The eye-opener here is that it's not "the way things are", it's other people doing that to you
Executive Function Theft
141–150 of 227 posts
Re: Executive Function Theft
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
But getting rid of shallow work is the entire reason why people get executive assistants.
Maybe so, but unrelated to the book and its message. The author referencing the book in this context is in complete bad faith.
I dunno, I can see it both ways. The front-loaded email style or eschewing social media certainly make life easier for others. But on the other hand, many of his examples of Monastic deep workers (Einstein, Darwin) absolutely relied on those around them to function. I think mentioning the book in this context is valid; the book has very little to say about the consequences of deep work behaviours on others, and that might be a failing.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#143What 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?
Almost any request can be framed as abuse in this manner. "Some stranger asked me to stand still on the street the whole day, he abused my agreeableness".
Imo it is not abuse if there isn't any threat and you simply can say no. If you keep saying yes to everything you coworkers ask from you, what do you expect is going to happen? It is your own responsibility to not be a doormat, that is abusing yourself.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#144> The goal, in the name of the company bottom dollar, is to make it as inconvenient as possible for me to use an employer offered benefit. A truly mundane and recurrent example, unfortunately, as I try to navigate U.S. health insurance. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence [and misaligned incentives]. Designing a good experience and flow for a piece of software is hard . Yo…
Bingo. The corporate buyers of FSA plans are not the consumers. Misaligned incentives.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#145On a side note, the author's example is exactly why I have chosen to not use FSAs. Sure, it saves me 20% or so since it's pre-tax money, but is my stress, time, executive function, and sanity all worth that? Plus if I screw up and don't spend the money or file something wrong, I lose it or pay penalties.
I have always felt this way about FSAs. They don’t save enough money to feel remotely worth the bureaucracy. Especially because (maybe this is not universal) they don’t carry over year to year like an HSA. So you can actually lose money. Similarly, my work has two options for commuter benefits. Monthly transit passes or like a $20/mo bike credit. The transit passes process automatically and do not accumulate. The bik…
In the case of FSAs, it at least has the effect of moving the benefit to people with larger fixed medical expenses.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#146On a side note, the author's example is exactly why I have chosen to not use FSAs. Sure, it saves me 20% or so since it's pre-tax money, but is my stress, time, executive function, and sanity all worth that? Plus if I screw up and don't spend the money or file something wrong, I lose it or pay penalties.
FSAs are pretty manageable if you only put $200ish in there. Mine somehow gets auto deducted for vision costs, so it manages to get used. HSAs are a very good tax dodge retirement account, so you should figure them out. Except in California they're supposed to be taxed. Except… HSA providers don't give you the forms you'd need to report HSA investment gains, so it is literally impossible to report them.
But then you are doing the management of it for $50.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#147There is a lot of evidence that "Decision Making" is a finite resource in the brain. It takes energy and it runs out.
This seems like it should be well known. This article makes it seem like a new insight, but it is real and has been known about.
For Corporations: Is it theft? It is what you are paid for. Think of the "Executive Function" as a resource, and the corporation is paying you for it, and yes, in human organizations, it trickles down. The Higher in the Hierarchy you go, they also get tired. Then down the Hierarchy, the decisions trickle down, and the next layer also makes decisions and gets tired, and so on, down to the lowest person deciding how to write one line of code.
Sure -> In every human organization there will be people that are 'passing the buck'. Or here 'not not taking responsibility at their level and passing the decision down to their underlings'.
For ADHD: Everyone has a finite amount of "executive function". And People with ADHD have to be more judicious with guarding it.
Gender: And yes, in home life, with bills, and getting kids to school on time, it wears everyone down. And yes, in some (maybe most) relationships, the woman is beset upon with more of the daily chores. That un-fairness is also well documented. But that doesn't mean this is a gender phenomena.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#148This is real difficult for me to empathize with - I think I get what the issue is, and it’s just not an issue for me. How is it an issue for others??
Maybe age? You are new? Or better than others at saying 'no'?
I would definitely not get too arrogant that you don't have this problem, just that you haven't been swamped yet. Haven't pushed this threshold.
On other end of spectrum, I've also encountered people that are always 'chill', and don't have this problem. But they are also not the people moving the needle, or being assigned the difficult tasks.
It's a balance. Sure, it's easy to not have this problem simply by not pushing yourself. But the ones that do push themselves and get overwhelmed, or have difficulties, are also not a good example.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#149I would love to see a follow-up article entitled "Why I can't 'just say "no"'". That's what I'd do (albeit in more diplomatic language) so I am extremely curious why others don't or can't. The author does touch on this briefly, mentioning that in The No Club > the authors found that when they turned something down, another woman — usually one with less power — was asked So perhaps partly it comes from a desire to hel…
I think the author found the reason pretty clearly; this is the issue I run into all the time when a shit-task is thrown at my team. There are simply too many people bringing tasks that need to be done, but not necessarily by our team. I am comfortable telling people "no, this is not our team's responsibility, we don't have the time right now with our current bandwidth", but many people on my team are not. Worse, whe…
That is clearly dereliction of duty by the management team. Particularly by the manager of the lying salesdroids.
Re: Executive Function Theft
#150My parents did this to me the whole time I lived with them whenever they had to do something involving the computer. It was exhausting and infuriating. "It's so easy for you and so hard for me" - it wouldn't be hard if you'd start trying and stop making yourself helpless.
Learned helplessness.