazies after all :)

[greenrice]

There seems to be a certain aspect of the night owl that is present in many programmers, I for one am far more productive in the late-afternoon and evening than I am in the morning. Setting a morning-to-evening schedule isn't going to work for a lot of us.

[hackula1]

> There seems to be a certain aspect of the night owl that is present in many programmers

This seems likely and could be attributed to the fact that we receive above average artificial light from staring at screens too late into the evening.

[Swizec]

Yes, some do. It really depends, but a lot of the people I talked to were adamant their best work in terms of coding comes from off-peak hours at the office.

And why do you think a late-night bout of work has to be crazed and caffeine-fueled? You can only pack so much productive time in the day, you won't get more hours from working at night. But you might get better hours if you start working at 4pm instead of 9am.

At the end of the day, it depends.

[fro]

It's not so much about when you work, but that you have a set schedule and routine. If you have a job, usually this is during the day. Knowing when you wake up every day that you will be working at these exact times tremendously helps your focus and production.

Very often late night, sporadic sessions are a product of, "oh crap I have to get some work done! Time for coffee and pounding out as much code as I can."

Not saying you can't be productive at night, but real production comes from day in, day out routine and dedication to the work. It's not as sexy but it's the reality of the job.

[Swizec]

Yup, I agree. Routine is key and I personally like having a large part of that routine set in the night.