Yes
Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
191–200 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
#192I've been a software engineer and managed software engineers for 20 years and worked in all kinds of businesses. This is both normal and mostly acceptable, in my professional opinion. Doing just as much work as your employer requires and no more is way less of a problem than employees who actively steal, commit fraud, bring drama and distract other team members, or are introducing defects because they've faked their…
> This is both normal and mostly acceptable, in my professional opinion. Perhaps at large companies? I would hope people applying to jobs at small 5-20 person startups aren't bullshitting and lying about the work they do. Or to reword the same sentiment, I hope people looking for the easiest possible path target their job search at companies with lots of bureaucracy where people not doing your job is more easily tole…
At a 5-20 person startup there are probably like 5 engineers, there’s no time to waste and everyone knows what everyone is doing.
Re: Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 > He never spent a long time on a problem since he believed that the subconscious would continue working on the problem while he consciously worked on another problem. This is definitely a thing. Intellectual labor just isn't physical labor.
Most of the best ideas I've had in my career were in the shower before work. The problem is making that a regular occurrence.
sometimes I wake up and know the solution.
Re: Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
#194Possibly…
Your accidentally achieving what needs to be done with less effort than another.
A lot of the work assigned wasn’t actually needed in the first place
Lazy people can find the best effort/reward trade off
Re: Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
#195I've been a software engineer and managed software engineers for 20 years and worked in all kinds of businesses. This is both normal and mostly acceptable, in my professional opinion. Doing just as much work as your employer requires and no more is way less of a problem than employees who actively steal, commit fraud, bring drama and distract other team members, or are introducing defects because they've faked their…
well put! I work in consulting for a large corporation and they pay for me more than 1000 Euro per day. I don't see much of that money but I can't really complain about my salary. It's pretty good (not SV-good, though). Now on average I'd say I work no more than 4 hours. Some days even less. Occasionally I feel proud of that and even brag about it to friends. But deep down I feel how this is just not making me happy. It's also not that I am lazy by any means. I think I am burned out to some extent. This mental state comes with an inability to use the rest of the work day. I spend it procrastinating - which is actually more tiring than working for whatever reason. During office times I thought this is because I have to multitask watching my back and having a solution at hand if somebody suddenly stands next to me. Now being in home office for more than a year it seems that the origin is more something like a spiritual conflict. I'm wasting my time. And I know I'm wasting it. At the same time I feel motivated to become more structured and diciplined so I can game my employer (which I do not respect for a couple of reasons) in a way benefiting me beyond my salary. Having said that I have been taking my car to a garage, doing shopping, reparing my bike or whatever during work time - so, technically, I do benefit. My g/f earns about a third of what I do while actually working a tough, stressful job in full time. Regularly when she leaves the house in the morning I sit there browsing the internet after the obligatory daily and I feel actually a bit ashamed when she sees that. I don't know ... but, yeah, thanks for your post - got me thinking.
Re: Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
#196I 100% notice when ppl are slacking - especially at the levels you mentioned. I'm a team lead - it's to much of a pain in the ass to fire people so it's easier to just keep them and give them the minimal salary increase possible. If someone is from a protected class 100% forget about firing them but I realize not all companies are like mine but I suspect a lot are.
Re: Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
#197I fire engineers like you. You're lucky. :)
Re: Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
#19858 minutes after posting, your post has 134 points and sits at the top of Ask HN. I think that answers your question a lot more clearly than the comments themselves. What you've said is clearly resonating with a lot of readers, even if they may not say so in the comments.
its like one of those 'chat' scenes in tv shows where a bunch of AA or drug recovery people sit in a circle on chairs in a church basement and discuss their kafka-esque worklife issues
Re: Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I know a few of those developers, and they sit right near me... In fact, this is so common that I can name the exact people at several jobs I've had. And I could mention them to my coworkers and they'd know exactly what these people's reputation are. Our feeling toward them is a mix of being impressed and being embarrassed. Impressed because there's something to be said for someone who works the system to their adv…
I could be completely wrong on this, but I think there's a bit of positive punishment at work. If you do something quickly, and it is of high quality, it will probably get noticed, and your reward in addition to a sense of satisfaction, is more work. The satisfaction high won't override the punishment of more work, although salary will. However, salaried employees don't get paid more to do more work (bonus notwithsta…
But is keeping a chair warm really how one wants to spend the precious few years one has alive?
Re: Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?
#200In the last year or two, I have not "worked" more than 1-2 hours a day on average--some days for a grand total of zero hours. The quote/unquote is not there by accident. I manage a team and some projects, and most of the time I let other people do the technical work while I get to chat with higher ups or give some general direction on where the work should go.
I consider myself very competent in my field even though I stopped doing purely technical work some time ago, but there are a lot of very good coders out there, but not enough "lazy pragmatists" like me.
My team likes me because I don't micromanage, I support them as much as I can and can entertain them with some good jokes, career advice and a general openness that is hard to find in professional circles.
I have also been able to work remotely for months, and when I say remotely I mean in very remote places.
I also make top money for European standards.
Some will see me as a "parasite", but they would be very wrong. I do exactly what I am asked to do, I am positive and upbeat and always ready to support the team at large when needed. Others may ask, "is she not getting bored?", but the answer is "are you kidding me?". I can spend time with my kids and partner, climb mountains, and brunch on the regular with my girlfriends.
Maybe (surely?) it will end at some point, but like someone said, "tomorrow is not promised to anyone".
I might start a coaching service at some point, as I believe most professionals (forget about the SV types, I am talking about other geographies) are far from having a real understanding on how big companies work and what should be done to have a comfortable and impactful professional life (I am a top performer!), while at the same time enjoying this splendid world we are lucky to live in.