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"TPS TPS TPS REPORTS AAAUUUGGHHHHHH!"
Regarding your point though, my spellchecking sense is telling me the author probably meant to type: "...that’s too often our mental image of “working” " .
What “work” looks like
11–20 of 236 posts
Re: What “work” looks like
#12So true. My best quality time is when first reading hard problem and going for a walk to attack it at every angle.
Re: What “work” looks like
#13Well, you can actually think in front of a computer also, whether you are just sitting there or typing outlines or whatever.
As far as collaborative creativity, that's a whole other thing. The challenge is that often everyone has somewhat different goals, assumptions, and knowledge.
That's a reason that solo development can be an advantage. Component-based systems might help to some degree.
Re: What “work” looks like
#14IMHO why companies don't push the 'step away and let the problem gestate in your brain' message is that it blurs the lines between 'payable time' and 'free time'. For my creative work, a lot of solutions occur in the evenings after I've clocked out.
Since I'm developing solutions for work do they not owe me money for the hours worked?
Re: What “work” looks like
#15 Boss: "Hicks, how come you're not working."
Bill: "There's nothing to do."
Boss: "Well, you pretend like you're working."
Perhaps the biggest sink on the economy and environment is perfomative work that David Graeber calls "bullshit jobs". Commuting 100 miles to sit in an office to be seen to perform is tragic and borne of insecurity of both manager and worker colluding in a game.
I think what constitutes work exists at a deep, invisible level that approximates to something like loyalty or duty. It is whether one holds the task/company in mind. And it happens 24/7.
Some of the most important work I've done for clients happened while out walking, or shopping. I've cut short social events or vacations to rush back and test an idea I had.
Problem is, you can't measure that. And even if you could, I wouldn't let you. It's a private space. The more any "boss" tries to intrude, observe or manage that process, the faster it evaporates.
That's not to say that structured tools, planning, presentation and other forms of explicating and evidence aren't part of work. They're just not the most important parts, and actually play very little role in the big leaps and "paradigm shifts" in creative work.
By "problem" I mean problem for someone whose only role is to monitor and report what others do. "I'm still thinking about it" is something they don't want to hear.
Re: What “work” looks like
#16I've had more ideas come to me after hiding in my office to take a nap than sitting at my desk. It got to be such a gold mine of solutions that I still to this day allocate 30 minutes of my day to a nap. Non-negotiable. So many hard problems that have been brought to me, or complicated needs for architecture, etc were solved by simply turning my active brain off. When I was in graduate school I'd regularly get stuck on some stupid thing I didn't understand and slamming my head against the paper/book/whatever didn't help. Again, a quick nap and I was good (or at least better than I was).
Performative work is a disaster. I worked in a stuffy IT office of a company before I got my degree and became a software engineer. It took YEARS to deprogram performative work. I still hide when I take a nap. I suspect that if my current company found out I was sleeping on the job they'd still be upset with me. However, my output is so good the results speak for themselves. It would be difficult to fire me for napping.
Re: What “work” looks like
#17Work: going for a 2 hour run over the weekend, thinking about some problem between the 60th and 80 minute, spending the next week implementing it. (typing it in, telling others about it on meetings, whatever)
Also: this is why hourly billing is pointless. You bill for the low value activity and can't bill for the high value activity.
Re: What “work” looks like
#18Boss: "Hicks, how come you're not working." Bill: "There's nothing to do." Boss: "Well, you pretend like you're working." Perhaps the biggest sink on the economy and environment is perfomative work that David Graeber calls "bullshit jobs". Commuting 100 miles to sit in an office to be seen to perform is tragic and borne of insecurity of both manager and worker colluding in a game. I think what constitutes work exists…
>Perhaps the biggest sink on the economy and environment is perfomative work that David Graeber calls "bullshit jobs". Commuting 100 miles to sit in an office to be seen to perform is tragic and borne of insecurity of both manager and worker colluding in a game.
For years (5+), at my job there's often nothing to do, so after lunch I just go home, and declare 4 hours worked that day (8-12, instead of normal 8) at the end of a month. Of 5 of us employees I am the only one doing that. Never once has my boss confronted me about it, neither subtracted from my full salary. I feel kinda blessed.
Re: What “work” looks like
#19Cue Cal Newport’s Deep Thinking movement.
The interesting part is that most companies don’t want to keep learning even through this pandemic.
I see most of them as dinosaurs by now. Unexpected to be the case by many but soon to be extinct and replaced by smarter collectives, working towards their respective common goals.
The world desperately needs this kind of change on all decks.
We can’t stubbornly brute force ourselves out of this mess with the same kind of thinking that created it.
Re: What “work” looks like
#20IMHO why companies don't push the 'step away and let the problem gestate in your brain' message is that it blurs the lines between 'payable time' and 'free time'. For my creative work, a lot of solutions occur in the evenings after I've clocked out. Since I'm developing solutions for work do they not owe me money for the hours worked?
I don't think it's that at all. If you're salary the company quite literally owns you, every thought no matter how inconsequential, etc. I can see how that could be a problem for hourly. It's really about control. You give the appearance of work to appease the PHB who signs your paycheck. You know, after plenty of experience, the person who appears to be the hardest worker is often times the least likely to be put on the chopping block. It's a very primal hierarchical reaction to this kind of thing.