Coding All Night (But Not Productive)
Anonymous Winking Wildcard #510 · General
So here's the deal. I work at a startup as a software engineer and we have these mandatory late-night coding sessions every now and then, which are basically an excuse to push off our deadlines. Now, I know what you're thinking: 'Ah, this person stays up late because they're dedicated.' But let me tell you, that's not exactly the case. I get to my desk around 9 PM and start coding...or at least trying to. My mind is more focused on what snacks I should order from the delivery app or which random YouTube video I’ll binge-watch when no one else is around. The funny part? When someone tries to actually discuss work, I'm quick with the 'I'm still in my zone' excuse, but that's usually just me scrolling through Twitter. One night, we had this big presentation coming up and everyone was pretty stressed. But me, I was having a real hard time focusing, turns out it wasn't the stress; it was realizing my laptop had been running low on battery for hours without me noticing. By the time someone noticed my screen going dark (and my code with all sorts of typos), we were already behind schedule and scrambling to catch up. Now, I know this sounds terrible and I'm probably 'the asshole' here. But let's be real: it’s not like everyone is actually being productive when they're supposed to be working late. So maybe that makes me the norm rather than the outlier? What do you all think, am I just one of those people who pretends to work hard, or is there a way for me to stay awake and actually code efficiently in these situations without feeling like I’m missing out on life?