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Busy to Death

barryoreilly.com

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Re: Busy to Death

#31

Post by RegW »

superplussed wrote: post #8
computator wrote: post #2

> Thinking is an activity too—don’t undervalue it. Make time and space for it in your daily work schedule. This is why I find it impossible to work effectively in open-plan offices. I'm often looking off in to space, thinking. But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working.

I love when CEOs talk about how they set aside dedicated time for this, Jason Fried comes to mind.

Yes, and how important it is that they play golf with the other C-Levels during the working week.

Somehow I don't feel the same rules are going to get applied to the rest of us.

Re: Busy to Death

#32

Post by baby »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #19

Looking busy can sometimes be a defense mechanism for protecting your own space and peace of mind. When your cow-orkers, friends and family see you Very Busy, they'll be less likely to interrupt you all the time with irrelevant bullshit. In fact, this works extremely well, because people usually respect the fact that someone is working. On the other hand, when they see you not working, they think it gives them the ri…

> On the other hand, when they see you not working, they think it gives them the right to acquire your time

Sure, for close people, but your friends will stop talking to you if you do not have time for them.

I remember reading that a good technique could be to organize a meetup (a movie, a bbq, a dinner, drinks, ...) with all your friends once a week (or once every other week or ...)

This way your friends know when they can get in touch with you, you also see all of them at the same time and they can meet each other.

Re: Busy to Death

#33

Post by reubenswartz »

epx wrote: post #27

Once a guy chose not to go to office, instead he went to Starbucks -- so he could finish an important document (not some side project, but the kind of document he was paid to write). True story.

I used to do that to write important blocks of code when I needed a few hours when no one would interrupt. This was before I had a cell phone and before coffee shops sold wifi with a side of coffee. ;-)

Re: Busy to Death

#34

Post by the-dude »

At my first junior gig as a programmer ( I was still a student ), a co-worker learned me this :

"If you don't have the time to help others, you are not doing your job right".

Which he learned from a senior in his internship.

Re: Busy to Death

#35

Post by rmah »

w0utert wrote: post #18
averagewall wrote: post #5

In jobs where I feel sure I'm doing my job well, I overtly show when I'm not busy. Walking around, playing video games, chatting, even working on my own business (with boss's permission) etc. I see other people worriedly noticing when the boss is coming or being afraid that the guard will notice they often turn up late in the morning. But it doesn't bother me at all. I'm doing what I was hired to do and there's no ne…

Being lazy is a good personality trait to have if you are a developer, as long as you channel your laziness to be more efficient and get more done in less time. This frees up time you can spend thinking, relaxing, or reading/learning about stuff not directly related to the immediate task at hand. Over the long term you will learn more, stress less, produce fewer bugs, etc. The people I value the most as co-workers, w…

That's not being lazy. That's being proactive in improving your productivity. This is the opposite of lazy.

Re: Busy to Death

#36

Post by nerdponx »

epx wrote: post #27

Once a guy chose not to go to office, instead he went to Starbucks -- so he could finish an important document (not some side project, but the kind of document he was paid to write). True story.

I've done this. Leave the (open floor plan) office early and go to the library around the corner to get real work done.

Re: Busy to Death

#37

Post by acdha »

the-dude wrote: post #34

At my first junior gig as a programmer ( I was still a student ), a co-worker learned me this : "If you don't have the time to help others, you are not doing your job right". Which he learned from a senior in his internship.

… or your employer is unwilling to setup an environment in which you can do your job well. This is usually an excellent sign that you should find a more competent employer.

Re: Busy to Death

#38

Post by maxxxxx »

the-dude wrote: post #34

At my first junior gig as a programmer ( I was still a student ), a co-worker learned me this : "If you don't have the time to help others, you are not doing your job right". Which he learned from a senior in his internship.

"If you don't have the time to help others, you are not doing your job right".

That's a great attitude especially once you get more senior in experience. I don't like people asking trivial stuff they could have looked up on StackOverflow in 5 minutes and let them know that but otherwise I am always open for questions.

Re: Busy to Death

#39

Post by eeZah7Ux »

computator wrote: post #2

> Thinking is an activity too—don’t undervalue it. Make time and space for it in your daily work schedule. This is why I find it impossible to work effectively in open-plan offices. I'm often looking off in to space, thinking. But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working.

By doing that you are only encouraging the "look busy" behavior in others. Please don't.

The world does not need yet another million SLOC. We need to think a lot and type little.

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