Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a Level 2/3 SysAdmin/Engineer in the ATL area. But I do "develop" in POSH if you can call that coding. I'm learning python now.
Are you interested in working remotely?
It's my preference, yes I am.
Cutting your salary by 40%
281–290 of 451 posts
Re: Cutting your salary by 40%
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
As people. Granted, none of those people are grinding away working for The Man. Instead, they are running their own organizations. Is that not your experience?
Thats probably the most important differential in their drive and success.
I wonder how many hours leaders like Gates, Bezos, and Musk work each week.
Re: Cutting your salary by 40%
#283I often think about Arthur Rubenstein, the phenom mid-century pianist, for whom a lot has been written about his mission in early life to "practice as little as possible." There's a lot of hyped up romanticism in these quotes and anyone who plays at his level has spent a lifetime playing piano, period. Regardless, his guidance about spontaneity, creativity, and the relationship to practicing too much, which I equate…
My brother is in a bluegrass band. They've been around for 10 years now, and there's a lot of music they've played so many times I'm sure they could do it in their sleep.
There are a few songs that I really do think they used to do better, back when they were just starting out. Specifically, some of the fast, most technically difficult songs that they used to play right up until they were at the edge of what was possible for them. Those songs were full of an energy that they just don't have anymore, now that they can do them perfectly without a sweat.
Re: Cutting your salary by 40%
#284I often think about Arthur Rubenstein, the phenom mid-century pianist, for whom a lot has been written about his mission in early life to "practice as little as possible." There's a lot of hyped up romanticism in these quotes and anyone who plays at his level has spent a lifetime playing piano, period. Regardless, his guidance about spontaneity, creativity, and the relationship to practicing too much, which I equate…
I love the idea of the drop of blood and I value that in live music. In all fairness, though, it probably helps to be so fantastically talented that you can get farther with 1 hour of practice than other musicians get in 10 hours. I wonder if Rubenstein ever lost a gig or missed a meal because the risk went really poorly.
Re: Cutting your salary by 40%
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What happens when every company is doing this ritual? Just look at Japan to see what a 12+ hour / day work culture looks like. Their population and their economy are both slowly going down the shitter thanks to it, depression is widespread, etc.
Not sure if economic problems really come from long work days. Otherwise it'd be easy to boost the economy by forcing people to work less. I totally agree with the health problems it causes though.
> Not sure if economic problems really come from long work days.
I'm not sure either, but, at least as the story is told today, that was Ford's motivation for implementing the 8 hour workday at Ford. He allegedly surmised that if people were too busy working, they wouldn't have time to buy his products. It certainly seems plausible. If you spend all your time working, you really don't need to buy much other than the basic necessities, which doesn't help with a robust economy.
Re: Cutting your salary by 40%
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
Predictability. We pair program, so we need everybody to be there at the same time. People sometimes work less, due to doctor appointments, child care, home repairs, and such. However, they never work more.
How does a total of 40 hours per week affect the predicability of being there at the same time in a way that 35, 39, or 42 hours maximum per week could not?
my teams do the same thing, it works fine as long as there's some degree of predictability in the schedule. My team does a standard 40 hour work week but only 6 hours per day of required "core hours" used for pairing. The other two hours ar e flexible so the folks can adjust their schedules if they want to get in earlier in the morning and leave earlier.
9-4 you'll be in the office and ready to pair, and lunch for everyone is 12-1 regardless of when you got there; but you can come in at 7 and leave at 4 if you want, or get in at 9 and stay til 6 or work at home later if that works better.
you need that strictness of "pairing time starts now" otherwise you have people coming and going and needing breaks at all different times and it gets disruptive.
Re: Cutting your salary by 40%
#287I often think about Arthur Rubenstein, the phenom mid-century pianist, for whom a lot has been written about his mission in early life to "practice as little as possible." There's a lot of hyped up romanticism in these quotes and anyone who plays at his level has spent a lifetime playing piano, period. Regardless, his guidance about spontaneity, creativity, and the relationship to practicing too much, which I equate…
My brother is in a bluegrass band. They've been around for 10 years now, and there's a lot of music they've played so many times I'm sure they could do it in their sleep. There are a few songs that I really do think they used to do better, back when they were just starting out. Specifically, some of the fast, most technically difficult songs that they used to play right up until they were at the edge of what was poss…
+ 1 for bluegrass
That particular form presents an interesting challenge. Many performers tend to stay with memorized breaks, or within certain patterns, that they can do on stage without breaking a sweat. The blood only shows in jams or informal performances. Unlike jazz, where it is not. cool. to play the same solo twice anywhere.
Re: Cutting your salary by 40%
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can definitely believe that. But in my line of work I'm expected to bill at least 8 hrs/day to the client regardless of my personal productivity.
> Pfft. A man-hour of labor is a man-hour of labor > I'm expected to bill at least 8 hrs/day I bet you're capable of far deeper, more intellectually stimulating and rewarding work than you're doing now.
I'd like to think so, but the pay is good and there isn't much else in this area.
Re: Cutting your salary by 40%
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
How did you determine that 40 hours is optimal? Why not 30? Or 50?
It's what most of the English speaking societies have centred on over time. Other places say Scandinavia might put it at 37 and some Asian companies might be closer to 45. But around 40 hours pr week is where most modern societies tend to think work/life balance is reasonable both for the economy and the individual. The old union slogan used to be 8 hours of work 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of leisure. And in many w…
That's linked to the question of "how many hours can we extract from these human widgets before they revolt?"
It doesn't hold true in times of crisis, such as war. When the US ramped up for WWII, people were happily working around the clock.
And I'm not sure that it applies to the knowledge workers. My own view is that knowledge workers are productive in bursts.
Re: Cutting your salary by 40%
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can progress in your career very rapidly by doing 40h of high quality work per week. I know many young people (my generation) who are in their late 20s or early 30s and have made a very fast career progression already and didn't need to work 80 hours per day at all. Also for software engineers you have to take into account continuously upskilling yourself to know the latest tech is something which takes a lot of…
Like a lot of people in financial technology and HFT, I dont work outside projevrs very much. I get a lot of my experience with newer tech inside my job and as well have to deal with some fairlt heavy secrecy issues. But aren't you just trading the location of work for the most part? I get that experience from within my firm on projects I'm working on while others still work on their skills just outside their employm…
"But aren't you just trading the location of work for the most part?"
No, because I have complete control over what I do, what tech I choose, and how long to put in. If, for example, I decide one day I don't feel like doing it, I can blow it off and go fishing. If instead, those hours were dedicated to the company, I wouldn't be able to do that.