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Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

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Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#91

Post by InterimNew »

m23khan wrote: post #36

There is no work-life balance in tech. You can deceive yourself but the balance died out something like 7-8 years ago. When the wave after wave of tech changes happening and new tools coming into existence, the only lifestyle you can have to stay gainfully employed is: work, work, work until some other commitment (sleep, wife, kids) eat up remainder of your time. Personally, I think in next 5-10 years, IT workforce w…

This isn't representative of my personal experience nor my peer/friend groups' in tech. Anecdata: of the ~5 senior engineer friends I have at large tech companies only one of them consistently works much more than 35 hours a week.

I was actually really heartened to see this article on HN because slow mornings have been life changing for me. Spending 3 quiet hours in the morning on my own pursuits has been wildly mood elevating. Plus, I usually use one of those hours to read about tech (although HN is banned from my morning hours). Five hours of study a week is easily ~240 hours of spaced repetition even if you miss a few weeks, and I would bet good money that it's more studying than the vast majority of my coworkers.

Balance is thriving in SF/SV from what I can see.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#92

Post by irrational »

bradlys wrote: post #87
irrational wrote: post #80

I get up at 5am to start getting the kids up and ready for school (high schoolers first, then elementary schoolers, then middle schoolers). Everyone is finally at school by 9:15am and I can head in for work. I get home around 6pm and get the little kids in bed by 8pm. 8-8:30pm is me time. Then I get ready for bed and am asleep by 9pm. I can't imagine what a slow morning (or evening!) would even be like. I'd appreciat…

I can understand getting the kids up for elementary school (especially if they're very young) but even when I was in 5th grade - I was getting up myself, eating breakfast I made, and walking to school by myself. My parents were frequently gone by the time I woke up because they had to be at work before I had to be at school. In middle school (6th - 8th) - it was no different for the rest except that I walked or biked…

I'm a nightowl, and so are my kids. They will happily stay up to the early morning hours reading. Getting them out of bed in the mornings is a major pain in the butt. But, they will happily sleep in and miss the start of school if I'm not there.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#93

Post by irrational »

teh_klev wrote: post #83
irrational wrote: post #80

I get up at 5am to start getting the kids up and ready for school (high schoolers first, then elementary schoolers, then middle schoolers). Everyone is finally at school by 9:15am and I can head in for work. I get home around 6pm and get the little kids in bed by 8pm. 8-8:30pm is me time. Then I get ready for bed and am asleep by 9pm. I can't imagine what a slow morning (or evening!) would even be like. I'd appreciat…

> I get up at 5am to start getting the kids up and ready for school I don't mean to pry or be cheeky or sound judgemental, but how many kids do you have that it takes 3-4 hours to get them all breakfasted and ready for school? And is school far away or just a 10-15 min drive? What are you doing during that time? I know kids can consume a lot of attention in the morning (especially the elementary lot), but that amount…

7

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#94

Post by teh_klev »

cybersnowflake wrote: post #42

If you can consistently wake up at 430AM in a standard workday and just carve out 5 hours of freetime in addition to the time others have you're either a savant, an inhuman monster who doesn't need sleep, or your job probably doesn't require you to do that much. Either way I'm not going to take your advice too seriously when it comes to universality.

I tried this regime back in the 90's for a year or so in my late 20's. Woke up at 4:45am, showered, coffee, quick listen to the news on Radio 4 then read a book for an hour, fiddled with some code for work then jumped in the car to head to work at 8am.

At the time I was also a field engineer so I could be sent off on a 400 mile round trip to resolve a customer issue on-site. The drive to the office was 50-60 mins as well.

During the working week I often I wasn't getting home until around 7:30pm and by 9:30pm I was dead to the world.

It was shit. I had no social life and wouldn't see friends until the weekend (usually a Saturday because on a Friday I was buggered - I did in fact fall asleep in the pub one night after just one pint).

In the end I thought "fuck this", went back to my old regime of fall out of bed at 7:45am'ish, coffee, jump in car and life significantly improved. I got to see my pals in the evening if I wanted to and could also spend a couple of hours in the evening fiddling with code, reading books and even watching a bit of telly.

So yeah I kinda wholeheartedly agree with your comment.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#95

Post by teh_klev »

irrational wrote: post #93
teh_klev wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get up at 5am to start getting the kids up and ready for school I don't mean to pry or be cheeky or sound judgemental, but how many kids do you have that it takes 3-4 hours to get them all breakfasted and ready for school? And is school far away or just a 10-15 min drive? What are you doing during that time? I know kids can consume a lot of attention in the morning (especially the elementary lot), but that amount…

7

I understand now, props to you my friend :)

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#96

Post by segmondy »

echelon wrote: post #81
irrational wrote: post #80

I get up at 5am to start getting the kids up and ready for school (high schoolers first, then elementary schoolers, then middle schoolers). Everyone is finally at school by 9:15am and I can head in for work. I get home around 6pm and get the little kids in bed by 8pm. 8-8:30pm is me time. Then I get ready for bed and am asleep by 9pm. I can't imagine what a slow morning (or evening!) would even be like. I'd appreciat…

How do you do this? I would literally die. I can't live life so breathlessly with what sounds like no room for breaks. Are weekends even enough for you to recover? Forget burning out of a job, I'd burn out on life. Mad props to you. You've got a hell of a lot more discipline than I do. Your kids owe you.

This is the real life of folks with kids, so if you have coworkers with kids be a bit emphatic, now imagine them doing all this and having to worry because maybe one or more of them happen to be sick. If you have kids, either you become good with time management or life will beat the crap out of you.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#97

Post by JohnFen »

vinceguidry wrote: post #75
JohnFen wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my view, an opportunity (in a business sense) is when you find a need people have that isn't being adequately fulfilled. You capitalize on the opportunity by fulfilling it. 99% of the time, you don't need a few millions to do this. I'm not talking about "getting ahead" in the sense that you seem to be. That's a different, and much more complicated, topic.

To enter a market you need to build a firm and develop a product. This requires non-trivial time and resources and is risky. Without the resources you can only try it a few times in a lifetime. With the resources, you can keep trying until you find success. It's building a ladder up a mountain that already exists.

> This requires non-trivial time and resources and is risky.

Absolutely true. You need to take a risk to take advantage of an opportunity.

> Without the resources you can only try it a few times in a lifetime.

If you have time and determination, you really do have all the resources that are necessary (unless you're wanting a get-rich-quick type of thing, of course). There's nothing that limits you to a few times in a lifetime.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#98

Post by JohnFen »

echelon wrote: post #81
irrational wrote: post #80

I get up at 5am to start getting the kids up and ready for school (high schoolers first, then elementary schoolers, then middle schoolers). Everyone is finally at school by 9:15am and I can head in for work. I get home around 6pm and get the little kids in bed by 8pm. 8-8:30pm is me time. Then I get ready for bed and am asleep by 9pm. I can't imagine what a slow morning (or evening!) would even be like. I'd appreciat…

How do you do this? I would literally die. I can't live life so breathlessly with what sounds like no room for breaks. Are weekends even enough for you to recover? Forget burning out of a job, I'd burn out on life. Mad props to you. You've got a hell of a lot more discipline than I do. Your kids owe you.

I thought the same until I had kids. This sort of thing is part and parcel of having children, you really do learn not only to handle it, but to derive enjoyment from the situation overall.

If it helps any, my experience is that it's hardest on the day your child is born, but it gets progressively easier as the years go by and the children become increasingly self-sufficient.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#99

Post by JohnFen »

kingnothing wrote: post #82
m23khan wrote: post #36

There is no work-life balance in tech. You can deceive yourself but the balance died out something like 7-8 years ago. When the wave after wave of tech changes happening and new tools coming into existence, the only lifestyle you can have to stay gainfully employed is: work, work, work until some other commitment (sleep, wife, kids) eat up remainder of your time. Personally, I think in next 5-10 years, IT workforce w…

I've been in the tech industry working for tech companies for a decade and have never regularly worked more than 40 hours per week. I do not check work email outside of business hours and I do not have email or chat alerts on my phone. I set the expectation with all of my coworkers that they can call me on the phone if there's an emergency outside of normal hours and I'll try to help, but that type of thing should al…

This. The only times that I've worked more than 40 hours a week is during an emergence or when working for my own company.

Re: Slow Mornings May Be a Secret to Tech-Life Balance

#100

Post by standardUser »

kingnothing wrote: post #82
m23khan wrote: post #36

There is no work-life balance in tech. You can deceive yourself but the balance died out something like 7-8 years ago. When the wave after wave of tech changes happening and new tools coming into existence, the only lifestyle you can have to stay gainfully employed is: work, work, work until some other commitment (sleep, wife, kids) eat up remainder of your time. Personally, I think in next 5-10 years, IT workforce w…

I've been in the tech industry working for tech companies for a decade and have never regularly worked more than 40 hours per week. I do not check work email outside of business hours and I do not have email or chat alerts on my phone. I set the expectation with all of my coworkers that they can call me on the phone if there's an emergency outside of normal hours and I'll try to help, but that type of thing should al…

I can't say I've ever had that sweet of a deal (perhaps a byproduct of working at smaller startups), but what you describe is much more in line with my experiences than the nightmare described in comment you responded to.
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