Why I eat alone and probably you should too
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Why I eat alone and probably you should too
1–10 of 67 posts
Re: Why I eat alone and probably you should too
#2a number of fair points. best point: agree with avoiding the big lunch groups as those conversations can get carried away.
on the other hand, i am a big proponent of setting up lunch meetings with one other individual. you can plan ahead what you want to discuss, and more than anything, you open yourself up to their entire network. think about how powerful that is!
i guarantee they know at least one person "you should meet..."
at the same time, don't force a lunch meeting when there's always plenty of quality videos to watch or reading to be done during a break.
Re: Why I eat alone and probably you should too
#3a number of fair points. best point: agree with avoiding the big lunch groups as those conversations can get carried away. on the other hand, i am a big proponent of setting up lunch meetings with one other individual. you can plan ahead what you want to discuss, and more than anything, you open yourself up to their entire network. think about how powerful that is! i guarantee they know at least one person "you shoul…
That's interesting. I agree building network is just as important as learning. I think it depends on the stage you are at. These are more for bootstrapping and getting started, which has a lot of inertia with it.
Re: Why I eat alone and probably you should too
#4If the author wants to use his lunch break to work on his side projects, then, more power to him. Personally, I like to segment my free time by month, rather than hour, but I realize a lot of people do not have the freedom to do that. I would rather have an 8 month contract job during which I work 60 hours a week, and then I have 4 months to work on my own projects. It takes me days to get my mind into a new project, and I am my most productive when I spent all of yesterday on the project, and I know I will spend all of today and all of tomorrow on the project.
However, whatever project I'm working on, I prefer to use the meals as meetings. Since everyone has to stop for a meal at some point, they seem like useful points to gather people around and regroup.
Re: Why I eat alone and probably you should too
#5If the author wants to use his lunch break to work on his side projects, then, more power to him. Personally, I like to segment my free time by month, rather than hour, but I realize a lot of people do not have the freedom to do that. I would rather have an 8 month contract job during which I work 60 hours a week, and then I have 4 months to work on my own projects. It takes me days to get my mind into a new project,…
"I would rather have an 8 month contract job during which I work 60 hours a week, and then I have 4 months to work on my own projects." That sounds interesting, is this kind of schedule widely prevalent among contractors ? Maybe I've been working at a job for too long to know this...
Re: Why I eat alone and probably you should too
#6if the topics are constrained to the examples the author presented, then it might be better to save the 30min.
At the same time, a big part of innovation relates on communicating ideas and comes from day-to-day interactions especially with people from different background/experiences.
That is a block the author is imposing on himself by isolating - if there are others great minds at his/her workplace.
perhaps finding a different group of people to have lunch with would increase the learning process and also giving space for cross-pollination of ideas.
Re: Why I eat alone and probably you should too
#7It all depends on the conversation, some of the best ideas and discussions/learning come from random lunch topics.
But yeah if it's random fluff stuff it's not something I'd want to do every day, when I was interning I spent quiet a few of the sunny days going for walks alone in the surrounding parklands, was relaxing and put me in a better fram of mind than sitting around the office like most of the people I was working with did.
Re: Why I eat alone and probably you should too
#8To pickup on the don't waste time point, sometimes I think ambling along can produce a better results than just heads down pushing towards a goal.
Writing my thesis recently, I spend plenty of time going off on tangents, sometimes related, sometimes not. Or going for a walk or a ride just to let ideas sit in my unconscious mind.
Re: Why I eat alone and probably you should too
#9If the author wants to use his lunch break to work on his side projects, then, more power to him. Personally, I like to segment my free time by month, rather than hour, but I realize a lot of people do not have the freedom to do that. I would rather have an 8 month contract job during which I work 60 hours a week, and then I have 4 months to work on my own projects. It takes me days to get my mind into a new project,…
"I would rather have an 8 month contract job during which I work 60 hours a week, and then I have 4 months to work on my own projects." That sounds interesting, is this kind of schedule widely prevalent among contractors ? Maybe I've been working at a job for too long to know this...
Most contractors I know end up spinning plates (like in that circus trick) when they have periods of too much work - they usually don't like turning down certain jobs because it is revenue. And have periods of downtime (not necessarily voluntary). Of course, if you are an elite bespoke developer, you can turn down work and always have work.
I met a guy who installed sprinkler systems in rich people's lawns. He worked all Spring/Summer/less during the Fall and took off to Barbados or Jamaica for the remaining 3-4 months of the year.
Re: Why I eat alone and probably you should too
#10"We are social beings, and I think once in a while a lunch like above is healthy to keep us sane. But, doing this everyday for years at a stretch, is insanity !"
This is just bizarre to me. I'm not the worlds most extroverted person, but creating and maintaining social relationships at work has been the single most powerful thing I have ever done to: Learn new things, advance my career, form mentoring relationships (both as a mentor or mentee), try new foods (one of the great joys in my life)etc....
If you aren't getting anything valuable from lunch with other people, you are doing it wrong.