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Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

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Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#131

Post by nilsbunger »

9wzYQbTYsAIc wrote: post #100
replyifuagree wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Which isn't to say that technical knowledge doesn't matter, it truly does. But, the primary problem in the industry right now is that the majority of finished code generated by professionals goes unused. The amount of waste is staggering. Working on the right thing is way more than a 10x multiplier.

> The amount of waste is staggering. Working on the right thing is way more than a 10x multiplier. How much of that waste would you attribute to 1x programmers and how much would you attribute to 0x managers?

I would attribute most of it to poor customer development or product management. If you can’t find the demand for your product, it doesn’t matter how good the engineers or managers are.

Failed projects are inevitable though, even if you do everything well. Good teams don’t look for people to blame, which results in no one sticking their neck out to advocate for stuff. Instead they look to learn from each experience and hone their processes.

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#132

Post by keiferski »

The spacing effect:

The spacing effect demonstrates that learning is more effective when study sessions are spaced out. This effect shows that more information is encoded into long-term memory by spaced study sessions, also known as spaced repetition or spaced presentation, than by massed presentation ("cramming").

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacing_effect

Spaced Repetition Software (like Anki) allows you to learn more things in less time – and remember them better, too. It's especially useful if you want to learn a large amount of things over a longer timeframe.

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#133

Post by kqr »

Never think you need permission to do your job well. If you are absolutely confident you have a great idea, then just go ahead and execute smoothly. Since you know the idea is good, it will be easy to defend later if someone calls it into question.

On the flip side, if you are not absolutely sure (and you generally should not be!) then ask as many people as feasible to criticise your idea so you can work out the best possible version of it before you execute.

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#134

Post by nunez »

knowing how to effectively run a meeting.

if you can create meetings that are engaging, informational, and have actual actionable outcomes at the end that people are accountable for, you'll have a much easier time meeting people and getting things done.

a technical 10x that I've found is knowing infrastructure (if you're a software dev) or knowing how to write software (if you're an infrastructure person).

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#135

Post by brimble »

giantg2 wrote: post #24

"Calculus for solving all sorts of problems." Is this really common? I know I'm not in a top tier job, so maybe they don't give dummies like me the hard problems, but I've never had to use calculus to solve a real world problem.

I had the same reaction. I've forgotten most of it, but that's because there have been zero times in the ~18 years (oh god...) since I had a calculus class that I've seen anything I could use it for, without just making up a reason to use it.

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#136

Post by kqr »

breckenedge wrote: post #126
kqr wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's not only about features that go unused, but also features that are used but only in support of workflows that improves nobody's life. Or functionality that's used but is a wildly inefficient version of what could have been.

I’m curious about what you’d consider concrete examples of these inefficient solutions? The biggest thing that comes to my mind are SPAs that don’t need to be SPAs.

One example from my employment history was a customer that kept asking for (and unfortunately getting) one special reporting feature after another in a data processing system.

After a couple of years and several such reporting options someone asked, "Can't we just generate a spreadsheet and then your business analysts can do whatever reports they want from that?" and the customer responded, "You can do that?! That would be so much easier for us."

Imagine the weeks or even months of human life (both implementing but also using the less efficient reports) that could have been saved if the right solution had been implemented from the start.

That's literally time taken out of someone's life that they could have used to be with family or whatever they wanted instead of transcribing ridiculous reports.

(Of course, those reports were probably only generated to be looked at once in some recurring management meeting, only for the executives to feel good about having seen data. I don't think the reports were ever used to support any decision.

This means the entire reporting theatre was completely bullshit and the customer could have paid the business analysts to sip drinks on the beach instead with no loss of productivity. But that's just my cynical view.)

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#137

Post by kayodelycaon »

warrenm wrote: post #99

You're way too over-focused on tech trivia in your list The biggest force multipliers what a friend described to me as a young teenager as "be an and" - don't just be a programmer, be a programmer and a lawyer Don't just be a welder, be a welder and a baker Don't just be an engineer, be an engineer and a writer Etc You may have heard Scott Adams call it a "talent stack" Same concept Be exposed to as many ideas as pos…

This. I learned a lot of business and management skills on the side... sales, marketing, accounting, vendor negotiation, inventory, merchandise ordering, policy enforcement, staff training, firing people (and how much it sucks), etc... by helping run a furry convention for 5 years.

It's one of the best things I've ever done for my career. I enjoy casually listing that on my resume under volunteering. :)

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#138

Post by lanstin »

loves_mangoes wrote: post #29

All those little bits of knowledge are nice tools and patterns, they're definitely good to have. And if you have curiosity, you will naturally keep learning dozens of those over time. But they are not applicable everywhere, so you should not expect your 8 hour days to turn into 48 minutes because you started using regexes, dynamic programming, and search algorithms everywhere. The unlikable and unhelpful answer, but…

You may wish to read Gould's Mismeasure of Man, and about thw fallacy of reification.

And brain plasticity, and the characteristics of high performing groups or institutions.

Changing the way your group works together is going to have a more profound difference on the outcomes than focusing on individual performance.

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#140

Post by gjvc »

ant6n wrote: post #85
gjvc wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is an unhelpful response: the guy asks a straight question and the response is to "challenge the underlaying [sic] idea" It would be better to answer their question, rather than attempt to knock it down. (good example of zero-sum bias.)

Unhelpful response (is indempotent)

"idempotent"
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