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What “work” looks like

blog.jim-nielsen.com

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Re: What “work” looks like

#121

Post by sph »

Test0129 wrote: post #16

I'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…

> I'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.

Many of the hard problems in my career have been solved while having a long warm shower in the middle of the work day.

In general, my own productivity trick is understanding and leveraging the Eureka effect. Your subconscious is still working on the problem when your conscious mind is doing something else. Often, if pointed focus doesn't work, just leave it in the back burner to stew. Then wait for the proverbial light bulb to show you the way, out of nowhere. It never fails, yet I have never heard anyone mention this phenomenon.

My empirical explanation is hard problems benefit from unrelated stimuli, so they're able to be approached from an oblique direction. In other words, to think out of the box, stop thinking and do something else.

Re: What “work” looks like

#122

Post by xezian »

In the context of such a short post, the fact the author mentions going for "a run" twice doesn't seem trivial to me.

Going for "a run" has become such an integral part of "work" for me (software eng), I consider my career choices one of the main factors in my subsequently becoming a distance runner.

I began my foray into software development almost 5 years ago, and in the last 2 - not unconnectedly also my first 2 years working 100% remotely - I've run 2 half marathons (officially, several more in training), a marathon relay, a 10k, and just a couple of weeks ago my first marathon.

Bragging about this because with all the time spent training I developed an even deeper connection between the "work" (solving whatever current problem for my job) and the time I spend running. At this point I often deliberately wait to go for the run until I've really got my mind around the code/feature/bug I'm working on. Once I'm actually moving, I don't really try and actively think about it, but more often than not at some point on my run something will click, and I'll return to my desk with a clearer path forward.

Re: What “work” looks like

#123

Post by deepGem »

Test0129 wrote: post #16

I'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…

Benjamin Franklin had this amazing idea of having ball bearings in his hand while solving and thinking about hard problems. The thinking would eventually make him fall asleep and as he fell into a slumber, the ball bearings would roll off his hands startling him up. It is at this precipice, the fine line between awake and asleep states that most of his ideas came to life. He would start penning down his ideas in this state.

So it worked then, it works now. A 20 to 30 minute nap during the work day has a ton of benefits, including stress reduction. I don't know why it is frowned upon. I have fallen asleep many times at my desk and have been made fun of, but who gives a damn. I would rather be stress free and have some good ideas come about.

Re: What “work” looks like

#124

Post by arthurofbabylon »

deepGem wrote: post #123
Test0129 wrote: post #16

I'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…

Benjamin Franklin had this amazing idea of having ball bearings in his hand while solving and thinking about hard problems. The thinking would eventually make him fall asleep and as he fell into a slumber, the ball bearings would roll off his hands startling him up. It is at this precipice, the fine line between awake and asleep states that most of his ideas came to life. He would start penning down his ideas in this…

Leveraging the hypnagogic state.

If anyone is interested, the yoga tradition has extensively developed this technique – it’s called Yoga Nidra.

Re: What “work” looks like

#125

Post by VoodooJuJu »

Look how many comments here are something like: "Well, of course leisure is good - because it helps me work harder!" It's sad. It's that "work-is-noble" ethos. These people are effectively saying that they are at-lesiure in order to work better - they have it backwards! I don't know about you, but I work in order to be-at-leisure; I am only ever not-at-leisure in order to be-at-leisure. Refreshing and recharging is good - because it's the end, not the means!. But so many here seem to be framing leisure as the means, the end being work itself. Work itself is not noble.

Re: What “work” looks like

#126

Post by sph »

gman83 wrote: post #110
mellavora wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Churchill also saw the value of the nap: “Nature has not intended mankind to work from eight in the morning until midnight without that refreshment of blessed oblivion which, even if it only lasts twenty minutes, is sufficient to renew all the vital forces… Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to acc…

If I was drinking whiskey for breakfast I'd probably need to take a nap in the afternoon as well.

If you were not drinking coffee, perhaps you might as well. I wonder if our cultural addiction with caffeine, an effective sleep inhibitor, is the reason why napping and siestas feels so weird and exotic to our modern minds. "Oh you're from Italy? I heard they take lunchtime naps over there." Sadly only my grandma had such a luxury.

Everybody else chugs coffee and is expected to work 9-18 without pause, like the rest of the Western world.

Re: What “work” looks like

#127

Post by pcurve »

MaxikCZ wrote: post #18
nonrandomstring wrote: post #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…

>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…

Man I wish everyone did that. I managed a team of twenty with a layer of managers and it was just impossible to get a pulse on workload. The truth is there is always work to be done. It doesn’t have to be feature work but it could be product health, process health, or pie in the sky thinking work. Some employees were great about utilizing downtime to tackle these but many were not. I loved the ones who were confident to tell me “hey boss I got some time. What do you want me to focus on ?”

Re: What “work” looks like

#128

Post by incomingpain »

xezian wrote: post #122

In the context of such a short post, the fact the author mentions going for "a run" twice doesn't seem trivial to me. Going for "a run" has become such an integral part of "work" for me (software eng), I consider my career choices one of the main factors in my subsequently becoming a distance runner. I began my foray into software development almost 5 years ago, and in the last 2 - not unconnectedly also my first 2 y…

>In the context of such a short post, the fact the author mentions going for "a run" twice doesn't seem trivial to me.

Gets the blood pumping and overclocks your brain.

I too have been working from home since covid started. What I find, take a break from sitting and move around. Do some chores. It gets your blood pumping and when you sit back at your desk you receive a +20 IQ points temporary boost.

Re: What “work” looks like

#129

Post by jdthedisciple »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #125

Look how many comments here are something like: "Well, of course leisure is good - because it helps me work harder!" It's sad. It's that "work-is-noble" ethos. These people are effectively saying that they are at-lesiure in order to work better - they have it backwards! I don't know about you, but I work in order to be-at-leisure; I am only ever not-at-leisure in order to be-at-leisure. Refreshing and recharging is g…

Hey let me just say I'm totally with you and you put it very well.

I would go even farther: I even dread the typical "1 hour lunch break" because it is anything but leisure. It's just "rush to reenergize your body to be able to do more work later, but f your mind and soul which are yearning for actual leisure".

Re: What “work” looks like

#130

Post by sneak »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #125

Look how many comments here are something like: "Well, of course leisure is good - because it helps me work harder!" It's sad. It's that "work-is-noble" ethos. These people are effectively saying that they are at-lesiure in order to work better - they have it backwards! I don't know about you, but I work in order to be-at-leisure; I am only ever not-at-leisure in order to be-at-leisure. Refreshing and recharging is g…

I disagree. My leisure is almost always unproductive, and I personally find productivity to be virtuous.
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