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How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

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Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#31
post #16

The biggest thing I learned when analyzing my time, which I wish I had recognized earlier, was that I can have two types of productive days: I can have days where I do a million small things and hop quickly from task to task. Or, I can have days where I work on big issues and should not be interrupted by small issues. But, if I think I'm going to have a day where I work on a big thing and it turns out I get interrupt…

[deleted]

Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#32
post #26
post #6

The notion that a 130h work week is admirable, desirable, sustainable or useful is ridiculous and should be criticised every time it's raised. Unless you're working for yourself or working in a job where your contract compensates you by the hour then investing such huge swathes of time I think is destructive. There is a reason workers united, fought and were martyred for the 8 hour work week and the creeping clawback…

While I agree with your statement for the most part, I also understand that there is some context to it. That specific context is Marissa Mayer and other early Google employees. I find it hard to convince myself that those people and especially Mayer, were not or are not compensated in some way that takes those huge swathes of time into consideration. She was paid $36MM in 2015 and raised the market cap of Yahoo! by…

Do you think that market cap of Yahoo was increased by 151% in four years as a direct result of the number of hours worked? Could it have been done if she worked 50% less hours? A difficult question to answer with evidence.

Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#33
post #26
post #6

The notion that a 130h work week is admirable, desirable, sustainable or useful is ridiculous and should be criticised every time it's raised. Unless you're working for yourself or working in a job where your contract compensates you by the hour then investing such huge swathes of time I think is destructive. There is a reason workers united, fought and were martyred for the 8 hour work week and the creeping clawback…

While I agree with your statement for the most part, I also understand that there is some context to it. That specific context is Marissa Mayer and other early Google employees. I find it hard to convince myself that those people and especially Mayer, were not or are not compensated in some way that takes those huge swathes of time into consideration. She was paid $36MM in 2015 and raised the market cap of Yahoo! by…

Do you think that market cap of Yahoo was increased by 151% in four years as a direct result of the number of hours worked? Could it have been done if she worked 50% less hours? A difficult question to answer with evidence.

Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#34
post #26
post #6

The notion that a 130h work week is admirable, desirable, sustainable or useful is ridiculous and should be criticised every time it's raised. Unless you're working for yourself or working in a job where your contract compensates you by the hour then investing such huge swathes of time I think is destructive. There is a reason workers united, fought and were martyred for the 8 hour work week and the creeping clawback…

While I agree with your statement for the most part, I also understand that there is some context to it. That specific context is Marissa Mayer and other early Google employees. I find it hard to convince myself that those people and especially Mayer, were not or are not compensated in some way that takes those huge swathes of time into consideration. She was paid $36MM in 2015 and raised the market cap of Yahoo! by…

Do you think that market cap of Yahoo was increased by 151% in four years as a direct result of the number of hours worked? Could it have been done if she worked 50% less hours? A difficult question to answer with evidence.

Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's literally written by an individual that is male. Let's hope he knows what gender he is.

Then they should have used "How THIS technical co-founder spends HIS time" -- by using "a" instead of "this" he implies a generality.

It doesn't imply anything, it's just an ambiguous construction.

Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#36
post #26
post #6

The notion that a 130h work week is admirable, desirable, sustainable or useful is ridiculous and should be criticised every time it's raised. Unless you're working for yourself or working in a job where your contract compensates you by the hour then investing such huge swathes of time I think is destructive. There is a reason workers united, fought and were martyred for the 8 hour work week and the creeping clawback…

While I agree with your statement for the most part, I also understand that there is some context to it. That specific context is Marissa Mayer and other early Google employees. I find it hard to convince myself that those people and especially Mayer, were not or are not compensated in some way that takes those huge swathes of time into consideration. She was paid $36MM in 2015 and raised the market cap of Yahoo! by…

Working long hours on the basis you might be compensated if the company goes on to be worth billions is akin to buying a lottery ticket. For every Google there are thousands of examples of businesses that achieved far smaller success or failed.

If you want to work long hours, do it because you enjoy the work. That way there's a reward now.

Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#37
post #16

The biggest thing I learned when analyzing my time, which I wish I had recognized earlier, was that I can have two types of productive days: I can have days where I do a million small things and hop quickly from task to task. Or, I can have days where I work on big issues and should not be interrupted by small issues. But, if I think I'm going to have a day where I work on a big thing and it turns out I get interrupt…

I found other method to be effective for me. I work from home till noon - this are the best "brain hours" for me, so it's perfect to dive deep into hard dev tasks. I arrive at the office at ~12 and do all the biz stuff. Works good so far.

Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#38
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I and most of my team work from home on Fridays (we never book meetings either). It's tempting to dismiss working from home as a way of skipping on work, but there's no other time I can get 4+ contiguous hours in front of my computer with no interruptions or meetings. It's probably my most productive dev time all week, largely because I can plan for it. I frequently and vocally encourage work from home on…

I used to take the shuttle to Twitter for an hour each way. I think I wrote most of the code I wrote there on the bus because of the reliable time in front of the computer.

Yep. Mirrors my experience with shuttles. I, too, have banged out some real work on a shuttle with headphones on. I unexpectedly regretted moving closer to the office because I lost this time, despite that making not a lick of sense.

Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#39
post #16

The biggest thing I learned when analyzing my time, which I wish I had recognized earlier, was that I can have two types of productive days: I can have days where I do a million small things and hop quickly from task to task. Or, I can have days where I work on big issues and should not be interrupted by small issues. But, if I think I'm going to have a day where I work on a big thing and it turns out I get interrupt…

I have also two types of days:

- I am ultra productive or...

- I am procrastinating the entire day

Re: How a Technical Co-Founder Spends His Time

#40
I recommend not only track your time, but also write down what you do, and have project-names. Using this I can give very accurate estimates by going back and see how long time things took. And it makes it easier to plan things. Also if you are in an early startup it's good to have this so your co-founders know how much you work and on what. And if you are employed you can use it to tell your boss exactly what you did (and why it took so long). There's a saying though, that you'll spend 50% of your time documenting what you do.
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