Ben Hyrman

Love Hate Relationship with GitHub Stats

I have a love-hate relationship with a tiny part of GitHub; the contribution graph.

My commit activity

On the one hand, awesome, swell, I'm active. On the other hand, that Longest Streak counter is a real bummer. I get obsessed with high scores, streaks, stats, and numbers. So, I'm starting to develop this unnatural obsession with getting a really long streak going.

But, really, is that a good thing?

Development, the core part of it anyway, is a very creative process. To create, you need to step away from it all at times, you need to engage on something else and let your subconscious mull things over. Some of my best design breakthroughs have happened while gardening, reading, or while out on my kayak.

Trying to keep a streak alive ruins that. It goes from enjoying a good game of pinball to monotonously hitting the same ramp over and over to rack up some streak bonus.

Enough is enough.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go push some code. Gotta break 21 days.