This is one of the reasons why I'm more productive when I work from an office and not from home.
I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
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Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
#22This is a really interesting experiment, and the author did a great job of breaking it down and quantifying it. I do wonder how much a measure of "productive time vs unproductive time" corresponds to actual outcomes though; it's very different than knowing you've spent that time on the right things.
I agree I don't know if I spent time on the best thing, but in general I think the things I classified as productive (writing, coding, fitness, etc...) are much better than the unproductive things (social media, youtube, hn, etc...).
Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
#23Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
#24Have you tried an entirely remote version of this?
I imagine someone could build an effective AI with face to watch over you to increase productivity/$ spent but it wouldn't have a physical presence.
Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
#25For context on the reference, Focusmate is $7/month. Just FWIW.
Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
#26This is incredibly bizarre, to the point where I wonder if this isn't just a creative writing exercise.
Why does he feel the need to be 'productive' for 16 hours a day?
Why did he think the best way to deal with this was to hire a group of babysitters?
Why was he being so weird to his assistants?
It just doesn't add up. The whole thing is so damn strange.
Maybe this is an experiment on the readers of his article, to see how we will react to something on the borders of credibility.
Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
#27The bit about Rachel is truly the classic Craigslist experience. Anyone who's dealt with strangers through Craigslist would find this a very familiar type of strangeness.
Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
#28Have you tried an entirely remote version of this? I imagine someone could build an effective AI with face to watch over you to increase productivity/$ spent but it wouldn't have a physical presence.
I have not, but I'm looking at doing it down the line! One thing that I would miss is the homecooked meals; I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed them.
Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
#29I honestly cannot believe this. The porn part, the make me a smoothie request, dating dinners.
This guy seriously paid people to sit behind him and didn't even think about them stealing his $1000 monitors until after the fact?
He didn't try blocking any non productive sites? No productivity software? No pomadoro technique-esq focus methods?
This guy should have paid $88/hour for therapy if we are being honest here
Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month
#30This is incredibly bizarre, to the point where I wonder if this isn't just a creative writing exercise. Why does he feel the need to be 'productive' for 16 hours a day? Why did he think the best way to deal with this was to hire a group of babysitters? Why was he being so weird to his assistants? It just doesn't add up. The whole thing is so damn strange. Maybe this is an experiment on the readers of his article, to…
Related the being productive 16 hours a day, I enjoyed this blog post by Dan Luu: https://danluu.com/productivity-velocity/