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Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

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Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#41

Post by [deleted] »

golergka wrote: post #34
simplemath wrote: post #8

Overworked? Everyone is overworked. We live in a post scarcity industrial world, or very very close to it, and bad actors have gobbled up the spoils of the huge gains in productivity in the last 50 years. How much of the entire economy is predicated on grey money? How much of your time is indirectly consumed by this leviathan? The more I think about it, the more i want to opt out of the entire fucking thing.

I really hope you're talking about taxes. That's where half of my salary is going to, not to some mythical "evil rich", but to pay for beurocracy and welfare programs.

[deleted]

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#42

Post by diogenescynic »

As someone who routinely has more work than they can finish in an 8-hour work day, the headline and article strike me as tone-deaf and victim blaming. It's simply not possible to solve the overwork problem entirely by 'good habits' alone. When you do a good job digging ditches, often your reward is a bigger shovel. When you do well, somehow more work finds it's way to your desk. I don't think you can always be finding ways to optimize when your workload is constantly expanding. Sometimes you have to get up early and stay up late to finish a project.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#43

Post by Retric »

golergka wrote: post #34
simplemath wrote: post #8

Overworked? Everyone is overworked. We live in a post scarcity industrial world, or very very close to it, and bad actors have gobbled up the spoils of the huge gains in productivity in the last 50 years. How much of the entire economy is predicated on grey money? How much of your time is indirectly consumed by this leviathan? The more I think about it, the more i want to opt out of the entire fucking thing.

I really hope you're talking about taxes. That's where half of my salary is going to, not to some mythical "evil rich", but to pay for beurocracy and welfare programs.

My taxes are inflated so rich can pay a lower percentage than I do or even just skim off the government. Beyond that, my Rent and healthcare costs are ridiculously inflated, but you can find a lot of padding in other areas.

FYI even just at the federal level things are effed up. 33.9% of taxes collected are payroll taxes, but social security caps at ~120k. Hint it's just a tax, you can receive benifits without ever working and millions on disability are simply pulled off welfare rolls.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#44

Post by DenisM »

golergka wrote: post #34
simplemath wrote: post #8

Overworked? Everyone is overworked. We live in a post scarcity industrial world, or very very close to it, and bad actors have gobbled up the spoils of the huge gains in productivity in the last 50 years. How much of the entire economy is predicated on grey money? How much of your time is indirectly consumed by this leviathan? The more I think about it, the more i want to opt out of the entire fucking thing.

I really hope you're talking about taxes. That's where half of my salary is going to, not to some mythical "evil rich", but to pay for beurocracy and welfare programs.

I know a guy in a project that generates a few millions per employee. His share is less than 10% in salary. In this case the discrepancy is easy to see, but the same is true in many other places where it's not so obvious.

But we can see it in the big picture, statistically half the money in the country goes to the 0.01% or something along those lines. All the gains from productivity went to the super-rich.

It doesn't make a lot of sense for you to keep your eyes fixed on taxes and welfare when there is a lot more money at stake. But it makes a lot of sense for the super-rich to ensure that you keep doing it.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#45

Post by [deleted] »

Retric wrote: post #43
golergka wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hope you're talking about taxes. That's where half of my salary is going to, not to some mythical "evil rich", but to pay for beurocracy and welfare programs.

My taxes are inflated so rich can pay a lower percentage than I do or even just skim off the government. Beyond that, my Rent and healthcare costs are ridiculously inflated, but you can find a lot of padding in other areas. FYI even just at the federal level things are effed up. 33.9% of taxes collected are payroll taxes, but social security caps at ~120k. Hint it's just a tax, you can receive benifits without ever w…

[deleted]

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#46

Post by preordained »

PeterTMayer wrote: post #24

You might get better organized daily and find a good hobby but vacations are important, especially if you spend it with some traveling. A good hobby I recommend everyone that will help you totally tune out from your work is jiu jitsu.

>A good hobby I recommend everyone that will help you totally tune out from your work is jiu jitsu

Yes! If people only knew the type of escape that was possible, both mental and physical. American blackbelt Chris Haueter once recalled how he would eagerly drive hours to the gym in his shitty car, from his shitty job and shitty relationship, because he knew it would all roll off him when he hit the mat.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#47

Post by com2kid »

cballard wrote: post #2

> So if we need to work long hours, what can we do to recover? Not work long hours? This is what unions are for (now, if we could just have one without dues/political contributions).

> Not work long hours?

Consumers demand their new toys on a regular cycle. If one company doesn't keep up, another will. Too long not in the news and people forget about you.

The only way to stay relevant in a world with a thousand distractions is to keep making enough noise that customers pay attention.

If a product can be done properly in 16 months and ignored, or done in 12 months of way too many hours, and be a hit on the market, well the only damn choice is work 12 hour days.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#48

Post by Swizec »

arca_vorago wrote: post #21
sremani wrote: post #4

Some are missing the point, most of the work we as software developers does not need long hours but deep focus. The best of the best are able to have 4 hours worth of deep focus, and we are lucky to get an hour or two of it. That would be huge. So the good habits that help us with focus and emphasizes on recovery like walking in the woods (our natural habitat), meditation etc. Its not the time, the hardware of brain…

On the same point, this is one of my primary frustrations as a sysadmin, because sometimes I need to be available lickety-split, but sometimes I need to be in deep focus mode, but my office environment isn't very conducive to deep focus mode... so sometimes I have to disappear myself to a hidden place just to get some thinking in. Or, what happens more often, is that my productivity suffers and I end up staying late…

> You pay me money to get a job done at a certain level. If you want me to be superman, you better pay me more like it! Instead, I continually hear the guys who have worked at a place more than 15 years say "You have to put in the work and effort and then hope they give you that raise, perk, etc...".

As Jay-Z put it: You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#49

Post by neltnerb »

diogenescynic wrote: post #42

As someone who routinely has more work than they can finish in an 8-hour work day, the headline and article strike me as tone-deaf and victim blaming. It's simply not possible to solve the overwork problem entirely by 'good habits' alone. When you do a good job digging ditches, often your reward is a bigger shovel. When you do well, somehow more work finds it's way to your desk. I don't think you can always be findin…

First, it's clearly talking about steady state, not emergencies. And if you're always in emergency mode these are even more important to know about in terms of the psychology...

Maybe you can't stop reading email or have time to go biking after work, but ten minute breaks to go outside scattered around the day? Creating a ritual to help your brain to switch from hard core work mode to resting mode?

It can literally just be a cup of tea when you get home. It doesn't have to be hours of time and energy, but the point that not doing so will cause you to become sick is certainly accurate.

But I think the point of the article was how to cope with overwork and reduce your stress, not to actually reduce your work load.

Re: Overworked? Good habits, not holidays, are the answer

#50

Post by [deleted] »

DenisM wrote: post #44
golergka wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hope you're talking about taxes. That's where half of my salary is going to, not to some mythical "evil rich", but to pay for beurocracy and welfare programs.

I know a guy in a project that generates a few millions per employee. His share is less than 10% in salary. In this case the discrepancy is easy to see, but the same is true in many other places where it's not so obvious. But we can see it in the big picture, statistically half the money in the country goes to the 0.01% or something along those lines. All the gains from productivity went to the super-rich. It doesn't…

[deleted]
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