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I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

melmagazine.com

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Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#151

The article is just wrong. Social pressure makes you less productive and hampers cognitive health while working. I can’t believe anyone even feels this is worth discussing or disagreeing. From the mountains of evidence refuting the communication conditions of open plan offices, we know that knowledge workers require privacy to be productive. The case is closed. This essay is arguing against the tide. Move on.

Pairing or close one-on-one supervision hasn't much in common with being in an open-plan workspace.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#152

I had a remote team for years. Opposite schedules etc didn’t allow for a lot of FaceTime. I used some desktop recording software and recorded myself daily with instructions on how to execute various tasks. Through out this process I would be talking and narrating the task explaining this or that while doing the work. Sometimes I would end up finishing the task and just delete the video, I would be really focused and…

Did the effect wear off? Would you edit the videos before sending them to your team, or would they see a "how to do X" with a 10-minute sidetrack of checking HN?

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#153

I don't like working from home. Working from home feels lonely and dead-end to me. I'd rather have a commute and sit in an open office plan, despite all the obvious drawbacks. Also, I've recently realised what makes me productive as fuck: Pressure.

Do you stay productive with pressure though? I can work insane amounts of time (relative to what I usually do) and be very productive when everything is on fire, but if everything is on fire for a month or more, I doubt that I'll still have the same feeling of immediacy that I'll have on the first day.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#154
post #145

Now do that for a month. Or even a week. You may be more productive bc you don't want to be seen as slacking off with someone watching, but maintaining that kind of pace is untenable. Did you ever get stuck and check your email or Facebook just to give your brain a little break? Did you ever sit, unsure of your next move? Or did you do the first thing you thought of, even if it was wrong, so you didn't look like you…

this is not much different from pair programming. even pairing with a junior developer where i do most of the work myself makes me more productive. pair-programming is also exhausting. after an 8-hour work day i am beat. however i can't think of any better way to work, and it it is practiced in several companies successfully. if people would want to quit after a week or kill themselves after a month of pair programmi…

We pair programmed more than 90% at my last job, and it was great. Together we would typically come up with architecture, design, tests and names which were better than either of us would have done on our own. It is hard work, but very rewarding, and it has many pitfalls and nuances which we tried to work out at our ~fortnightly review sessions.

More important than pair programming itself is the willingness to look at what works for the team and how you can improve the experience and productivity together. Most of the time we did traditional pairing, with two keyboards and mice on a dual-monitor PC, and simply signalled each other when we wanted to take over or cede control. Towards the end of the four years there we very successfully "mobbed" on some complex problems, and split up when we had worked out what to do next. We would typically work in different pairs every day, which resulted in everybody knowing the entire system to a similar degree — we didn't even need a handover when someone left, and onboarding basically meant that the more senior employee had to explain a bit more of the context while pairing with the new hire. I found it did wonders to my understanding of how other developers think and especially how to explain my thinking to someone else. But YMMV, and good luck!

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#155
its not for the irresponsible or people who are not self motivators. if someone is like that work from home may not be for you though you may also not get to for in the office as well. there are still deadlines and communication usually though so there are external pressures.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#156
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have no wife anymore and I feel pretty bad and alone. If you lost a spouse just because you had a bit of a down period in your life where you procrastinated, the problem in that marriage most likely wasn't you...

You have no idea what happened in the marriage while poster stayed home doing nothing of substance for half a year

right, but blaming yourself for everything is not helpful either.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#157
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me, guilt/shame is something to be overcome, not used as a tool. Wow, I think I quite strongly disagree. What do you think it exists _for_ ? It is good for society that people have the capacity for guilt and shame. If we did not, I cannot see any other recourse other than fear!

Your argument that it exists _for_ anything is a bit hollow. What do superstitions exist _for_? What does religion exist _for_? What does the shame of being on the LGBTQ spectrum exist _for_? What does fat shaming exist _for_? That something exists and that people are using it doesn't at all mean that the use is still valid, that it ever was valid, or that there are not much more fruitful alternatives. Moreover your…

> what has been burned into my mind as a child

How was this done?

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#158
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have no wife anymore and I feel pretty bad and alone. If you lost a spouse just because you had a bit of a down period in your life where you procrastinated, the problem in that marriage most likely wasn't you...

You have no idea what happened in the marriage while poster stayed home doing nothing of substance for half a year

though it is interesting how wives always disappear as soon as you get into a tight spot in your life, whether it was or wasn't your fault.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#160
post #151

The article is just wrong. Social pressure makes you less productive and hampers cognitive health while working. I can’t believe anyone even feels this is worth discussing or disagreeing. From the mountains of evidence refuting the communication conditions of open plan offices, we know that knowledge workers require privacy to be productive. The case is closed. This essay is arguing against the tide. Move on.

Pairing or close one-on-one supervision hasn't much in common with being in an open-plan workspace.

They are even more severe and intrusive forms of disruption than ambient noise and impromptu conversation of open plan offices, so they would exacerbate the negative effects already known.

Pairing in particular requires you to schedule time for it, host it in a private conference room for those two people, and have adequate video conferencing. If pairing happens at someone’s desk in an open plan setup, looking at the same laptop screen or monitor (instead of a projected version), then it universally falls apart, and is significantly disruptive to other around as well.

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