The recent "I'm coding 180 websites' post inspired me to get a group of friends to commit to set aside some time for study hall to work on things once a week--hopefully more often. I used Steve's OsConn talk (google Steve Yegge Quits)to help show the value of study hall hours. Curious to know if anyone has heard an update on his goal of study hall hours everyday for an hour to learn math. Surprised there isn't a follow up talk, post or rant to that talk. Or have you had any success setting aside set time to work on side projects or just to learn something?
He didn't quit. See his post:<p><a href="http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2011/07/hacker-news-fires-steve-yegge.html" rel="nofollow">http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2011/07/hacker-news-fires-st...</a><p>"Hacker News Fires Steve Yegge" which is about how everyone misinterpreted what he said.
<i>>"Or have you had any success setting aside set time to work on side projects or just to learn something?"</i><p>Yes.<p>Several months ago I decided to get serious about re-aligning my career and the pursuit of a degree.<p>Creating a structured plan with a schedule and specific goals has been the most important part. Setting aside time is part of that.<p>I think treating my development more formally has been a huge help.
[video] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKmQW_Nkfk8" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKmQW_Nkfk8</a> (13:50 is the Study Hall)
The next blog post he posted a few months later was all about how he spent the last few months playing this video game. Well, not entirely, there was a dig at google+ in there as well. But I'm guessing the study hall didn't happen...<p>Too bad too, because I also felt very inspired by his "I quit" speech and was looking forward to a follow up.
He did a talk about Project Grok, a piece of internal Google infrastructure he created, back in April at an Emacs conference: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRO3dNJx5Dw" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRO3dNJx5Dw</a>
As soon as his leaked piece on Google+ appeared, it was pretty much to be expected that he will be terminated (use whatever softer sounding euphemism you like). You can't just throw feces at your coworkers in public view and expect to be kept in the company.
Steve Yegge is 100% talk and no action. He wants to go cure cancer? Well then dive right in and join the fight! I'm sure he has Google lucky megabucks so what he does with his remaining time on Earth is entirely up to his whims.<p>Those whims seem to be telling him to stay in his Google glass menagerie and enjoy what his keepers feed him and taking time to play and extensively critique _Borderlands_. And that's a fine and understandable hacker hedonist strategy, but please, STFU about "curing cancer" etc. (unless he's going to get in the ring(tm), which I seriously doubt he ever will).<p>But to be fair, I've seen this happen to a few of my friends who hit it big, and I think it explains why there are so few Elon Musks and James Camerons among us. Once Maslov's hierarchy has been topped off, it's like the insatiable drive to achieve that made that possible just evaporates.