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The Tragic Cost of Google Pac-Man – 4.82 million hours

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Re: The Tragic Cost of Google Pac-Man – 4.82 million hours

#31

Post by treyp »

hugh3 wrote: post #18

For perspective: Last night's Lost finale got 13 million viewers, 2.5 hours each, so that's 32.5 million hours wasted there. The Superbowl gets ~100 million viewers and lasts... what, three hours? So that's 300 million hours wasted there. The soccer world cup final is rumoured to get something on the order of a billion viewers, so... that's a lot of hours wasted. And your entire life, if you never do anything in the…

i don't like the throwing around of the term 'wasted'

even if you mean 'wasted potential work time', who's to say that entertainment in short bursts doesn't increase productivity by preventing burn out?

Re: The Tragic Cost of Google Pac-Man – 4.82 million hours

#32

Post by qw »

jheriko wrote: post #16
revaaron wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why what the first part (before the hyphen) has to do with the rest. I'd agree with the first bit, but not because anyone who dinks around a bit online at work is "lazy and unproductive."

I've probably overstated myself a bit, whilst failing to explain my opinion well because I was writing from an emotional response. Dinking around online is lunch-time behaviour. If you really have nothing to do, why not take the initiative and do something productive for your employer instead of fooling around on the net? The occasional 5 minutes probably doesn't hurt, but that doesn't make it right either... an hour…

I guess it depends on what work you do. If I worked a 100% of the day, except for lunch break, my brain would be fried after a few days. 5 minutes an hour doing something else actually makes me more productive.

Sure, when I'm in the zone and are lucky enough not to get interrupted I can program for longer periods of time, but I still need a short break now and then.

I don't know where you worked, and since I'm from a different country, the standards may also be different. But where I live, I can't think of a physical job where you are required to work at 100% capacity for a whole day, except for a lunch break. Short rest periods are required.

Re: The Tragic Cost of Google Pac-Man – 4.82 million hours

#33

Post by webwright »

tjmaxal wrote: post #13
brown9-2 wrote: post #9

And what percentage of total work produced do those 4.82 million hours represent? You can't evaluate if it is a "tragic" cost or not without knowing the other half. From their writeup, sounds like average time spent on Google for that day went from 33.6 million hours to 38.4 million hours - an increase of 14% more time spent per person on google.com for a single day. This doesn't sound tragic to me. If the average Re…

I don't think you guys get the joke. They were being sarcastic about the whole "tragedy" they even said so in the first comment.

Thank you! :-) Yeah, more time is "wasted" getting coffee every day. We thought it was a lot more interesting how LITTLE actual time was spent on Google search and how the Pac-Man logo resulted in a 15% bump on average time logged.

Re: The Tragic Cost of Google Pac-Man – 4.82 million hours

#34

Post by malnourish »

treyp wrote: post #31
hugh3 wrote: post #18

For perspective: Last night's Lost finale got 13 million viewers, 2.5 hours each, so that's 32.5 million hours wasted there. The Superbowl gets ~100 million viewers and lasts... what, three hours? So that's 300 million hours wasted there. The soccer world cup final is rumoured to get something on the order of a billion viewers, so... that's a lot of hours wasted. And your entire life, if you never do anything in the…

i don't like the throwing around of the term 'wasted' even if you mean 'wasted potential work time', who's to say that entertainment in short bursts doesn't increase productivity by preventing burn out?

I agree. I always here about how people "waste time" by enjoying themselves. Since when is enjoying yourself a waste of time?

This sort of talk is often directed at financially stable people, too. Sure, there may be "better" things to do with one's time, but we only have one life to live (that we can acknowledge, anyway) so I feel some leisure time is well deserved.

Re: The Tragic Cost of Google Pac-Man – 4.82 million hours

#36

Post by jorgeortiz85 »

Sukotto wrote: post #28
hugh3 wrote: post #18

For perspective: Last night's Lost finale got 13 million viewers, 2.5 hours each, so that's 32.5 million hours wasted there. The Superbowl gets ~100 million viewers and lasts... what, three hours? So that's 300 million hours wasted there. The soccer world cup final is rumoured to get something on the order of a billion viewers, so... that's a lot of hours wasted. And your entire life, if you never do anything in the…

How many of those things impact productivity during work hours?

Mexico shuts down during Mexican world cup games. People don't work, there are literally no cars on the street.

Re: The Tragic Cost of Google Pac-Man – 4.82 million hours

#37

Post by notauser »

davidblair wrote: post #5

I hate the nickle and dime approach to productivity. In fact, the happier I am the more I get done.

That's true, but the time-tracking approach encourages me to work hard for a while and then switch off and do something else.

Nothing sucks my motivation more than sitting around for 8 hours thinking I'm working and getting nothing done.

Re: The Tragic Cost of Google Pac-Man – 4.82 million hours

#38

Post by malnourish »

noonespecial wrote: post #19

Won't someone please think of the ghosts!? How many ghosts were tragically chomped in the pursuit of this so-called diversion?

We would like to see this statistic.

Sincerely, People for the Ethical Treatment of the Super Natural.

Re: The Tragic Cost of Google Pac-Man – 4.82 million hours

#39

Post by hugh3 »

treyp wrote: post #31
hugh3 wrote: post #18

For perspective: Last night's Lost finale got 13 million viewers, 2.5 hours each, so that's 32.5 million hours wasted there. The Superbowl gets ~100 million viewers and lasts... what, three hours? So that's 300 million hours wasted there. The soccer world cup final is rumoured to get something on the order of a billion viewers, so... that's a lot of hours wasted. And your entire life, if you never do anything in the…

i don't like the throwing around of the term 'wasted' even if you mean 'wasted potential work time', who's to say that entertainment in short bursts doesn't increase productivity by preventing burn out?

Of course I was being facetious in describing them as wasted, just as the original article was. If you really thought of every moment spent at leisure as "wasted time" you'd go mad.

The vast majority of hours of anyone's life are "wasted" in one sense or another, so it's not my problem how anyone else chooses to waste theirs. I just hope that when I get to the end of my hours that the top few hundred of 'em will be enough to justify the hundreds of thousands I spent doing stuff rapidly forgotten.

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