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Productivity

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: Productivity

#381

Post by logfromblammo »

mchmr wrote: post #203
pi-squared wrote: post #63

Why are posts by Sam Altman and Paul Graham upvoted unconditionally? I know, it's yc domain but is everything they write so good that it always require an upvote or is it because they are the bosses? Maybe I don't understand something about news.ycombinator.com, a.k.a. hacker news or I joined too late - was it originally posts only for yc funded startups and it eventually became general techie/science news and thus a…

Granted I don't pay much attention to the y-combinator side of all this, but I didn't know who this dude was when I read the article. I immediately disliked a lot of the advice because of how out-of-touch it is (don't do something you don't like, buy a $4000 mattress, etc.) and came to the comments expecting some level of critique of that. Nope, everyone is fawning over this guy: "What do you think he'll think when h…

It's just people trying to bottle the lightning.

Person X becomes successful. Other people ask X how they did it. Person X explains some personal philosophy, and the other people nod sagely. Then persons Y, Z, and Q follow the recipe by X, and do not become successful.

It's probably better to ask failures what they did wrong. You end up with rules like "don't ever try heroin", "always insure the things that make you money", "let your lawyer review it first", "get a pre-nup", and "keep offsite backups". Most spend a lot of time figuring out exactly where it all went wrong, and can tell you exactly what they should have done differently to not fail (from that particular cause).

Re: Productivity

#382

Post by ybalkind »

bastijn wrote: post #210

I once read a HN comment that I cannot find anymore but said: “my default loop is "First, cycle through all my developers and make sure that I have equipped them to be happy and productive in their jobs. Second, find something to do. If possible, delegate it; if not, do it. Repeat."” My biggest productivity gain was when I realized I should measure my productivity through the productivity of my developers. By the sam…

Have you got experience or thoughts about the remote working equivalent of "cycling through" your team?

Cycling through implies (to my mind) casually being around your team, checking in, and helping where needed.

Working remotely its a bit trickier? My team and I dont use slack or other chat platform, so for me to check in would require calls, meetings, emails etc, which is a bit more formal and disruptive then "cycling through".

Re: Productivity

#383

Post by criddell »

sudosteph wrote: post #340
opdahl wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When do you practice the meditation? I’ve been struggling to find a good spot to fit it into my routine. Usually I’m too anxious to get working in the morning, and too tired to do it before bed.

The best times for me are either at lunch time, or late afternoon / early evening. I like to use it to help transition between parts of the day, it's a good way to wind down and collect yourself so you can change gears. I mostly wfh these days, so it's not hard to find a quiet spot, but when I went into the office I would usually just take a lunch break in a nearby park and put headphones in, nobody bothered me. Walk…

I recently stopped meditating. I got some nice benefits at the beginning but diminishing returns set in. The skills I learned are certainly still valuable to me and I use them enough during my week that I'm not afraid of losing them.

I quit because I wanted to take guitar lessons and needed to find 30 minutes a day for practice.

Re: Productivity

#384

Post by rambossa »

As someone with a vigorous evening workout, who awakes at 5:45am, and codes most of the day... skipping breakfast is not optimal. The frustration and anxiety caused from morning hunger is very anti-productive for me. My only eating restriction is that I very rarely eat past 8pm.

I can possibly see this being different if I didn't have a static position/desk and my mornings were consumed with meetings or high activity.

Re: Productivity

#385

Post by TeMPOraL »

bachmeier wrote: post #37
pascalxus wrote: post #4

Your productivity is only as good as what you decide to work on. This is an excellent point! "Finally, to repeat one more time: productivity in the wrong direction isn’t worth anything at all. Think more about what to work on."

Unfortunately, very few people have the option to only work on things they enjoy. Even professors get stuck doing things they don't want to do, and that aren't valuable, but there is no choice unless you have at least a few million in the bank.

One of the reasons to improve productivity - if you really have to do stuff you don't like, do it swift and effectively, so you can quickly get back to more important things.

Re: Productivity

#386

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

aviv wrote: post #206
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

While I disagree with your assertions, if you are the type of person who prefers to live the rest of your life with, say, Crohn's, and be able to still push hard and perform well at the gym, by all means do that. If you're willing to set a side of period of a couple months to heal your body, research more. It's actually interesting how many people I meet at the gym that from the outside appear very fit and healthy, o…

>It's actually interesting how many people I meet at the gym that from the outside appear very fit and healthy, only to find out they're actually pretty ill, from IBS and other gut issues, thyroid problems, etc. The gym is actually masking many diseases for people because physically they appear healthy.

Any idea how that compares to the average population? I'll bet you'll find that the gym population is pretty much the same as the regular population, with the exception of possibly greater cardiovascular health.

I just take exception to treating a 40 day fast as some sort of panacea, it seems like it's going to do more harm than good to a lot of people. There's no way the rest of your life won't suffer after a couple of weeks of starvation.

Re: Productivity

#387

Post by abhiminator »

teej wrote: post #267
bastijn wrote: post #210

I once read a HN comment that I cannot find anymore but said: “my default loop is "First, cycle through all my developers and make sure that I have equipped them to be happy and productive in their jobs. Second, find something to do. If possible, delegate it; if not, do it. Repeat."” My biggest productivity gain was when I realized I should measure my productivity through the productivity of my developers. By the sam…

"As a CTO, my default loop is 'First, cycle through all my employees and make sure that I have equipped them to be happy and productive in their jobs. Second, find something to do. If possible, delegate it; if not, do it. Repeat.'" - tkiley https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3408449

Thank you for digging up the link, appreciate it.

Re: Productivity

#388

Post by TeMPOraL »

Mahn wrote: post #114

Somewhere in a room HBO's Silicon Valley writers are secretly reading this blog post for inspiration for jokes for the next season :)

Somewhere in a room, HBO's Silicon Valley writers are actually frequenting HN... ;).

Re: Productivity

#389

Post by ngngngng »

callmeed wrote: post #74
theli0nheart wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.…

Google "intermittent fasting studies" and you'll find plenty of information. Of course, if you're an endurance athlete its probably bad to skip breakfast before a race or big training regimen. I'm as skeptical of fad diets as anyone, but it seems like science is starting to back-up the notion that some fasting is good for weight loss (lower calories, kick-starts ketosis) and brain function. And it seems to line up wi…

I'll have to read up on that before forming and opinion, but I wonder if this hinges on a person being overweight, or regularly consuming a calorie surplus.
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