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Maybe you should do less 'work'

johnwhiles.com

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Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#201

Post by kawfey »

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…

completely off topic - user:adenozine replied to user:caffeine. What a coincidence lol. (Caffeine keeps us alert and awake because it blocks adenosine)

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#202

Post by giantg2 »

eden-alpha wrote: post #111
jader201 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the end of the day, even the best bosses care about making money, because that’s what _their_ bosses (i.e. investors) care about. So even if you find a boss/employer that is supportive of “the fun stuff” for a season, that will eventually come to an end.

Honestly that's what anyone employed to a company should care about. Your aim should be delivering value, which sometimes means making long term investments that improve the development environment. You also should spend a portion time learning as it enables you to create more value over time. And yes you should take time to get to know your colleagues, take breaks, play ping pong, etc. This helps you refresh yoursel…

"Your aim should be delivering value, which sometimes means making long term investments that improve the development environment."

That makes sense as long as it also matches the employee's goal of being paid for the work they do. If you work at a place like my job, you will never be promoted if you do this necessary behind the scenes stuff. It's as if the motto is "if the business user doesn't see it, it never happened". Sucks if you're spending a lot time on things that are supposed to be invisible to a user, like security or availability.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#203

Post by Qub3d »

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…

I think the article author agrees with you. That's why they put 'work' in quotes.

It is useful for their argument to split 'work' and 'not work' along these lines because they are trying to reach readers that honestly do believe that any time not actively writing code for a jira ticket isn't work.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#204

Post by lotsofpulp »

Toine wrote: post #185
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…

From a certain extreme perspective, there is some truth to what you're saying, but wow, this is so one-sided, extreme, partial and damaging. What decades of neo liberal brainwashing has done to people. This is so sad, really. We are NOT companies, we're not robots only driven by free will, we don't live in an economy. We are hardcore social animals with huge biological & affective needs, this is scientifically proven…

Different perspectives for looking at the same thing provide different benefits, and they can be held simultaneously. For example, getting married to someone involves love and commitment and all that jazz, but I also like to advise also looking at it as a business, especially if you have or are going to have children. It is no different in that the two parents (and maybe even other adults in a multi family household) need to manage tasks, inventory, money, etc.

That does not mean you should treat your family or yourself exactly as a business, but there are some aspects that are beneficial if managed in that manner.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#205

Post by alexashka »

ianbutler wrote: post #103
alexashka wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't employ anyone. I'm not coming from a place of a disgruntled employer complaining about the workers being 'lazy' or whatever. I'm coming from a place of what the blog talks about - someone who came in starry eyed doing good work, only to find out you won't get paid 3x for doing 3x the work relative to everyone else, but instead they'll try to get you to do 4x the work for a 10% yearly bonus, until you drop dea…

For what it's worth I've only experienced this long term in corporations. Small companies that are actually still in the prime of producing and growth can't afford that with everyone and expect to survive. If it's systemic the startup just fails after meandering for a little bit. I derive a little satisfaction from that fact. It starts to tilt after you've gotten a couple hundred employees and people can hide more.

Small companies have a different problem.

I figure there are about 1 in 10,000, if not 100,000 software devs that have the brains and fortitude to eat shit for 4-5 years, solving hard problems.

Not only do start-ups normally not have 4-5 years, but they don't even try to solve hard problems - they mostly just try to solve some trivial bullshit to exploit a legal loophole or insert themselves as middlemen in a corporate/legal swamp.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#206

Post by cardosof »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #129
commandlinefan wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had great bosses, all the way up the chain... but they were all held captive to the "efficiency" measures of the time-tracking system. Everywhere I've ever worked has implemented a methodology that, regardless of what they called it (XP, Scrum, Kanban, whatever) boiled down to: write down everything you're going to do, write down how long it's going to take, and I'm going to measure how accurately you predicted…

> but they were all held captive to the "efficiency" measures of the time-tracking system Were you working at an agency or consultancy that billed hours to clients? I've never seen a good engineering organization use time tracking software on their engineers. I'd go so far as to take it as a major negative sign against the company if your time is being tracked like that. Exceptions of course to any business that is b…

Not parent poster but I've seen more and more startups setting up their jiras with whatever the folks who invented "safe" (scaled agile framework) say, while obsessing over measuring and predicting delivery metrics, all in order to have hard data to backup roadmap claims.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#207

Post by decebalus1 »

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.

I think it's a great analogy. It's a shift in mindset, don't take it literally, the point isn't that you're a temporarily embarrassed CEO.. the point is that for example when you interview for a position, don't think about it in terms of getting a job, but in terms of a business transaction (ie you also interview the company) or, when you're constantly in crunch mode, ask yourself whether or not your 'company' is being taken for a ride under an unfair contract.

You trade time, health, mental energy for money and health insurance (and/or reputation or whatever you get from your job). That's pretty much it. We (well, most of us) live in free countries, so if the business transaction does not benefit you, you're free to take your 'business' elsewhere.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#208

Post by giantg2 »

dominotw wrote: post #174
Msw242 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I find there's generally a hidden truth in how they answer it, but not in the answer itself. Stuff like hesitation, over the top praise, indirect answers, etc. If it sounds like they're telling me what I want to hear (or sounds like a sales pitch), then the BS meter starts clicking.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#209

Post by aprdm »

commandlinefan wrote: post #118
toomuchtodo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find better bosses and employers. They are out there.

I've had great bosses, all the way up the chain... but they were all held captive to the "efficiency" measures of the time-tracking system. Everywhere I've ever worked has implemented a methodology that, regardless of what they called it (XP, Scrum, Kanban, whatever) boiled down to: write down everything you're going to do, write down how long it's going to take, and I'm going to measure how accurately you predicted…

For what it's worth, I've been doing this for 10+ years, being a lead, a manager, and I never worked anywhere that tried to have "efficiency" measurements of devs.

Re: Maybe you should do less 'work'

#210

Post by avgcorrection »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #16
0des wrote: post #5

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…

> A bit off topic but as of late there is this creeping normalization of intentionally subpar or less optimized results I'm noticing in our industry but also general society. > When did we become so not only complacent but also discouraging of any genuine effort? And these same people are going to expect nothing short of the best of the best from surgeons / plane pilots / car manufacturers / etc. So they can slack of…

You obviously didn’t read the article since the author’s point is to work better/smarter, not to work less. For example to improve your skillset rather than to frantically jump from task to task.

Not very conscientious of you to comment without having read the submission.

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