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It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

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Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#121

Post by janalsncm »

mym1990 wrote: post #23
sph wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hear me out. 40 hours dedicated to your employer, however you slice them, is modern slavery. Why the hell are we creating all this technology to slave even more, with only energy to drool in front of Netflix and repeat the next day? People should have the time to explore their passions, projects and families more than a couple hours every day. Not dedicate half of their waking life , their mental and physical prime,…

Wow, 250k a year to go to work 8-5 is “modern slavery”. On a bit of a high horse there.

250k is peanuts compared to the value that developer creates for the company.

Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#122

Post by JackMorgan »

jamies wrote: post #48
Chris_Newton wrote: post #46

I like the saying “slow is smooth and smooth is fast” as applied to software development. For all the talk of Agile processes and breaking creative work down into bite-sized chunks and prioritising collaboration and team productivity over individual contributions, ultimately our work is about thinking and fundamentally it requires that each individual doing the work understands what needs to be done. Not investing en…

I love that you quoted “slow is smooth and smooth is fast” -- I learned it as a volunteer firefighter! It's a great saying, and can be applied to just about anything.

Another wacker in the wild! I'm taking Fire 1 (final burn today actually) and the instructors are always yelling "don't run, just move with purpose. MORE PURPOSE THAN THAT NUMBER 14"

Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#123

Post by sph »

janalsncm wrote: post #121
mym1990 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, 250k a year to go to work 8-5 is “modern slavery”. On a bit of a high horse there.

250k is peanuts compared to the value that developer creates for the company.

"Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that's why I read HN on company time."

Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#124

Post by kqr »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #97
Chris_Newton wrote: post #46

I like the saying “slow is smooth and smooth is fast” as applied to software development. For all the talk of Agile processes and breaking creative work down into bite-sized chunks and prioritising collaboration and team productivity over individual contributions, ultimately our work is about thinking and fundamentally it requires that each individual doing the work understands what needs to be done. Not investing en…

Agile processes is an oxymoron. "Agile" coaches scammed you

Not at all. There are repetitive elements of agile development too. Or do you invent a new way to e.g. deploy your code every time you put it into production? Come up with a new format for retros? Vary the lengths of sprints and the check-in points in them?

Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#125

Post by kqr »

srackey wrote: post #39
great_psy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe work became the central piece in people’s lives because they don’t have time to devote to other things. It’s a 40 hour work week, but add in commuting and chores and decent sleep and you’re left with a few hours left for other things. Hard to build an identity around a few hours of something else.

But we used to work more and this wasn’t as much of an issue?

Depends on which people you talk about and during what period. In the grand scheme of things, renting out most of your waking hours to an employer who charges you for that service is an extremely uncommon thing to do.

Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#126

Post by sph »

sixstringtheory wrote: post #72
sph wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Slaves can't quit and do something else. I discussed the slavery point below, but here let me defend its usage: it is slavery if you consider the society as a whole, not just your job. Chances are, if you don't want to work for a year, you probably can't afford housing because you are renting. Statistically, you do not even have money to support yourself for a year. Culturally, we do not share food with strangers a…

I get you, because I’ve been down this line of thought as well. But I’ve concluded the whip hand is not even that of society, but nature itself. Everyone is driven by the biological need to eat, at the end of the day. So how did your great grandfather eat? Where did this readily available food come from? Would other people provide him with endless food while he did this philosophizing? I imagine that any society, whe…

Those are very good questions, but here's the thing.

What even is the point of all this technology is the only option is a free life of prehistoric subsistence, or the drone life of a desk worker?

I refuse to accept this false binary choice. We are not made into drones because the machines and industry needs constant maintenance. Society with its artificial busywork and bullshit rules is the reason one has to work 40 hours a week. We have to earn a ton of money because, at the end of the day, half of it goes into the pocket of plutocrats, not to keep the gears oiled.

This is a huge topic for a comment on a forum thread, I am just trying to understand why other people deep into technology, automation, like us, are unable to visualize a world where technology works for us. Frees us from nature. Because right now we are using technology against ourselves. To control us, to make us more productive, to make our bosses more rich and politicians more powerful.

Technology is a tool. A force multiplier. But we are not using to increase our living standards, only to keep this circus turning, at our expense.

Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#127

Post by natmaka »

turtledragonfly wrote: post #89
Chris_Newton wrote: post #46

I like the saying “slow is smooth and smooth is fast” as applied to software development. For all the talk of Agile processes and breaking creative work down into bite-sized chunks and prioritising collaboration and team productivity over individual contributions, ultimately our work is about thinking and fundamentally it requires that each individual doing the work understands what needs to be done. Not investing en…

> slow is smooth and smooth is fast Another phrase with similar meaning (and interesting history) is "festina lente" ("make haste slowly," in Latin). I named my company after it (: It's certainly an ancient concept. I feel like software is ultimately about humans organizing complex activities, and humans haven't changed that much in the past few millennia, even if the activities have gotten more complex and abstract.…

Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything. In a gun fight... You need to take your time in a hurry. -- Wyatt Earp

Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#128

Post by sph »

emerongi wrote: post #78
sph wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a figure pulled out of my ass. I've never earned half that, and these days I'm eating ramen because I am not accepting the status of modern society and trying to spend all my time and mental energy to find a third way. Hence this rant. I am not prescribing anything to anybody. It is just sad that criticising the status quo is seen as proof of privilege. It is ungrateful of me to entertain the idea that life ca…

For what it's worth, there's many people who agree with you, myself included. Modern society has created unnecessary work, stressors and pressures that are quite artificial. Everybody goes along without questioning it, at least not aloud. I will admit that I am by nature someone who takes the alternative path. It's entirely possible that the world is working just fine and I am unable to adjust to it. However, I can't…

> the world is working just fine and I am unable to adjust to it

It is not. Believing that everything is just fine would be actual proof of privilege. Because the average Westerner has a roof over their head, heating, food and are chronically dissatisfied, depressed, purposeless, powerless against their bosses and those in high power that rule over us (yet they tell you your vote counts!). But somehow they are shamed by their peer if they voice their dissatisfaction, and told "oh, you would prefer a life of subsistence? Because that is the only path!"

Where have all the philosophers, activists, idealists of the 19th century gone? Those that thought of a better world, workers to be respected, a fair economy? Many would like to think we have arrived, that this is the fated utopia they have worked for.

Nonsense.

Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#129

Post by kqr »

golergka wrote: post #120
gffrd wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why wouldn't you want tie your identity to something like that? Because conflating _need for purpose_ and _need to pay rent_ can be tricky business: they don’t always join neatly. Happy they do for you!

Need to pay for rent is quite literally need to pay back to other human beings for shelter, one of the most basic human needs. Why would it be a bad purpose in life?

If rent was only about paying other humans for shelter! It takes what -- a month of work? to house a person for a year. (Based on the assumption that about 8 % of the working population works in construction, building maintenance, and related areas.)

I'm happy to pay a month of my wages for a year of shelter. My rent is way, way higher than that.

Re: It’s time to embrace slow productivity (2022)

#130

Post by talideon »

fzeindl wrote: post #82
Chris_Newton wrote: post #46

I like the saying “slow is smooth and smooth is fast” as applied to software development. For all the talk of Agile processes and breaking creative work down into bite-sized chunks and prioritising collaboration and team productivity over individual contributions, ultimately our work is about thinking and fundamentally it requires that each individual doing the work understands what needs to be done. Not investing en…

> ultimately our work is about thinking and fundamentally it requires that each individual doing the work understands what needs to be done. Usually the individuals doing the work do understand that, but it is really hard to properly divide work and describe requirements. Why people try do divide it in even smaller tasks which increases this kind of complicated creative-writing work is beyond me. > We realised that w…

People keep saying Royce invented Waterfall, but he didn't. At most, he used it as a straw man. What Royce actually advocated was an iterative model. You're right that his approach recommended at least two iterations, but not that his approach was the Waterfall model.
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