Comment by Double_a_92
7 years ago
> In my day job I'm a system administrator of an HPC cluster, and we also do technical support ourselves.
The difference is that you are paid to do that. You are not helping those people out of personal altruism, so wasted time is not lost. You did a successful job nonetheless.
If I on the other hand like to help people with coding problems in my free time, and they don't even bother to properly format the code they want me to look at, I'm wasting time if I still try to read it. My free time, and other peoples time that would need some help too.
> The difference is that you are paid to do that. You are not helping those people out of personal altruism.
I'm not working as a system administrator for its pay, I work here because I like my job. Payment is a side effect of it. So it's like a paying hobby for me. It also other side benefits like being able to carry my academic knowledge to my work and vice versa.
> , so wasted time is not lost.
I do not consider helping a person to learn something, to show something they don't know, or to point them the right direction as wasted time. It's kind of planting seeds. It may come alive or not. I just put in the effort that I can.
> You did a successful job nonetheless.
Honestly, thanks. :)
> If I on the other hand like to help people with coding problems in my free time, and they don't even bother to properly format the code they want me to look at, I'm wasting time if I still try to read it.
I'd auto-format in Eclipse and try to read for five minutes. If I fail, then I send back my formatting work and politely ask for making it more readable. This is my way of saying no: "Hey I can't help you, but that's what I've done while my time allowed. If you do your part, I'll try again to do my part when I have more free time."
My time, and nobody's time is for free, and using it effectively is very wise, you're right!