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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)

#171

Post by wonderwonder »

sph wrote: post #20
JohnFen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that I would much prefer to work 4 10 hour days than 5 8 hour days. I want to have as many days in a row as I can that I don't have to give to an employer.

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,…

I don't disagree with you in principal but its hard to tell my kids to say goodbye to their friends and that we are selling the house and moving to a cheaper area where they will attend a rougher school because daddy has a philosophical objection to working for a boss.

If you are single and just responsible for yourself though, more power to you. Before I had kids I did something similar. I hit an absolute wall. Took a 50% paycut and left development. It was pretty good for a a couple years and then I started getting promoted and then got screwed over by office politics and started hating it. I went back to programming after that and the first job back was awesome. Very low pay but no crazy deadlines, small team, etc. Then I had kids and needed more $ so started job hopping. Now its just the suck every day.

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

#172

Post by wonderwonder »

emerongi wrote: post #71
slily wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously. I'll take that job any day. I am in the same boat for <$150k and consider myself blessed when I'm not reading HN commenters bragging about their salary. At least you have a shot at retiring early in exchange for a set of responsibilities that plenty of people share for much less money.

You don't think $250k comes with high expectations as well? Salary doesn't always correlate with stress - min. wage workers are probably just as stressed, if not more -, but from my experience, my stress level has increased the more I earn. I also used to think that I'd do anything for that kind of money, but I now realize that I wouldn't. This discussion probably reeks of "first world problems" to people who have di…

You are right, every job I have had has come with more money for the most part and more stress.

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

#173

Post by wonderwonder »

re-thc wrote: post #76
engagthe wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree! I do think if you cut ALL meetings, you may miss out on some important relationship building stuff that is helpful when necessary conflict arises. Formalizing business requirement gathering may help reduce conflict, which is great, but you inevitably will have some. That said, I don’t think meetings are a good way to build relationships or trust, and there are more efficient and enjoyable ways to do that! If…

No 1 says you have to have the meeting in the meeting room. You could do it in a cafe or elsewhere. Not everything has to be so strict. Depends on your team and environment.

I wish. Many of us work from home now though so its just zoom meeting after zoom meeting.

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

#174

Post by pnut »

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?

Because it relegates your definition of a life purpose to society's value system.

If your purpose in life is caring for the infirm or teaching, or doing dance performances, society will not compensate you meaningfully in response.

What if your purpose doesn't align with society's definition of talent? Are you worthless as a human being?

What then, abandon your true purpose because of economics? These are rules of scarcity, not of life fulfillment.

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

#175

Post by lloydatkinson »

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…

One paragraph tickets? At my previous job that would be considered a miracle!

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

#176

Post by wonderwonder »

sph wrote: post #42
slily wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously. I'll take that job any day. I am in the same boat for <$150k and consider myself blessed when I'm not reading HN commenters bragging about their salary. At least you have a shot at retiring early in exchange for a set of responsibilities that plenty of people share for much less money.

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…

My theory is that anyone that attempts to negate another's opinion based on their 'privilege' is not worth having a conversation with. It quickly turns into a downward spiral where eventually the only ones with a valid point of view are the poorest and most wretched amongst us. Its like the people that do a stolen land acknowledgement before a meeting and then drive home in a 100k Tesla feeling smug that they made a difference.

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

#177

Post by wonderwonder »

sph wrote: post #36
JohnFen wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, we agree more than we disagree. The only part I really take issue with is the notion that working for someone is modern slavery. I don't think it's anything even close that. Slaves can't quit and do something else. They can't even change who their "owners" are. > I'd rather eat ramen, than get $250k a year and expected to be at my employer's beck and call 8am-5pm. I know a lot of people who make that exact choice…

> 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…

Was saying to my wife the other day that its impossible to just quit the world in the west. Even if I save enough to buy a plot of land and build a hut and can grow all of my own food. Property tax is due every year. The government refuses to allow people to just disconnect.

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

#178

Post by fzeindl »

namaria wrote: post #104
fzeindl wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

>What we should have realized by now is that we never did waterfall right because it's inventor Winston Royce required it to be done TWICE for each project. Two iterations. Reading the original waterfall paper was eye opening for me. I saw that we're falling into patterns that are decades old. Someone insightful tries to explain that learning and building are two sides of the same coin, and companies read it as "ok,…

You might like the book "The heretic's guide to best practises".

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

#179

Post by ResearchCode »

crazygringo wrote: post #157
uhtred wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No story enters the sprint unless there is absolute consensus among the engineers as to its point value, and it's the process of coming to that point value that makes sure each individual understands what needs to be done. I call bs. Are you telling me that the less experienced / less confident devs on the team don't cave to pressure from the team lead or whoever happens to be the most forceful / loudest to agree th…

Well, yes, I'm telling you exactly that. That's how planning poker works, you have to speak up. You don't even have a choice because the process requires you to. It sounds like you have a very dysfunctional team if you're characterizing it as a team leader and his "minions". I'm sorry that's your situation. Some larger corporations have agile facilitators precisely to nip this kind of problem in the bud.

Playing "poker" at work and having agile helpers sounds like extreme dysfunction.

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

#180

Post by namaria »

fzeindl wrote: post #178
namaria wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What we should have realized by now is that we never did waterfall right because it's inventor Winston Royce required it to be done TWICE for each project. Two iterations. Reading the original waterfall paper was eye opening for me. I saw that we're falling into patterns that are decades old. Someone insightful tries to explain that learning and building are two sides of the same coin, and companies read it as "ok,…

You might like the book "The heretic's guide to best practises".

Looks very interesting, thanks for the tip!
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