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Take a break

robinrendle.com

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Re: Take a break

#151

Post by therealdrag0 »

sixhobbits wrote: post #150

Work life balance is a hot topic. Personally, I think it is healthier to balance daily instead of yearly. I walk 1-2h/day, work maximum 8 hours a day, but havnen't had a 'vacation' in ages. I sort of tried taking 2 weeks to sit on a beach and it really didn't work for me. Just broke my routines and made me stressed. Friends and family tell me I am stupid but I feel pretty happy. By taking a vacation every day instead…

I’m similar, except I do take vacations :). I work hard but spread it all out. Sometimes only work 4-6 hr a day Sometimes take 2 hour lunch break. But Sometimes take break from 4-7pm then work to midnight. Sometimes work on the weekend. (All at my own choosing, not because of on-call or anything.)

Re: Take a break

#152

Post by P5fRxh5kUvp2th »

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…

Am I a super genius?

I've heard people say this for years and have never experienced it, and I've done plenty of development while tired.

Certainly the next day, with a clearer head, I can see the mistakes I couldn't before, but I've never been so off-the-rails-wrong that I literally just trashed it all and started over.

I would be interested in a poll to see if this is a common thing for people. Do I have a super power in being able to work reasonably well in less than perfect circumstances?

Re: Take a break

#153

Post by geerlingguy »

duncan-donuts wrote: post #69
CalRobert wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nah my kids broke me before Covid. Covid just made it harder. Obviously ymmv but your kids breaking you happens without it without a pandemic.

I think the big question is once broken, and the kids finally start not completely breaking you every week... can you rebuild with the pieces left :)

We'll see! I have 10+ years to go before I'll find out for sure.

Re: Take a break

#154

Post by eigenrick »

P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #152
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…

Am I a super genius? I've heard people say this for years and have never experienced it, and I've done plenty of development while tired. Certainly the next day, with a clearer head, I can see the mistakes I couldn't before, but I've never been so off-the-rails-wrong that I literally just trashed it all and started over. I would be interested in a poll to see if this is a common thing for people. Do I have a super po…

I've had to delete big chunks of code I wrote. Not because of burnout or exhaustion, but of sickness.

When I had a cold, but was good enough to sit up and type, I assumed I was good enough to work.

Nope. I've learned to monitor my health and energy levels better, and I stop when I know my productivity will be low (or negative)

Re: Take a break

#155

Post by l3w3 »

luckylion wrote: post #146
johnbellone wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That definitely has helped me, too. But I don't like the fact that I need it.

I'd prefer if I didn't, but it has few side effects and it's not a recreational thing, so I find it's similar to the Mometasone furoate spray I'm being prescribed to manage my sinusitis. I'd prefer to not need that, too, but breathing is more important.

I found long term use of Mometasone to have unpleasant side effects. Have you tried Montelukast, or spoken to an ENT consultant? A small surgical procedure eliminated nearly all of my symptoms.

Re: Take a break

#156

Post by w_for_wumbo »

I think we've conflated hard work with results. Hard work is a symptom that we're doing something incorrectly. Either it's too challenging for us, or we're doing it the wrong way.

There seems to be too much value on hard work, and not enough on efficient progress, breaking things down into challenges that we're capable of achieving.

Hard work is never accomplished, it's only once we break them down into achievable tasks that we're ever able to tackle something initially deemed as hard.

Re: Take a break

#157

Post by bdbenton »

kzrdude wrote: post #138
bdbenton wrote: post #39

I firmly believe that people should take at least one day of the week to not work at all. My code is very buggy and sloppy when I'm completely exhausted, even my grammar and ability to organize ideas falls apart. For many people it's traditionally Sunday or Saturday, but even if you don't observe a day of rest religiously, it is still very practical. If you are involved with intellectual work like coding, switching y…

Having a real weekend shouldn't be a novel idea.. I assume most people in our industry have that? I know it would be a luxury for some, but I couldn't live without it.

I agree, but with programmers in particular it's seen as a badge of honor and sometimes even as an expectation from employers to just "eat, sleep, and code" all the time. We have things like "the crunch" or hackathons, but the dark side to it is the lack of labor laws surrounding computer work.

In fact, computer programmers have special exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/17e-overtime-co...

The FLSA guarantees minimum wage and 1.5x overtime pay for workers in the USA. In other words, if you are a computer programmer in the US, your employer can legally work you overtime/weekends without 1.5x pay like other workers.

Of course, the US also has the highest-paying programming jobs, and it has the most software developers by a very wide margin as America invented software engineering. This unique position in the labor market has caused the rights of computer programmers in the workplace to be largely overlooked.

Re: Take a break

#158

Post by nicbou »

pavlov wrote: post #17
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…

There was a time a dozen years ago when I was working alone on my (over-elaborate, uncontrollably sprawling) graphics software product. One time I wrote a multi-thousand-line refactoring of existing code into a new class and felt very happy about getting it done. The next day I discovered that I had already done the exact same work the previous week, just as a slightly differently named class. That wasn’t an isolated…

Rest sometimes brings clarity too. Even if you're not tired, you might be stuck in a way of thinking.

Re: Take a break

#159

Post by VectorLock »

And take actual breaks. I'm on the verge of burn out and wondering "whats happening? I'm taking regular time off work" and realize I'm taking time off to do other kinds of work (parents estate, medical issues, just other life work) rather than actually taking the time to recharge.

Re: Take a break

#160

Post by bamboozled »

photochemsyn wrote: post #76
bamboozled wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the idea and sentiment of your comment. but it doesn’t line up with my experience. Sometimes I stay up really late, I make a sacrifice and I get a lot done.

"Sometimes" is vague. Is this: every day, every other day, once a week, or once a month? The latter two sound reasonable. The former two sound like a recipe for a breakdown sooner or later.

It’s when the pressure is on and I make a choice to stop faffing around and deliver
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