Productivity • Hacker News Board

Re: Productivity

#161

Post by hsrada » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

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…

Just curious, is your life better for having spent that time learning more about politics? What prompted you to get started?

Asking as somebody that doesn't care much about politics but not averse to the idea of making an effort to understand it if the benefits>cost.

Re: Productivity

#162

Post by a-saleh » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

danvasquez29 wrote: post #131

wpietri wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How would you put into words the opposing, "non-productivity focused" viewpoint? I'm an American and I don't know that I can currently comprehend what the opposite would be.

Thinking about it in the current context, I might say that there is something like a prodictivity counter-culture? For example Deep Work seems to value high-poductivity focus on one hand, but being lazy and completely switching off workis lauded as well.

Ritch Hickie talk Hammock-driven development seems to be about simmilar concept as well https://github.com/matthiasn/talk-transcripts/blob/master/Hi...

Last thing it reminds me of, is the Mythical Man Month, with its warnings about how adding more people to a project makes it makes it even more behind the schedule.

But even here, I still live with the undrlying assumption that you as a person want to keep producing interesting/important/useful/profitable things. Just that slowing down can get you further.

I have experienced this with myself when working on my masters thesis. I remember that for three months I was just thinking about it. Not really working on anything. And after the idea slowly over the months crystalized as the "right thing to do" I solved a problem in a way that replaced 3Kloc C++ code with 50 lines of Python over a weekend. Then I spent rest of the time running experiments and writing the text :-)

And sometimes I miss this, especially in current agile environment, where sprint retrospective is always around the corner, I don´t feel like I have time to just think about stuff anymore.

Re: Productivity

#163

Post by GuiA » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:18 PM UTC

khalilravanna wrote: post #102

wpietri wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's an extremely American tradition that was practiced and pushed by one of its founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. Himself being called "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become". A nontrivial amount of his autobiography is him espousing productivity and the ways he accomplished so much in his life. I think it's fine to kind of just ch…

It’s important to point out that many people also helped usher in the next several eras of progress for humanity without following that path.

Eg Charles Darwin, who seemed to work in 3 slots of 1h30 every day:

http://dailyroutines.typepad.com/daily_routines/2008/12/char...

Re: Productivity

#164

Post by dota_fanatic » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:19 PM UTC

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…

Unfortunately I don't have the references to back this up but it's my understanding that the latest understanding of sleep, and sleep in humans, is that we're naturally biphasic, one long period at night and one short period in the afternoon, and this is what you find with communities today that live as hunter-gatherers. Slightly less "natural" is the monophasic pattern most people follow, which is sleeping at night.

I'm not sure what words to describe that waking in the middle of night pattern as other than fad or historical myth—there's no evidence that it's healthier or beneficial given our understanding of the various systems that drive sleep and waking, and evidence for its occurrence is very limited. Indeed it's odd to think that given everything we know about human physiology, that we're all tuned to wake up in the middle of the night, y'know, to do important stuff just without our eyes.

Re: Productivity

#165

Post by andrewaylett » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:19 PM UTC

joeblubaugh wrote: post #57

bgentry wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Even as a not-particularly-experienced-as-a-lead, I try to ensure I don't ask someone in my team to do something I wouldn't be willing to do myself.

If the task is something they enjoy and I don't, double win. If it's something no-one enjoys then I'd try to take the first batch, or at least share the pain around, if we can't automate it away.

If I'm not willing to do it myself then it gets pushed back to whoever pushed it onto me in the first place.

Re: Productivity

#166

Post by reubenswartz » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:20 PM UTC

theli0nheart wrote: post #41

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…

> Fasting is tremendously helpful to productivity. Nothing will hinder your performance like a huge meal in the morning (especially one high in carbohydrates) This seems to be really getting popular. What's the science behind it? I'm curious if this is mainly anecdotal or if you did some research before jumping in. My 2 cents: as an endurance athlete and student of nutrition, skipping breakfast seems like a bad idea.…

I started skipping breakfast a while back after having a big dinner the night before and realizing I wasn't hungry. I felt better than if I ate just because it was "time to eat." Over time, I moved the threshold, and I don't eat breakfast, except for a shot of espresso. It feels much better.

Earlier, I had worked to cut out carbs at lunch (because they were making me sleepy in the middle of the afternoon). With breakfast being so simple, I have to make sure I have a healthy lunch (went out to eat and failed today), and then I don't stress too much about dinner. YMMV, but this system has worked really well for me.

As for the science, there's a lot of research, but no one really knows how all of our elaborate cellular machinery works. However, there seems to be some notion of the body being in "digestion" or "maintenance/repair" mode. Letting your body get into the latter mode seems to have some really good effects.

Re: Productivity

#167

Post by morogop » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:24 PM UTC

bigjimslade wrote: post #61

systemshock999 wrote: post #40

Instead of being wowed by Sam Altman's title (president of Y-Combinator), you should look through his previous posts to gauge whether his advices are worthy. some gems from before: On China: "The other stark contrast is how much harder people in China seem to work than people here, and how working hard is considered a good thing, not a bad thing." http://blog.samaltman.com/china On Speech "Earlier this year, I notice…

Isn't it possible to be proficient or even prophetic at a thing while being not so good at another? I agree those comparisons to China border on wacky while I feel he is right on target about the fundamental, critical, beating-heart importance of free speech in all things. Maybe he also has valuable thoughts to share on productivity. Or maybe not!

His argument about speech was, frankly, idiotic and demonstrated literally no self-awareness, or awareness of the outside world.

He claimed you can't talk about life extension startups. He talked about them, and nothing happened to him. VCs have funded them and nothing happened to them. A few people felt slightly weird to work on something unpopular, but there were literally ZERO negative repercussions.

He then claimed that you can discuss anything in China. When people discuss anything in China, they end up in jail or disappeared. Obviously this was fucking idiotic bullshit.

Free speech is important, but Sam Altman is just a thin-skinned, ego-centric, vengeful, and naive fascist asshole. Makes sense, because Thiel is cut of exactly the same weak cloth. They're both worthless people who mistake wealth gained through luck and connections for value. Fuck Sam Altman, and his dumb beliefs. And fuck you for sucking Sam's cock.

Re: Productivity

#168

Post by sctb » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:24 PM UTC

inteleng wrote: post #110

Great: productivity advice from a failed entrepreneur (and stoner) who slimed his way to the top ranks of YC. Edit: keep downvoting. Let the hate flow through you.

We typically moderate far less when a comment is critical of YC, but this is such dross that we have to please ask you to post civilly and substantively, as the guidelines do.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Productivity

#169

Post by tcoff91 » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:25 PM UTC

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #144

aviv wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will one day be as obvious as cigarettes cause cancer is. Prolonged fasting (consuming only water for 10 to 40 days) is a highly effective treatment for many diseases, including Crohn's, most other IBS related, diabetes, MS, and many more. At some point in the future we will consider pharma companies, government agencies and other entities hiding this fact to be criminal. Edit: my personal hope is that water fas…

Do you partake in any sort of sports? As someone who is avidly into strength training, I can't imagine the damage that does to gaining and maintaining muscle mass, and sabotaging your ability to push hard and perform well in the gym.

Yeah you would definitely need to take a break from strength training to do an extended fast. Not everyone's goals however are to get huge muscles and for many health goals there is a lot of research showing that fasting has great benefits. It's probably one of the best ways to lower your risk of cancer.

Re: Productivity

#170

Post by amp108 » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 7:26 PM UTC

badpun wrote: post #143

philwelch wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's really only two things you need to do in order to be really good at basically anything: 1. Care a lot. 2. Work on continuously improving your skills. That's pretty much it. Yes, there is such a thing as natural ability, but outside of the true outliers, natural ability is a pretty small factor compared to caring a lot and continuous improvement. And, even if you're an outlier in terms of natural ability, cari…

What if you have an IQ of say 90 and want to be really good at theoretical physics? I don't see caring a lot and working continously as enough to overcome IQ here.

If you had cared enough to work down to the last paragraph of the parent comment, you would have seen this line:

> There are obviously a few counterexamples.