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Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

blog.idonethis.com

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Re: Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

#41

Post by nostrademons »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #16

Of course they don't mention how annoying writing snippets can be (although I agree they are a good way for an individual to remember what they've done). They also don't mention that you can tell who is 'in' at Google and who isn't by the fact that they haven't written a new snippet in over a year.

Mondrian has a feature that lets you automatically generate a snippet e-mail based on the CLs you've mailed off, submitted, and reviewed in a given week.

In true "D'oh!" fashion, I didn't find out about this feature until a month before Snippets were discontinued.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

#42

Post by jaylevitt »

ericabiz wrote: post #25
loschorts wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, actually you can try our implementation at http://iDoneThis.com (author of the post here). We have a team thing we're rolling out and this post was in part to gauge interest.

Love the concept but hate the name. "iDoneThis" isn't even proper grammar... This is a case where a few hundred dollars on a good domain name would go a long way.

> "iDoneThis" isn't even proper grammar

Neither was "You've Got Mail."

Re: Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

#43

Post by ZephyrP »

In all seriousness, I think if anyone took a large, systematic look at the nature of productivity gains in the Valley, they would see that the same patterns underlie their gains just like everyone else's -- Very smart people in an extremely competitive environment where many people are connected to other important thoughts and thinkers and of course using high powered ergogenic stimulants ranging from the popular and relatively innocuous coding sessions aids Adderall and Modafinil all the way to finishing months worth of a normal man's work in days with Methamphetamine (or solving deep problems in virtually every branch of mathematics and finishing it off with a Wolf Prize :)

Re: Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

#45

Post by altxwally »

Interesting, sending daily/weekly reports is default behavior at Japanese companies (where doing busywork is actually a good thing sometimes, since it seems that there are many zombie companies that get funding just for the sake of having people employed), so I'm surprised to see this practice considered so highly in the context of the Valley. Though I'm suspicious that this practice would be a secret itself, it seems so basic that it must be written on a textbook somewhere. e.g. "give importance to communication", "it's a ritual", etc...

Re: Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

#46

Post by kylemaxwell »

I remember Raph Koster (MMORPG designer) blogging years ago about something like this, where once a week - Sunday evenings, maybe? - he sat down with his child and made plans for what he wanted to accomplish this week. While it didn't go so far as to inform his team, it did encompass the idea of sharing it with someone else who'll help to keep you accountable.

That has even more value, perhaps, than the meta-cognition of thinking about what you need to think about.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

#47

Post by spindritf »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #16

Of course they don't mention how annoying writing snippets can be (although I agree they are a good way for an individual to remember what they've done). They also don't mention that you can tell who is 'in' at Google and who isn't by the fact that they haven't written a new snippet in over a year.

> They also don't mention that you can tell who is 'in' at Google and who isn't by the fact that they haven't written a new snippet in over a year.

As in who still works there? Who is really important? Or who is doing interesting projects? What does 'in' mean in this context?

Re: Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

#48

Post by dorian-graph »

It's done elsewhere too, at least quite similarly. Where I experienced this heavily is quite far away from technology—I was a missionary for the LDS church in the Philippines.

Every day we have a daily planning session (30mins) at night where we set goals and make plans for the next day. Once a week we have a weekly planning session (2-3hours) where we set goals and make plans for the next 7 days.

The main thing that is similar to this story is that every week we would write a letter to the mission president (Basically, someone who is in charge of all the missionaries in one area, mine being three islands in the Philippines) where we wrote down how the week went, good things, challenges, if we achieved our goals, questions and what we planned to do next week.

The planning/organisation/goal setting/GTD I learnt have stuck with me since and I still do daily/weekly planning and goal setting for work, university study, personal projects, etc.

Re: Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

#49

Post by bostonvaulter2 »

akkartik wrote: post #10
irollboozers wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have you been using them for then...

I've been saying what I did rather than reflecting on what is important and what to do next. Doesn't matter because I don't think anybody's been reading them either. Most of my team doesn't use them at all.

Are the snippets collected into a public area?

Re: Silicon Valley’s Productivity Secret

#50

Post by brown9-2 »

georgieporgie wrote: post #19

I mentioned that, at my last company, we sent weekly status reports with items completed and expected upcoming tasks. I was promptly told that status reports were a sign of a broken company. Apparently, if I'd called them snippets instead, I'd have been applauded for mentioning an innovative business tool? The thing which is always overlooked in articles like this is guidance and feedback. Sending "snippets" or statu…

I agree. I fail to see what is different here.
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