Getting my task completed at my own pace makes me feel good. Often that is fast and on time. In my heart, when I touch the keyboard, I feel like a greyhound dog with a little Bob Ross afro - it can be a race, a competition, but it is also an expression of my art. This article makes me feel bad because in the authors world, people like me are relegated to worker bee monkies trying to please the bossman due to patholog…
Is this a new kind of brag? Maybe an “offense brag”? This article makes me, a very conscientious and productive person, feel offended because it tells me that I should chill out a little. (Except that’s not what it says; more on that later.)
> Doing my tasks diligently and in a timely manner affords me more time to relax, review what I have created, and enjoy it rather than drag myself to the next task.
From the article:
> If you can meet these expectations in fewer hours than you are supposed to work, then you shouldn't just find more to do. Instead you should do something different.
Completing tasks in a speedy manner makes it so that you don’t have to rush to the next task. Seems in line with the article.
> When did we become so not only complacent but also discouraging of any genuine effort?
From the article:
""" If you optimally fill your time at work doing 'work' work, then this means that you are likely:
- Not developing other skills
- Not building your network inside the company as well as you could
- Probably working less efficiently than you could
- Unable to respond to new or changing demands without working longer hours or stopping something else that you think you need to do. See the ongoing supply chain crisis for why you should have some slack in your system. """
Two of those points are about working on other things than whatever narrow task that you are assigned. So apparently it’s not about being complacent at all.
Don’t fret. This is HN. We are all A-type, elite white collar workers at this place.