11–20 of 67 posts
"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 (…
a 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.
especially if they operate a company that appeals to the b2c market, it's essential for them to understand how the younger demographic perceives and digests in an ever-changing marketplace.
On the other side, i really like the experiment behind the shower ;)
"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 (…
How to identify people in your company who might have good ideas ?
Trial and error + filtering other people's opinions.
Breakfast alone, no problem. In fact I always have breakfast at my desk while I work. But my morning work is so intense that by 11 or 12, I have to get away from my computer. Lunch with someone else is the perfect break. We talk about all kinds of things: everything except work.
I can't imagine using my lunch break to do other work, no matter what it was.
My afternoon is usually another strong burst and by 4 or so, I'm ready for exercise and then dinner with SO. Whether we eat at home or at a restaurant, I can't imagine missing it. Then comes visit with family and another 3 or 4 hours after that.
Contrary to OP, I need meals with others to get away and recharge. My day (and my life) has many sprints, but it's the still a marathon that needs to be paced.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The same way you identify good food. Trial and error + filtering other people's opinions.
Sounds like lot of food to me :) any other ideas ?
Many employees kept internal blogs on things they were working on (including CEO Chambers). Employees also had keywords for things they liked to do or were good at (C#, starcraft, hiking, investing, etc would be someone's keywords). There were also a lot of mailing lists to search to find people who liked to do things together (pythonistas, bxb-cycling, bikers, etc)
Other than that there was simply reputation (this is the 'filtering other people's opinions' bit). J.C., for instance, was known around the office as being a hilarious guy and just great to talk to. S.D. knew everything in the world about firewalls. D.C. was a great artist, yada yada...
I guess it really depends on how your company is set up and how comfortable you are approaching people.
OP brings up some good points, but even after I thought about it for a while, it's still not for me. Let me explain... Breakfast alone, no problem. In fact I always have breakfast at my desk while I work. But my morning work is so intense that by 11 or 12, I have to get away from my computer. Lunch with someone else is the perfect break. We talk about all kinds of things: everything except work. I can't imagine using…
On the upside, this would've been an interesting personal experiment if I figured out how to apply to my sprint of a day.