Maybe you should do less 'work' • Hacker News Board

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#171

Post by zozbot234 » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:08 PM UTC

IAmNotAFix wrote: post #144

TameAntelope wrote: post #49

I agree with the content of the article, but I don’t agree with the premise that these things aren’t also “work”. Engineers tend to obsess over, “focused work” like it’s the only way to be productive, and anything that’s not “focused work” is wasted time. That is a surefire way to burn out. Instead, finding ways to “riff” on your job by doing work with longer time horizons of payoff keeps your job fun. It’s all “work…

> That is a surefire way to burn out. Any source on that? I agree with the assessment about engineers (althought it's a generalization), but I always thought it was because their "focused work" is what they actually like doing. In my experience work was most stressful when it strayed the most from focused work.

If you can maintain a state of focus and actively like your work, you are likely near peak productivity and quite far from possible burnout. Just don't push beyond your reasonable limits or you might end up giving yourself a heart attack.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#172

Post by Jensson » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:08 PM UTC

s_dev wrote: post #150

caffeine wrote: post #135

You are the boss of a company of one. Your company sells labor to the labor market, it makes investments in assets, it borrows funds, etc. It’s your job to decide how that company is run. It’s your job to decide what investments that company needs to make to get good returns. It’s also your job to interpret the contracts your company enters into and decide what is acceptable, and to appropriately risk-manage legal ha…

>You are the boss of a company of one. This is a poor analogy and and an analogy that isn't needed (what exactly have you simplified for the reader here -- the concept of self-determination?). Not sure why you think that every person is basically a temporarily embarrassed CEO of a minuscule company and then to grandstand on that as if anyone who doesn't subscribe hasn't hit the same threshold of maturity.

> every person is basically a temporarily embarrassed CEO

That wasn't the point. The point is that businesses are people, so people are businesses. And while regular businesses can be run by a separate CEO, the business of your own person can only be run by yourself, so you got to learn to think like a real CEO to run the business of your person, even though this business will never have more than one member.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#173

Post by allisdust » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:09 PM UTC

adenozine wrote: post #165

caffeine wrote: post #135

You are the boss of a company of one. Your company sells labor to the labor market, it makes investments in assets, it borrows funds, etc. It’s your job to decide how that company is run. It’s your job to decide what investments that company needs to make to get good returns. It’s also your job to interpret the contracts your company enters into and decide what is acceptable, and to appropriately risk-manage legal ha…

Do you have kids? This makes no sense from my perspective. I could literally put myself through anything that I needed to, if it meant the safety or well-being of my children. It's not a company, it's a primal force from thousands of years of primordial reinforcement. I'd manage with less capital, so that my kids have a chance at college. I'd manage with less chance of promotion, so that my kids can have my presence…

To expand the analogy further, your children are the shareholders of course and your partner is the board (:

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#174

Post by dominotw » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:09 PM UTC

Msw242 wrote: post #123

dominotw wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does one go about this? You interview your boss in the interview process and get a feel for what type of preson he is and then go with that gut feeling yes/no when your current boss leaves and you get a new boss that you don't like. Quit and go back to step 1. Does anyone operate like this? doesn't seem very practical or foolproof.

Smaller companies are more culturally homogeneous. With smaller companies, managers are usually a reflection of the company's cultural values. If you accept the above as true, then you can start to reach out to team members at the company and ask them what the work environment is like. If the work environment lines up with your values, then you'll probably be fine, even when the hiring manager moves on to greener pas…

> ask them what the work environment is like.

I've been asked this when i interviewed ppl but i never gave them the truth and I've never gotten any honest truth when i was on the other side also.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#175

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:09 PM UTC

powvans wrote: post #137

caffeine wrote: post #135

You are the boss of a company of one. Your company sells labor to the labor market, it makes investments in assets, it borrows funds, etc. It’s your job to decide how that company is run. It’s your job to decide what investments that company needs to make to get good returns. It’s also your job to interpret the contracts your company enters into and decide what is acceptable, and to appropriately risk-manage legal ha…

I think this is a great way to look at things and would just like to add that when you have a spouse and children, aka additional stakeholders, it's not exactly a business of one.

[deleted]

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#176

Post by adenozine » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:12 PM UTC

allisdust wrote: post #173

adenozine wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have kids? This makes no sense from my perspective. I could literally put myself through anything that I needed to, if it meant the safety or well-being of my children. It's not a company, it's a primal force from thousands of years of primordial reinforcement. I'd manage with less capital, so that my kids have a chance at college. I'd manage with less chance of promotion, so that my kids can have my presence…

To expand the analogy further, your children are the shareholders of course and your partner is the board (:

I dare not imagine my wife's response if I were to say this to her.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#177

Post by bobkazamakis » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:12 PM UTC

adenozine wrote: post #165

caffeine wrote: post #135

You are the boss of a company of one. Your company sells labor to the labor market, it makes investments in assets, it borrows funds, etc. It’s your job to decide how that company is run. It’s your job to decide what investments that company needs to make to get good returns. It’s also your job to interpret the contracts your company enters into and decide what is acceptable, and to appropriately risk-manage legal ha…

Do you have kids? This makes no sense from my perspective. I could literally put myself through anything that I needed to, if it meant the safety or well-being of my children. It's not a company, it's a primal force from thousands of years of primordial reinforcement. I'd manage with less capital, so that my kids have a chance at college. I'd manage with less chance of promotion, so that my kids can have my presence…

I don't see how changing the perspective of selling labor to ...selling labor really jumps the gap into psychosis.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#178

Post by Jensson » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:13 PM UTC

adenozine wrote: post #165

caffeine wrote: post #135

You are the boss of a company of one. Your company sells labor to the labor market, it makes investments in assets, it borrows funds, etc. It’s your job to decide how that company is run. It’s your job to decide what investments that company needs to make to get good returns. It’s also your job to interpret the contracts your company enters into and decide what is acceptable, and to appropriately risk-manage legal ha…

Do you have kids? This makes no sense from my perspective. I could literally put myself through anything that I needed to, if it meant the safety or well-being of my children. It's not a company, it's a primal force from thousands of years of primordial reinforcement. I'd manage with less capital, so that my kids have a chance at college. I'd manage with less chance of promotion, so that my kids can have my presence…

> I could literally put myself through anything that I needed to, if it meant the safety or well-being of my children

Right, the main difference is that nepotism is bad in a regular company but in a personal company it is the opposite, not practicing nepotism makes you look bad.

Aside from this the difference isn't that big.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#179

Post by shuntress » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:20 PM UTC

caffeine wrote: post #135

You are the boss of a company of one. Your company sells labor to the labor market, it makes investments in assets, it borrows funds, etc. It’s your job to decide how that company is run. It’s your job to decide what investments that company needs to make to get good returns. It’s also your job to interpret the contracts your company enters into and decide what is acceptable, and to appropriately risk-manage legal ha…

I notice you forgot to mention mutually beneficial collaborations, soft skills, and "intangibles". Through unofficial back channel communication between my company and yours I would like to suggest you work on refining your metaphor to include these things more prominently.

Also maybe don't focus so much on _"Personal Responsibility"_.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#180

Post by 0des » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 4:21 PM UTC

Apocryphon wrote: post #152

glitchc wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 10 year old feels this way. His depiction of the future is far more pessimistic than mine was at his age, and the conditions under which I grew up were objectively worse compared to his present circumstances (he has his own room, multiple electronic devices, gaming consoles, etc. etc., typical middle-class). There seems to be a persistent message saying “buckle your belts, things are going to get worse” across all…

Even getting past climate change gloom, present economic situations don’t inspire much confidence. College admissions seem much more stringent than they were a decade or two ago, never mind the rising tuitions, the debt obligations, and so on. Housing prices continue to climb. A lot has happened since the Great Recession.

You realize this has been going on for at least a century, right? At one point we literally confiscated all of the gold by order of government. Whether the overton window is shifting or not, this stuff has been going on since time immemorial.