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Efficiency Is the Enemy

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Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#281

Post by hinkley »

getlawgdon wrote: post #261
hinkley wrote: post #165

One of the uncomfortable conversations we're going to have to have soon is about how 'Flow State' is efficient but ineffective. One of the characteristics of Flow State is a diminished sense of considering the consequences of an action. Exactly the "so busy figuring out if they could do it that they didn't stop to think if they should do it". In particular I've noticed that people get extremely defensive about code t…

I don't think you know what Flow is. At all.

The guidelines here are to contribute instead of gainsay.

Explain. I mean, I don’t agree (at all), nor does Wikipedia, but you’ve given nobody anything to work with.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#282

Post by runeks »

"In the marketplace you’re not expected to be aware, you’re expected to be efficient. Efficiency is a quality of machines. Machines are more efficient than human beings. Because efficiency is required, you become more mechanical. And as you become more mechanical, your awareness disappears. And your awareness is your real being. By efficiency and mechanicalness you may succeed in earning more money, more power, more prestige, more respectability, but you will lose yourself."

— Osho

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#283

Post by hnick »

thesuitonym wrote: post #174
jerome-jh wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great insight! It literally happened in my company where the system to order physical goods is so complicated and ugly. Now a secretary handles feeding and tracking requests in this system. BTW our time tracking tool is a company wide motivation killer that costed 300k€ and does not auto-fill holidays.

>BTW our time tracking tool is a company wide motivation killer HINT: They all are.

I used to enter 15-30 minutes a day on my timesheets for doing timesheets. It was honest but felt rebellious.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#284

Post by zmmmmm »

stretchwithme wrote: post #256
zmmmmm wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all of the systems that were designed to take away the need for administrative assistants may once again require an assistant to navigate efficiently Made me laugh. My org has a completely automated online self-service travel booking system that even includes dedicated support from a corporate travel agent - and I recently needed a single flight booked for a day in another city (about the simplest travel you can do…

I wonder how much the company would save if they just gave you a budget for the trip and let you make the arrangements yourself on your own time and keep the difference. I trusted Amazon to book me a simple flight for an interview and I wound up with the absolute worst seat on the plane. The only thing that saved my 6'2" frame from being crushed into a corner was the kindness of a stranger who gave me their seat on t…

I assume there is some tradeoff with some kind of out of control stuff / abuse that happens by some minority people that cuts in if this is not managed.

I feel like organisations should be leaving that to line management rather than controlling it through blunt policies, but I can see how from the top level there is a perception they need to enforce stuff like this. The real problem is that the abuse can often be measured and quantified while the cost of inconvenience or chilling effect on activity can't be, so I always think the costs likely are not weighted appropriately in whatever assessment is done.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#285

Post by [deleted] »

abakker wrote: post #273
BeFlatXIII wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a term for the organizational autoimmune disorder where the cost of fighting inefficiency (or, in the case of governments, fraud) is significantly greater than the amount that would be lost without such policies?

I think David Graeber called these "bullshit jobs" I think aversion to inefficiency, risk, and loss is an excuse, nor really an effort made to avoid those things in good faith. All those efforts are so un-introspective about their own methods is seems facial.

[deleted]

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#286

Post by mbrodersen »

Laarlf wrote: post #84
allenu wrote: post #79

Something that I've noticed recently is that in my work life, I'm finding there's more bureaucracy in what I do, mostly in the name of "efficiency". When you encounter a problem to solve, there's often a process already defined that is most efficient (or at least thought to be most efficient), when accomplishing tasks, there's a pre-defined way of laying out the tasks (i.e. tickets), updating them, reviewing them, an…

Overregulation and bureaucracy are the downfall of the west. The sooner we realise that, the sooner we can fix it.

Luckily for the west, over regulation and bureaucracy is done equally "well" by non-westerners. If the competition is equally incompetent, you can still do quite well.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#287

Post by mbrodersen »

kippinitreal wrote: post #155
allenu wrote: post #79

Something that I've noticed recently is that in my work life, I'm finding there's more bureaucracy in what I do, mostly in the name of "efficiency". When you encounter a problem to solve, there's often a process already defined that is most efficient (or at least thought to be most efficient), when accomplishing tasks, there's a pre-defined way of laying out the tasks (i.e. tickets), updating them, reviewing them, an…

The Goal is one of my favorite “business” book (it’s written as a novel). it addresses all of the wasted energy when you target efficiency at the expense of hitting your true goals. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_(novel)

Yep The Goal is absolutely brilliant. I have read it 3 times and will read it again.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#288

Post by WJW »

Apofis wrote: post #255
cratermoon wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of medium-to-large organizations used to have dedicated administrative staff, not just for senior management, but for everyone. It was good because the people in the admin pools were experts at navigating the organizational structures. They did it every day, all the time, for everyone, so they knew the tricks. In the interest of cutting labor costs, those jobs were cut, and self-service systems like the ones yo…

Use Jira, make your own bookings (etc), and submit reimbursement requests or have an assistant and earn quite a bit less... hmmm.

Looking at it from the company perspective, you save a few lower-paid assistants but now you need to hire more devs because they spend 10-20% of their time on administrative trivia. The extra costs for the devs will be higher because not only is their hourly wage higher, they are also slower at the work than the assistants used to be since the assistants could do the same thing all day and become skilled around the process.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#289

Post by yoz-y »

HWR_14 wrote: post #164
lordgrenville wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me checkout with a cashier doesn't feel like less work though. I bring them my bag, take out each item, they scan them, and then I put them back in my bag. All they're doing is swiping! (Growing up we had disposable bags and human baggers, so maybe it saved a tiny bit more time.)

Good lord, you do all that with cashier? I load the stuff onto the belt (or don't even do that now thanks to COVID), and get a cart full of bagged groceries on the other side.

I'd say less than half of the shops I visit bag the groceries for you. Depends on the place I guess.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#290

Post by yoz-y »

tremon wrote: post #216
ryandrake wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same with self checkout at the grocery store: I know a lot of people like it, but whenever I do it I’m thinking “this is someone else’s job! Why the hell am I having to do it now? ?”

Around here we have two self-service checkout systems: one is as described, where you have to take each item individually out of your card and present it to a scanner. I detest those, as it makes me feel like a fool fumbling around with the scanners while the cashiers are 10x faster than I am. The other one is where you pick up a handheld scanner at the store entrance, and you build up your item list while you're in…

I tried the Amazon Go experience once, and it was quite surreal. But I doubt this system will scale to everywhere.
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