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Cutting your salary by 40%

codewithoutrules.com

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Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#321

Post by Accacin »

rhpistole wrote: post #24
TeMPOraL wrote: post #5

Tangential: I loved the "When programming is your hobby" part of this blog post. Finally someone accepting, and not dissing, people who actually like to code . The advice is spot-on, too: coding > 40h / week is fine, but why give up your freedom of choosing what to work on, when to work on it, and when to take time off, without any compensation?

Yeah, except what this actually means is, "You don't have any interests outside of work and you do not have kids that may take you away from work and you don't have a SO/spouse to tell you that you're being taken advantage of." It's not really about your interests, it's about you being naive.

I don't know, I'm a Front End Web Dev and I often code at home. At the moment I've been learning C as it's not to do something not web related.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#322

Post by Blackthorn »

dogruck wrote: post #282
googletazer wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Gates at least was notorious for working non-stop.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#323

Post by RankingMember »

Waterluvian wrote: post #307
RankingMember wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What tends to kill these kinds of arrangements is other employees complaining and wanting the same deal in my experience. aka the "NO FAIR BILLY GETS TO!" factor

I think mature managers and mature employees makes this go away.

The world could use more of those for sure!

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#324

Post by valuearb »

I don't disagree with the authors point that expecting massive hours without corresponding extra compensation is wrong.

But I can't believe the blanket assertions I've seen that working 40 hours a week is the proven output maximization limit. If I work 40 hours from monday to friday, and I have nothing to do on Saturday, and a strong desire to implement a an important customer request, how is working 4 or 5 hours on my day off going to result in negative output?

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#325

Post by TheKarateKid »

adambmedia wrote: post #222

I 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 see the point you're making, but I have to disagree. I think a part of mastering any area of expertise is being so good at what it is you do that it becomes second-nature to you. This allows you to use your skills on demand when you need it, whenever and wherever. No prep required. And since it's second nature, you can tweak it as needed to make it fresh and interesting to yourself and other people.

A good example of this musically is Lady Gaga. She has performed the same set of songs so many times, but she has mastered her musical ability and skills so well that she uses it to her advantage (and the audience's) in a performance.

She improvises on the spot, harmonizing lyrics with herself and backup singers, changing lyrics to make them relevant to the crowd or show she's doing, and if she's on a piano sometimes changes up an entire song and adds parts to it which never existed, and may never exist again.

The result is an engaging performance that is never the same a second time around, and it leaves a lasting impression on the audience.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#326

Post by TheKarateKid »

valuearb wrote: post #324

I don't disagree with the authors point that expecting massive hours without corresponding extra compensation is wrong. But I can't believe the blanket assertions I've seen that working 40 hours a week is the proven output maximization limit. If I work 40 hours from monday to friday, and I have nothing to do on Saturday, and a strong desire to implement a an important customer request, how is working 4 or 5 hours on…

There's a difference between doing it occasionally when you desire to, and being expected to do it every week against your will.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#327

Post by Steeeve »

Not sure if it was something that I was linked to here on HN, but I read an article recently that showed the average worker is productive for 3 hours per day - and one of the most popular non-working activities is searching for another job.

I'm a firm believer that success is defined by balance. Balance in all aspects of life - balance between family and self, balance between pursuits in which you are driven and those which you enjoy, balance between being social and productive. I regret to say that I have only achieved this on rare occasions. I am a work-a-holic, and frankly I think that's a bad role model for my children to see.

Well rested, happy people with healthy social lives can accomplish twice the work in half the time as a constantly stressed work-a-holic. When crunch time comes, they can spend the extra hours and put in that extra effort. Somebody who is already run down when crunch time comes not only has less to give, they have other priorities fighting for that time - because those other priorities are ALWAYS fighting for that time and losing.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#328

Post by eecc »

tw1010 wrote: post #179
Vektorweg wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some thinking-intensive work can bring you at the edge in just 3 hours a day. After that, you generate more problems than solutions. Especially mathematicians are prone to this. Similar cases in software development need to be respected.

Grothendieck worked twelve hours per day every day of the week for a decade. Source: https://math.stackexchange.com/a/874290/161054

Yeah we should all - at he miminum - outperform a mathematical giant.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#329

Post by watwut »

mancerayder wrote: post #225
blub wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your 60+ hours per week guy probably doesn't have much of a life outside software engineering. He'd be working between 8,5-12h/day, depending on how many workdays he puts in. At that level of time investment, he doesn't have time for a romantic relationship. Almost no one would be crazy to accept so little attention, but even if they would it would be a weak & shallow relationship. They probably don't have time for f…

What you just said isn't said often enough. If someone works 12 hour days, and then implements the, and it hurts me to even type it out, "lifestyle hacks" to further squeeze the sponge of productive hours, the sacrifice they make to their own personal lives is a big toll. 12 hour days, plus commute, plus 8 hours of sleep leaves little time for socializing, hobbies and let alone exercise. But the bigger tragedy is, on…

If it would be just about him getting bigger reward for more work, then it should be fine.

The problem is that people don't socialize at all out of work still have those pesky communication needs. And they use meetings to fulfill them ... slowing everyone down. And what used to be one sentence affair is suddenly 30 minutes long hard to stop chat, because lonely people need to talk. Or one person job is suddenly two person job for no reason other then one of them lack socialization.

And since they dont mind spending there 12 hours a day, they organize things in a way that makes it impossible for other people to come home sooner. Meaning that meetings are late, important information is passed late etc.

And oftentimes means that tired people make more bugs and do less rational decisions. So they insist on work that does not need to be done right away to be done right away for no reason other then fear.

Re: Cutting your salary by 40%

#330

Post by TheKarateKid »

I'm glad to see more awareness of corporate exploits on tech workers, and the push back against it.

In my experience, people involved in the IT/CS are very passionate about their work but often less outspoken than people in other industries, like finance and business. To see people taking advantage of these qualities for their gain is very frustrating and I hope it doesn't work out in the long run for this company and others like it.

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