Top developers can have a life outside coding
I propose the Daenerys Targaryen test.<p>If you know who Daenerys Targaryen is, you do not have &quot;no time.&quot;  You have priorities which included &quot;I wish to know who Daenerys Targaryen is.&quot;  No judgement!  I do, too!  But if you know who Daenerys Targaryen is <i>and</i> you&#x27;re dissatisfied with your career growth, you should attempt to consciously be aware of the fact that you can choose different things in the future.<p>It takes minutes to set up a web presence as a software developer.  It takes 1~3 hours to stick a flag in the Internet about one topic.  Having one flag stuck in the Internet beats zero flags, <i>by a lot</i>.  You can keep doing this as you have time available.  (Think less &quot;submit bug fixes to OSS projects&quot; and more &quot;write an essay which shall endure regarding a topic which is professionally relevant to you.&quot;  To pick one of the <i>hundreds</i> of things in this genre produced by an HN member, see <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chrisstucchio.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2012&#x2F;hft_apology.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chrisstucchio.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2012&#x2F;hft_apology.html</a> where HN&#x27;s own yummyfajitas explains, in a useful and citable fashion, how order books work.  You almost certainly know one topic well enough to post something which clears that bar of utility on any given day.)<p>You could also, I don&#x27;t know, invent Rails, but <i>you do not have to invent Rails to get career benefits out of working publicly</i>.<p>After you have a flag stuck in the Internet, there are a variety of ways to get value out of it.<p>The simplest one is using it as a conversation piece when you&#x27;re cold-opening conversations with folks who are relevant to your career.  For example, if you&#x27;ve decided to stick a flag into (picking a random example) ActiveRecord optimization, and you&#x27;re attempting to talk your way into a job interview with a Rails shop, &quot;I see you&#x27;re a Rails shop.  I would like to talk to you about potential opportunities at your company.&quot; is _substantially_ improved by &quot;Hiya, I see you&#x27;re a Rails shop.  I wrote a detailed guide to ActiveRecord optimization (see here).  I would like to talk to you about potential opportunities at your company.&quot;<p>Another one -- also not hard! -- is to put a call-to-action at the bottom of the essay saying &quot;If you&#x27;re reading this, it is probably because you are interested in ActiveRecord optimization.  So am I!  If you&#x27;ve got hard problems with ActiveRecord optimization I would love to help you solve them.  We should chat; here&#x27;s my email.  &quot;