You’re Not Professional Unless You Work 60 Hours
There are some characters around software development whose opinions hold more weight than others. These people seem to set the tone for software development according to their own rules (for right or wrong).
One of the players in software development circles is ‘Uncle Bob’, a software engineer who promotes software design principles and signatory of the influential Agile Manifesto.
The Statement: The Secret Developer Isn’t A Professional
Page 17 The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers contains the following:
“You should plan on working 60 hours per week. The first 40 are for your employer. The remaining 20 are for you. During this remaining 20 hours you should be reading, practicing, learning and otherwise enhancing your career.
I can here you thinking: “But what about my family? What about my life? Am I supposed to sacrifice them for my employer?
I’m not talking about all your free time here. I’m talking about 20 extra hours per week. That’s roughly three hours per day. If you use your lunch hour to read, listen to podcasts on you commute, and spend 90 minutes per day learning a new language, you’ll have it all covered.
Do the math. In a week there are 168 hours. Give your employer 40, and your career another 20. That leaves 107. Another 56 for sleep leaves 52 for everything else.
Perhaps you don’t want to make that kind of commitment. That’s fine, but you should not think of yourself as a professional. Professionals spend time caring for their profession.
Perhaps you think that work should stay at work and that you shouldn’t bring it home. I agree! You should not be working for your employer during those 20 hours. Instead, you should be working on your career.
Sometimes these two are aligned with each other. Sometimes the work you do for your employer is greatly beneficial to your career. In that case, spending some of that 20 hours on it is reasonable. But remember, those 20 hours are for you. They are used to make yourself more valuable as a professional.
Perhaps you think this is a recipe for burnout. On the contrary, it is a recipe to avoid burnout. Presumably you became a software developer because you are passionate about software and your desire to be a professional is motivated by that passion. During that 20 hours you should be doing those things that reinforce that passion. Those 20 hours should be fun!” SOURCE
Do the math. This just doesn’t add up.
“For a few reasons, I’m not spending 20 hours per week studying at the moment. So, I guess I’m not a professional. I’m going to explain why that assertion is simply nonsense.”
The Case Against: The Secret Developer’s Experience
“Some of the best developers I’ve known do not spend time outside their working hours. Some don’t even have formal qualifications.
I’ve noticed that it takes dedication and hard work to become a great software developer but not necessarily time studying. You?”
The Case Against: No Profession Contains professionals
Doctors Aren’t Professionals
Doctors work long hours. They do need to study in their chosen discipline. Yet in the UK, it appears to be impossible to study for 20 hours each three years. The same is true in the US, who work for almost 60 hours before studying.
“So, doctors aren’t professional? I think I’m going to go to the vet with my health complaints in future then.”
Lawyers Aren’t Professionals
Lawyers study hard to enter practice. According to Uncle Bob though, they aren’t professionals even if they study during practice. That’s because in California they only need to complete 25 CLE study hours each year. In New York 24 CLE study hours each two years.
“Sure, that’s to stay as a lawyer. I’m sure they’re doing that number of hours weekly to ensure they are professional according to Uncle Bob.”
Engineers Aren’t Professionals
Engineers work 50 to 60 hours a week. Sure, students study 20 hours but there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the engineering community (or Reddit) who recommends practicing Engineers study 20 hours.
“I guess that is because it would be too long. Completely unreasonable for those with a life, family or even to go to work half awake.
Yet Uncle Bob has decided they aren’t professionals.”
BUT It Depends On:
“You know what, I understand what Uncle Bob is talking about. I’ve seen my fair share of lazy developers and people who do not want to improve. Setting an expectation that software developers study to improve isn’t unreasonable. But it depends on the situation, so let us bring the editor into this and think of a list of what the amount of study ‘professionalism’ might depend upon.”
An (incomplete) list of dependencies:
The developer’s personal circumstances (family etc.)
The exact nature of a developer’s work
The experience level of the developer
What work the developer is currently performing
The developer’s plans for the future
The background of the developer
Whether the developer is full or part-time
“With all that said software developers should study. I’d actually say there are more important things in play here — particularly attitude. If your attitude is right, you are more likely to study and listen to podcasts and learn.
I think there is something else to mention here. You can learn from areas outside software development to make yourself a better software developer. That fencing club or Elon Musk novel can help you learn things that later become useful at work.”
Controversy
The Secret Developer doesn’t usually deal with politics and opinions outside of software development. The reason for this is that it’s not their area. None of the following are reasons to disbelieve Uncle Bob and their technical opinions, but they are reasons to doubt their judgment.
Let’s take a look at a few examples:
These have been the type of Tweets and pronouncements that have led to the withdrawal of invites.
“It’s up to you what you think about these. Even if you think they are relevant in terms of software development.”
Conclusion
“Working long hours does not make you a software professional. Study doesn’t make you professional. It’s more than that and reducing professionalism in this way is just another version of software developers being jerks to each other.
If you’re a jerk at least own that. Then fact-check your work. Thanks.”