Dear Perlmonks,

Please suggest me appropriate if this is not the right place to post this.

I just realized that I probably spend more time on computer than I should.

I would like to know how much you work with computer in tirms of hours/day or hours/week. May be it desiging, coding or searching for the stuff on Internet, marking your online calender or reading/writing or deleting your emails or online shopping or news reading or looking for something completely new.

I was reading about Donald Knuth (Author of Art of Programming), and was interesting to read that he stopped to have an email address since 1990 (yep, Ninety) and preferes snail mail compare to email. And that also he replies at every 3 months.
I am not suggesting that it is possible for all of us to do the same, understanding that the environment we are in, but the point should be well noted.

Applying proper thinking and design tactics, It may be possible to that we need to spend less time in actual coding or searching what we are looking for.
How much time you think is worth spending with your computer as per you think now. and what are the means to achieve efficiency you have adopted ?

point of view
of
an artist.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Your Meetings with your computer
by dws (Chancellor) on Mar 28, 2002 at 18:05 UTC
    I was reading about Donald Knuth (Author of Art of Programming), and was interesting to read that he stopped to have an email address since 1990 (yep, Ninety) and preferes snail mail compare to email.

    Knuth is reported to have said of this that email helps him stay on top of things, but that he prefers to stay on the bottom of things, which requires an attention span that email often precludes.

[reply]
      Hi Dws
      It's a good point.
      I would say my experience is that for many things we don't actively decide whether we want to stay on the top of the things or bottom of the things. A little self-research would help a lot.

      Point of view
      of
      an artist

[reply]
Re: Your Meetings with your computer
by brianarn (Chaplain) on Mar 28, 2002 at 19:52 UTC
    I have to break this down into a few categories as to how time was spent in front of the PC. I'll admit that I don't use my computer time as effectively as I could be (as I tend to be lurking around here ;) but I justify that as Perl research, yeah), but I think that my time now has been improved much, at least in terms of efficiency.

    Note: I love my wife, and so I'm not mad that I don't game nearly as much anymore. ;)

    Each item is listed in terms of hours.
    • Pre-marriage, during college time
      • Work in front of PC: 5
      • At home (chatting|MUDding|coding for MUDs): 6
      • Doing homework on PC: 0.2 if that
    • Pre-marriage, during off-time (summer, spring break)
      • Work in front of PC: 5
      • At home (chatting|MUDding|coding for MUDs): 12
    • Post-marriage, during school
      • Work in front of PC: 3 to 7, depending on day
      • At home (FPS games|MUDding): <1
      • Homework: 2 to 3, depending on day
    • Post-marriage, during off-time
      • Work in front of PC: 8 to 10
      • At home (FPS games|MUDding): 0 to 2
    I hope those married people out there don't take offense ;) I love my wife, and I really was too hooked on MUDs. At one point, I was head coder on one mud, and actively coded/played on at least two other muds, spending a few hours a day for each one. I slept literally about 4-6 hours a night, if I was lucky.

    For those not in the know: A MUD is like Everquest, but with pure text, no graphics whatsoever unless it's ASCII art, which really makes for an interesting MUD.

    ~Brian
[reply]
      brianarn++ for describing accurately a so cruel reality ;-) ...

      Now let me give some hope to the freshly married :

      With time you can manage to increase you "computer hours" at home, even with a kid !
      Of course you'll have to be organized like a minister, stealth like a ninja,
      and forget any hope of being considered as a normal (read "social") person by your friends...

      For some lucky guys , having a Pearl as a wife may also help a lot...

      "Only Bad Coders Code Badly In Perl" (OBC2BIP)
[reply]
Re: Your Meetings with your computer
by iamnothing (Friar) on Mar 28, 2002 at 18:31 UTC
    Well, at work I spend about 6-8 hours depending on what I'm doing in my project cycle, whether I have meetings, etc.

    At home, I tend to tinker with game engines and level editors, but don't have any solid basis. Usually it's about 4 more hours or so unless I get completely entrenched in what I'm working on.

    On weekends, I tend to go completely offline and just enjoy myself. I go out with friends, see movies, go hiking, do anything so that I'm refreshed with "me time" for the week ahead.

[reply]
Re: Your Meetings with your computer
by jrsmith (Pilgrim) on Mar 28, 2002 at 18:41 UTC
    on average, i spend 9+ hours at the computer at work, then another 6+ hours at home. on the weekends i more or less have to force myself to get away from it and do those little errands and whatnot that independent life forces on you. this has been going on since i was 15, but back then i had to attend school so my computer time was cut in half...

    oddly enough this hasn't affected my social life at all. i never had one :)
[reply]
      i spend on average 16 hours a day / 7 days a week in front of a computer, writing, trying to learn perl, playing games, reading emails etc etc. The only time i donīt spend time in front of a computer iīm sitting on a tram to and from school or a LUG-meeting. thank god that my girlfriend spends most of her days in front of a computer as well playing Red Alert 2.
[reply]
Re: Your Meetings with your computer
by venimfrogtongue (Novice) on Mar 29, 2002 at 14:31 UTC

    I am generally working/using the computer about 14/hours a day throughout the entire week. I have many pages I need to host/edit, I own a company, trying to learn perl, and who couldn't love receiving/sending email? :)

    sulfericacid

[reply]

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