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Take a break

robinrendle.com

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Re: Take a break

#41

Post by CalRobert »

greymalik wrote: post #14

> small hurdles spike my anxiety, my anger flares at the slightest confrontation, I notice fewer jokes, fewer attempts on my part to make people laugh. My memory goes to all hell too and I can’t seem to concentrate on prolonged amounts of anything. Books fall off my radar, I stop listening to music. My phone is in my hand at all times, scrolly-anxiety-inducing apps become impossible to avoid. This describes me perfec…

I wish I'd understood the degree to which small children destroy you. The amount of focus time you get falls by 90%+, you sleep horribly every night without fail, and you spend every quiet moment waiting for one of them to start screaming because they found some new and ingenious way to hurt themself.

Maybe a lot of that was having a 1-3 and 3-5 year old wfh during covid, but I feel like I'm broken ever since.

Re: Take a break

#42

Post by laserlight »

wildrhythms wrote: post #28
thenerdhead wrote: post #25

On top of taking regular breaks, I think we should also work slower. Burnout is a scary place to be in. While the news calls it “quiet quitting”, I think many people are simply burnt out from the last few years of world conditions and add on the rubber band effect of everything going back to “normal”. It’s just too much change in a short amount of time. I wrote a book about this topic when I was in a state of burnout…

I work with a project manager who is obsessed with deadlines. "Hey do you have an update? When do you think it will be done? Hey, the deadline is really close!" They maintain a complicated Gantt chart. What happens when we miss the deadline? Nothing really, our updates aren't on a fixed timeline, and our users are very happy with our product today. Everything is artificial.

This is simply management theater: estimations done with wishful thinking rather than analysis, deadlines serving no other purpose than pestering people to impose a pecking order.

Re: Take a break

#43

Post by depr »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #8

May I suggest a purely rational, evidence based take? The trap is your belief in a linear relationship between effort and outcome. Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right? That's false. As you say so yourself, your memory goes to shit. It's not just a law of diminishing returns. For coders, past a certain point, exhaustion leads you to start undoing your work. You are into negative productivity. I…

I agree with what you're saying but as you said "evidence based", did you mean research-based evidence or anecdotal evidence? If you meant research-based evidence, can you provide it?

Re: Take a break

#44

Post by novosel »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #8

May I suggest a purely rational, evidence based take? The trap is your belief in a linear relationship between effort and outcome. Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right? That's false. As you say so yourself, your memory goes to shit. It's not just a law of diminishing returns. For coders, past a certain point, exhaustion leads you to start undoing your work. You are into negative productivity. I…

Completely in agrement with you.

We are fundamentaly biurnal, you wake up, (in whatever state you prefer), and then do your thing with a limited (daily provided) resources that are awailable to you.

Repeat.

Re: Take a break

#45

Post by nonrandomstring »

gubernation wrote: post #35
nonrandomstring wrote: post #8

May I suggest a purely rational, evidence based take? The trap is your belief in a linear relationship between effort and outcome. Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right? That's false. As you say so yourself, your memory goes to shit. It's not just a law of diminishing returns. For coders, past a certain point, exhaustion leads you to start undoing your work. You are into negative productivity. I…

So the solution is to figure out how to put in long hours effectively, not to throw it away. That's an excuse. Do you want to be rich, or not?

> Do you want to be rich, or not?

No. I'm a Christian and humanist you insensitive clod :)

Really and sincerely I do not.

If there's one philosophy I could share - that's given me a truly awesome life filled with gratitude, meaning, mostly decent health, intimate human relationships and personal agency it would be look for the riches you already have.

Re: Take a break

#46

Post by Silverback_VII »

Swinx43 wrote: post #21
greymalik wrote: post #14

> small hurdles spike my anxiety, my anger flares at the slightest confrontation, I notice fewer jokes, fewer attempts on my part to make people laugh. My memory goes to all hell too and I can’t seem to concentrate on prolonged amounts of anything. Books fall off my radar, I stop listening to music. My phone is in my hand at all times, scrolly-anxiety-inducing apps become impossible to avoid. This describes me perfec…

I think it is impossible to understand how much additional stress and anxiety being a parent of small children bring without being in that position. I refer to it as the best kept secret of parenthood. No one tells you this until you are in it.

>I think it is impossible to understand how much additional stress and anxiety being a parent of small children bring without being in that position.

I have to disagree and I'm a father. I think it's exactly like in the book "the happiness advantage", some people will see the positive and use it as possibility to grow and to get more productive.

On the other hand, People who focus on the negative and didn't learn to cope with stress will have problems in every high stress environment no matter the circumstances.

no matter the crap life throws at them some people simply march forward and this is the mindset you need - and not a break, which will only get you right back where you were.

Re: Take a break

#47

Post by badpun »

ArjenM wrote: post #9
calrain wrote: post #7

30 years in the workforce 2 years starting a new startup 5 years after it was acquired Total burnout... I resigned and am 10 months into a break, it's the best thing I've ever done!

Twenty years, two months into the second burn out on top of long term depression. I'm going bankrupt for a second time because I can't work 100% anymore. I'm yet to find a psychiatrist. Wish I could have a break sometimes.

You don't have any savings after 20 years of working? What happened?

Re: Take a break

#48

Post by novosel »

gubernation wrote: post #35
nonrandomstring wrote: post #8

May I suggest a purely rational, evidence based take? The trap is your belief in a linear relationship between effort and outcome. Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right? That's false. As you say so yourself, your memory goes to shit. It's not just a law of diminishing returns. For coders, past a certain point, exhaustion leads you to start undoing your work. You are into negative productivity. I…

So the solution is to figure out how to put in long hours effectively, not to throw it away. That's an excuse. Do you want to be rich, or not?

The question is rather:

MUST You be rich, or not.

Re: Take a break

#49

Post by dekken_ »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #45
gubernation wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the solution is to figure out how to put in long hours effectively, not to throw it away. That's an excuse. Do you want to be rich, or not?

> Do you want to be rich, or not? No. I'm a Christian and humanist you insensitive clod :) Really and sincerely I do not. If there's one philosophy I could share - that's given me a truly awesome life filled with gratitude, meaning, mostly decent health, intimate human relationships and personal agency it would be look for the riches you already have.

Much simpler to compare billionaires to hoarders/morbidly obese.
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