Rich Internet Applications [RIA] Blog

A client asked me: Do you work much on weekends? Not wanting to disappoint, I spend Monday writing them a fun reply.
(Personally I try not to work on weekends but there are times when its unavoidable)

1. Programmers tend to under estimate development time-frames. There are often too many variables to consider, even in the best of requirements specifications and design documents.
2. We also under estimate house-keeping time, often underestimating things like code-commenting, help file generation, going through team changes, etc. The time for these ‘non-programming’ activities can be as much as a third of the total project time, which is often reclaimed on weekends.
3. We have to learn a bunch of things about your company and its technologies and how we are to integrate with your systems, up front – but we don’t plan time or money for these tasks and end up making up for lost time.
4. We usually run into a number of unexpected issues such as having to upgrade to a new SDK, or something equally time consuming. Upgrading the software project with the new SDK can take up many extra unplanned hours.
5. Our development machines are so bloated with development kits and various other useful oddities that they regularly need unexpected maintenance and or repair. Everyone knows how time consuming that can be!
6. There is always a sense of extreme urgency to get the job done. We know we under quoted, we know the competition is doing something equally impressive, we know about points 1 to 6, even though we hardly account for them.
7. Its agony to be torn away from something highly creative and engaging. Software development is to programmers what music is to musicians.
8. Virtual sexual gratification on weekends appeals to (some of) us. This is what we call a break from work.
9. Keeping up with technology developments is a full time job in itself; a year long project will have a year’s worth of new stuff to learn and implement, which can add an additional month to the project time line – but the project is still expected on the old time line.
10. Updating client’s servers often takes place on weekends when everyone else is relaxing at the pool.
11. Sometimes servers go down during the weekend and we have to respond to complaints without delay.
12. Programming requires so much focus that quieter weekends without interruptions can be very productive. Well at least the phone rings less, but the wife/partner/lover/kid complains more – we can never win this battle.
13. Programmers don’t really have a fixed schedule. We can work all weekend and take off Monday if we like.
14. Customers often call up on a Friday with a bug or technical issue to be resolved by Monday. Well if we don’t resolve it immediately we may have to work on Monday.
15. We hate working on Mondays.
16. A pretty geeky bunch, we find our computers a great source of entertainment on weekends – better than most crap on TV – we can even take breaks without leaving our computers.
17. Everything a programmer needs, apart from food, water, and going to the toilet, is available online; dating, shopping; porn; blogging, you name it – we made it.
18. We have a secret love affair with our machines (but would never admit it).
19. Choose a platform – the company providing it has hundreds of engineers working on it full time – how can one programmer using that platform possibly keep up with [just] using it? The moment we learn their new feature they have another one.
20. We also work really late into the night on weekdays/ends – when it’s quiet and we can concentrate. Maths, geometry and logic require quite focused attention. If we get an idea on a weekend, nothing will stop us from implementing it right away.
21. Too many other tasks like keeping our blogs up to date, maintaining client accounts, meetings, trade shows, et al, take up so much time that we are forced to use our weekends to catch up.
22. A programmer will encourage everyone else in the house to cure their own boredom via their Internet connection – especially on weekends.
23. We don’t really like sun tanning or physical sports which are usually weekend activities.
24. Secretly we think other programmers are better than us and we know they are working on weekends.
25. If we didn’t program on weekends we would miss out on about 20 cups of coffee and then wonder why we feel so lazy. We may even feel like we need a weekend off – shudder the thought.
26. As creatures of habit we are rather addicted to what we do. Every programmer knows that when they run into a problem nothing else seems to matter more than fixing it – whether the house is burning down or not is rather irrelevant.
27. We have so much outboard gear like iPods, phones, TV Games, etc that it takes the whole weekend to sync it all with our laptops.
28. We are great sharers of knowledge and spend time in forums and the like asking each other questions and giving our answers. Every programmer knows there is no error whose resolutions cannot be searched for on Google. Why? Because we typed it in to a forum somewhere on a weekend.
29. We think programming is a lot of fun and gives us a sense of accomplishment and achievement, in equal quantities provided on weekends to sporty macho types.
30. Usually people have high expectations for weekends. We are never let down.
31. 52 weekends equals around 832 hours @ $100/hr, or more, that’s a lot of money to throw away.
32. Sometimes programmers are able to charge more for weekend work – but it’s not generally a motivator.
33. We are more intrigued by programming than drinking, drugs, swinging, and barbecues. Try proving us wrong.
34. We often say “Just finishing this last line honey, I won’t be long”. Gee Monday, [and the belting] comes so soon.
35. Programmers don’t really consider what they do to be ‘working’ – but rather having fun. That’s what weekends are for right?
36. Since we don’t have to commute and talk nonsense to indifferent colleagues every day we are less tired than you on weekends so we can work more.
37. We don’t have to see the upsets that have taken place in news and sport on TV which keeps us on even keel and great mood. You on the other hand need to recuperate.
38. Most people sit around on the couch on weekends with the newspaper or a book. So do we, but ours is online.
39. Many programmers are single and don’t have a social life except online. Many non programmers have this issue too, but at least we can self medicate.
40. When my wife/child/friend asks me a question (on the weekend) I rush to find the answer online and am puzzled that they don’t know how to do it themselves.
41. MS Word froze unexpectedly (or rather expectedly) and I hadn’t saved the first 40 answers.
42. Everything always seems to be due on a Monday. If it were due on a Friday we’d probably still work on the weekends though.
43. Stupid people suck so much time out of a schedule during the week there is no remedy but for the weekend catch-up.
44. Working on weekends is a side effect of poor planning, or maybe not.
45. There are perfectly nice people out there in the blogosphere many of whom pop in for a quick chat while (we are) working on the weekends. That’s a kind of weekend activity isn’t it? But for us lucky programmers it’s kind of like socializing while working.
46. Everyone who knows us, family and friends, look to us for solutions to their own computer problems, usually on weekends.
47. Sometimes the people we are supposed to spend time with are so boring we cannot help but think of our tasks at hand and get back to them – especially on weekends.
48. Many programmers hide behind their computers in a sort of surreal world that does not confront the human realties of life in quite the same way – i.e. it’s a less painful world to live in.
49. Many programmers are rather dysfunctional in non-programmers terms of life – but at our computers we excel and are motivated, encouraged by our own successes to meet new challenges, besides.
50. Often we use programming on weekends as an excuse not to have to be with you or do something we don’t want. But you would never know that because we always work on weekends, don’t we?
51. We don’t see programming as work necessarily, rather to us its more like composing music - wouldn’t everyone give up their day jobs and weekends to play beautiful music?
52. All of us weekend programmers are fucking idiots because weekends are for relaxing and for fun and food and sex and going out and seeing friends and going for a swim and a million more interesting things than programming.

Coincidently I finished this silly write up during the week (Monday PM, AEST).
After all, I can catch up this coming weekend and I don’t really like working on Mondays.

UPDATE - 03/12:

Since this post is getting around 3000 visits a day I thought I would share a little treasure with you. I just read the most amazing book: “The Book of Lilith” by Robert G. Brown. In fact, I loved this book so much that I contacted Robert and offered to spread the word. So I spent the weekend making a cool little RIA (Flash application) of the Preface to the book. Robert is an independent author and in my humble opinion his book deserves to be a best seller. Please support Robert by spreading the word, and hey, take the weekend off with a spectacular read this Christmas. [Flash Version here | Text-only version here]

UPDATE - 04/12:

Robert G. Brown (mentioned in yesterday’s update above) left a comment. Thanks for stopping by.