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Productivity

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Productivity

#51

Post by StavrosK »

dontreact wrote: post #46
stavros wrote: post #6

I see these kinds of articles come along from time to time, and it always makes me wonder: Why this pressing need to maximize productivity? Why not just do things you enjoy, at a pace that you enjoy? Is it for more money/prestige? What's the use if you've been stressing and pressuring yourself for it all your life? I feel like the odd person out because I work on something while I enjoy it, stop working on it when I…

As long as I am fairly happy, I optimize for impacting the world in a positive way. This is because I think this a good proxy for long term deep-rooted happiness. I have found in myself and in others that optimizing for happiness is hard to do without focusing excessively on short-term happiness which leads to hedonic treadmill effects or even in some cases addiction. Given that you are fairly happy already, optimizi…

Oh, I'm not saying "don't optimize your productivity". Just don't stress too much about it.

Re: Productivity

#52

Post by StavrosK »

ravitation wrote: post #43
StavrosK wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I didn't read it. Reading articles about productivity makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong, when I'm perfectly happy otherwise. They're the Instagram of work life for me. EDIT: I went back and read it, I agree with most of what he says (and my original comment wasn't very relevant to this particular article), I would just add "don't stress about productivity, most of the time it's fine to just d…

So, what you're saying is that you find it hurts your productivity to read productivity articles, so you try not to put yourself into the position where you have to read them? On a more serious note, I feel like "maximizing" "productivity" on things you are passionate about is largely wasted effort (unless the thing you are passionate about is "maximizing" "productivity")...

> So, what you're saying is that you find it hurts your productivity to read productivity articles, so you try not to put yourself into the position where you have to read them?

No, it hurts my happiness to read productivity articles, so I skip them.

Re: Productivity

#53

Post by jrs235 »

ksk wrote: post #15
stavros wrote: post #6

I see these kinds of articles come along from time to time, and it always makes me wonder: Why this pressing need to maximize productivity? Why not just do things you enjoy, at a pace that you enjoy? Is it for more money/prestige? What's the use if you've been stressing and pressuring yourself for it all your life? I feel like the odd person out because I work on something while I enjoy it, stop working on it when I…

Probably because people think that their current level is 'unnaturally low' and if only they 'did this one secret thing' it would get some kind of immediate boost. I've observed that tech people especially, are naturally interested in learning new things, but find it harder to go into a heads-down productive mode where they completely dedicate their time to one thing. A lot of programmers seem to use deadlines or oth…

The new meme/trend I see now is: don't manage your time (or tasks), manage your energy.

Re: Productivity

#54

Post by mayukh »

stavros wrote: post #6

I see these kinds of articles come along from time to time, and it always makes me wonder: Why this pressing need to maximize productivity? Why not just do things you enjoy, at a pace that you enjoy? Is it for more money/prestige? What's the use if you've been stressing and pressuring yourself for it all your life? I feel like the odd person out because I work on something while I enjoy it, stop working on it when I…

You are lucky and sound really content. That's awesome! For a lot of folks though (anecdotally speaking) that is not the case, they have different priorities and goals, not just for themselves, but also for their near and dear ones. Sometimes it gets overwhelming when you think about all the different roles we play in life and all the various commitments (direct and indirect) we've made professionally, personally (to self and family/friends). To me being productive, is being able to say confidently that 'This is the best use of my time and energy right now at this very moment'. It could be working out, playing with my kids, working on a project.. whatever. Sort of non-intuitively (for me atleast), staying organized (with lists , reminders, etc whatever is cheapest/easiest way to do so), just helps me actually shut off my mind and enjoy the moment. Whatever that might be (including writing this comment :) )

Re: Productivity

#55

Post by severine »

wpietri wrote: post #47
stavros wrote: post #6

I see these kinds of articles come along from time to time, and it always makes me wonder: Why this pressing need to maximize productivity? Why not just do things you enjoy, at a pace that you enjoy? Is it for more money/prestige? What's the use if you've been stressing and pressuring yourself for it all your life? I feel like the odd person out because I work on something while I enjoy it, stop working on it when I…

The Church of Productivity strikes me as a very American kind of religion. I personally value being productive on things I care about, but I've worked hard to unlearn this general protestant-work-ethic, no-moment-wasted, anxiety-driven desire to be a Very Productive Person. One of the interesting things to me is how long this has been a part of American history. In the excellent history podcast Backstory, one episode…

Thanks for the link! There's also a transcript:

https://www.backstoryradio.org/shows/on-the-clock-4/#transcr...

Re: Productivity

#56

Post by ravitation »

StavrosK wrote: post #52
ravitation wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, what you're saying is that you find it hurts your productivity to read productivity articles, so you try not to put yourself into the position where you have to read them? On a more serious note, I feel like "maximizing" "productivity" on things you are passionate about is largely wasted effort (unless the thing you are passionate about is "maximizing" "productivity")...

> So, what you're saying is that you find it hurts your productivity to read productivity articles, so you try not to put yourself into the position where you have to read them? No, it hurts my happiness to read productivity articles, so I skip them.

Yeah, but what is happiness other than a way to increase your productivity?

Re: Productivity

#57

Post by joeblubaugh »

bgentry wrote: post #10
stavros wrote: post #6

I see these kinds of articles come along from time to time, and it always makes me wonder: Why this pressing need to maximize productivity? Why not just do things you enjoy, at a pace that you enjoy? Is it for more money/prestige? What's the use if you've been stressing and pressuring yourself for it all your life? I feel like the odd person out because I work on something while I enjoy it, stop working on it when I…

Not sure if you read the post, but the author addresses a couple of your points and seems to agree with you: I’ve learned that I can’t be very productive working on things I don’t care about or don’t like. So I just try not to put myself in a position where I have to do them (by delegating, avoiding, or something else). Stuff that you don’t like is a painful drag on morale and momentum. And: Also, don’t fall into the…

So what’s the person he delegates the work he doesn’t like supposed to do when it’s work they don’t like? Get fired for being unproductive? This is something you can only do when you have enough minions or money to avoid that stuff.

Re: Productivity

#58

Post by logicallee »

stavros wrote: post #6

I see these kinds of articles come along from time to time, and it always makes me wonder: Why this pressing need to maximize productivity? Why not just do things you enjoy, at a pace that you enjoy? Is it for more money/prestige? What's the use if you've been stressing and pressuring yourself for it all your life? I feel like the odd person out because I work on something while I enjoy it, stop working on it when I…

Startups allow each early contributor to literally (this is not an exaggeration) do the work of an army of 100,000. And often do it better than any one of the 100,000 because that army is also out there in the industry you're entering, well-equipped, well-regimented and well-managed, working 8 hours a day 5 days a week with all the economies of scale of specializations into their various duties (when you look at a trademark status as the founding CEO, the opposing army has a lawyer with a degree in intellectual property and 10 years specializing in just that one thing; same for every other task in the business), and all of the material support, recognition, and connections to do whatever they want.

You, by contrast, have exactly two things: 1) your idea. 2) your productivity.

That's it. Of course founders will be interested in productivity. It's all we have.

(By the way in 1 month of 40 hour weeks there are 576 000 000 milliseconds. So as long as you can do in 2000 to 20 000 milliseconds, the work of a dedicated specialist working for a month, you have plenty of extra room to personally defeat the army of 100,000 - with room to spare. And of course unlike them, you're not limited to 40 hours a week when it comes down to it ;).)

Re: Productivity

#59

Post by robert_tweed »

whalesalad wrote: post #22

> I very rarely eat breakfast, so I get about 15 hours of fasting most days (except an espresso when I wake up). I know this is contrary to most advice, and I suspect it’s not optimal for most people, but it definitely works well for me. Coffee isn't going to interrupt your fast, assuming it's black. I too skip breakfast and try to fast as long as possible. Fasting is tremendously helpful to productivity. Nothing wil…

> Interesting how often folks overestimate the caffeine in a shot of espresso. A single shot is like 60mg.

Nope. Anything from 25-214mg per shot with a mean of 106mg:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027869150...

Re: Productivity

#60

Post by maksimum »

pm90 wrote: post #30

I really like that its so easy for successful and productive people to share their thoughts on what got them where they are and their advice on how others can get there too. The part of the essay I liked the most was perhaps his comment about having strong convictions on things. This is incredibly important. To get to a level of knowledge on anything to get that conviction though, requires a lot of deliberate reading…

> To get to a level of knowledge on anything to get that conviction though, requires a lot of deliberate reading and experience.

Nah it's pretty easy, Dunning-Kruger's got us covered. :)

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