I always have a problem in mind while in college, and the problem becomes my real problem. If my day job requires me to work from 9am to 8pm, excluding 1 hour round trip commute, which is a norm in the city I am living in, how can I squeeze out time to maintain a meaningful github repo/ SO profile / tech blog? I really want to sharpen my skills AND display it, but my day job already take up literally half of my life.
I do understand your frustation and to be perfectly honest, I hear the same concern constantly. The fact is, if you're truly passionate about something, you'll find the time. I work a 60 hour week and I have a 2 year old boy and an impatient wife at home yet I find the time to dedicate at least a couple of hours a week to blogs, news, forums and so on and I can sincerely say that it doesn't have any significant impact on my precious family time.
Keep in mind, a useful GitHub repo doesn't need to contain anything groundbreaking. Honestly, even a simple fizzbuzz application is enough to prove you can code.
I understand the frustration of trying to find talent in a sea of uselessness. (Not even mediocrity: I've interviewed candidates who could not explain a for loop, how to write one, or when to use one.)
However, you are trying to take your version of passion and project it onto everyone else, and I think that is harmful. If gwat is working 9-8 and in love with their job, they are passionate and don't need a github to prove it.
It's your phrase "truly passionate" that rubs me the wrong way, as did the content of the OP. Your definition of a True Hacker(tm) definitely does not match mine. Your post reminds me of a checklist for a recruiting fantasist's wet dream resume more than an explication of what makes hackers different, and I found it distasteful.
As always, YMMV. I can only speak to how the post struck me.
If you put it that way, someone will create a Github repo of nothing but fizzbuzzes in random languages like Erlang, Whitespace, Prolog, CoffeeScript, Intercal, Malboge, Perl, 0x10^c assembly, ...
I feel you there. For the best part of the last five years I've been commuting 3-4 hours on top of a typical 8 hour working day.
I guess it depends on your situation. I was fortunate enough to spend most of that on the train and typically able to get a seat so usually able to code, and always at the very least read, so I managed to make use of this time.
Other than that, I've put plenty of weekends into my projects too.
As Steve said, if you're passionate enough about it you'll find a way.
