Just like irreducible complexity, "shallow work" or more generally "admin" cannot be eliminated. It can only be moved elsewhere.
It can be reduced, like by cancelling most meetings that could have been an e-mail.
Executive Function Theft
101–110 of 227 posts
Re: Executive Function Theft
#102Two things: The main assumption in this article is that "ego depletion" is real. It may not be, see Wikipedia [1]. Psychology is in a big replication crisis, and the ego depletion stuff is all tangled up in it. There's a real possibility that this "theft" only exists by virtue of you believing in it. I'm aware there's a lot of hedging to be done here (experiences of people with ADHD, etc.). I don't like calling this…
> Ego depletion is the controversial idea that self-control or willpower draws upon a limited pool of mental resources that can be used up
Whoa really? I mean it certainly doesn’t work that way for me, but then again I am a stubborn sonovabitch.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#103While I dislike the content of the article, the term is brilliant. This happens so often when I’m teaching someone an advanced programming topic and the person just starts to completely overwhelm you with small decisions they have to make and ignore the direct feedback you give them to do so.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#104Bad communication is EFT on steroids. Bad spelling and grammar, using jargon not already widely understood, taking things for granted, expecting everybody else to fill in the (huge) gaps, not making it clear who you expect to do what, making assertions related to critical decisions without backing them with a reference, and so on.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#105Oof, this hits close to home. during my tenure as a principal engineer at a certain startup, well known and loved in these parts. Anyway I was new to engineering leadership and this big initiative came down from above to migrate to k8s. team was excited to be done with the myriad adhoc scripts and duct tape infra. But it turned out the team was very junior, and I was green as a leader and manager. every day brought a…
Oof! Too down k8s initiative :-(. Definitely should be grass roots at startup based on actual problems and evaluation of the tech and alternatives.
It sounds like the team actually agreed with the decision, so that part is fine.
Top-down isn't necessarily always bad. It's the result that counts. Top-down decision making has different trade-offs from bottom-up, so sometimes it's the better choice.
Bottom-up has more insights in details, top-down has a wider view. Bottom-up gets deeper commitment, top-down gets faster compliance. Bottom-up gets a thousand blooms blooming, top-down gets a unified vision.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#106i call it "choice-gas" and yes it does run low and is expressly frustrating when it's constantly taxed needlessly. a good example is microsoft outlook. meeting invites would pop a mandatory three way choice of "send the response now, send the response later or edit the response before sending" every time the accept button was pressed. a truly infuriating case of eft.
I’m confused. Do you mean that the choice between those three buttons is difficult? I always just chose “send response now” and didn’t concern myself any more about it. Is there some reason that doesn’t work for people who are short on choice-gas?
I take the impression that it's not so much that it itself takes up much "choice gas," in absolute terms, but that's it's emblematic of a larger set of things that are wearing on them, and takes up more than it ought to.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#107Oof, this hits close to home. during my tenure as a principal engineer at a certain startup, well known and loved in these parts. Anyway I was new to engineering leadership and this big initiative came down from above to migrate to k8s. team was excited to be done with the myriad adhoc scripts and duct tape infra. But it turned out the team was very junior, and I was green as a leader and manager. every day brought a…
Oof! Too down k8s initiative :-(. Definitely should be grass roots at startup based on actual problems and evaluation of the tech and alternatives.
At least there is some form of initiative. In most cases, grassroot efforts to refactor or clean up anything, no matter the pain, get squashed because "financials"...
Re: Executive Function Theft
#108What the author calls theft is neither theft, nor any other for of unethical behavior, as far as I can tell from her description. I could just as easily say that she has committed theft of my attention span because I had to read her ill-considered opinion in order to fairly criticize it. But I won't say that, because it was my choice to do so and I am not a victim. She seems to be trying to criminalize the ordinary b…
So when an employee shunts a task off onto a coworker abusing their agreeableness, you're saying that other coworker deserves it and that the first employee is morally justified because they haven't "put in the energy" to be assertive in a hostile working relationship?
Re: Executive Function Theft
#109Are there any studies confirming that 'executive function' is a limit resource which can be used up through use, vs these things just being _time_ theft?
(To be clear: sure you can be tired and have less 'executive function' left, but that doesn't itself imply that being asked to use 'executive function' uses it up)
Re: Executive Function Theft
#110I find it funny that the author suggests that husbands have more time for hobbies and friends; I don't know about hobbies but male friendship has been in decline for a long time now... The EFT framing is a good model but the gendered arguments need much more nuance than is offered in this piece.
I also wonder how much the higher standards plays a part in this kind of thing. If person A believes tasks like vacuuming need to occur weekly, and person B believes they need to occur bi-weekly then person B will either suffer an emotional tax for not having their expectations met or an EFT managing their preferred outcome with some form of nagging.
Lastly, can we just ditch things like get well soon cards, someone getting sick doesn't have to be met with a $5 donation to hallmark with some platitudes. If you really cared you'd improve minimum pay and sick leave entitlements so people didn't have to turn up to work sick.