fjellstad.org

One thing many of my non-developer friends ask me is why I would code at home when I do the same for work. For me, there is a world of difference between coding at home and coding at work.

Coding at work means that you are basically stuck with the technology and project that management decided. If you are lucky, you might be part of a project from the beginning and can influence some of the decisions. Still, once decided, there are probably not enough time to make changes later (as much as the agile paradigm promises otherwise).

Working at home means you set the speed. If you do something you are unhappy with, whether it works or not, you can always change it. Since you are basically the management team, you can choose the technology and tools. I also feel like I learn more coding at home, since there is more time for experimentation.

One thing that you need to be conscious of when coding without deadline is limiting the scope. It’s much easier to never be happy with the work, and therefore never finish. One of my favourite windows managers, Enlightenment, seems to be a example of this (DR17 has been in development since 2000).

Still, tinkering at home keeps me interested in coding, so that’s why I do it…