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A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

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Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#51

Post by ferbivore »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #34
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #4

>A Video Game that Pays Errr..no. I only played video games because they were fun, not because I made any money from them. While the job or workplace, for the vast majority of people on this earth, including those in SW development, is mostly an activity done out of necessity of not being homeless and not starving, usually picked on the basis of the highest compensation because that's what pays the bills, not out of…

> usually picked on the basis of the highest compensation because that's what pays the bills, not out of which is most fun. I think you should reconsider some of your life choices then. You're spending a large part of your life working. Why wouldn't you choose a job that's fun? > job and tasks at work also happen to be an activity that's fun to you but that's super rare, and it's best not to spend your life searching…

> Why wouldn't you choose a job that's fun?

Most people I know never had a real choice, and those who did had to exercise it around the age of 18, with no real insight into what they were getting into.

> Those workplaces are not rare at all!

What makes you think that?

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#52

Post by michaelteter »

> easy to confuse physical presence with productivity

Early in my career I worked for the US division of a giant Japanese company. On the occasions that executives from Japan would come visit, we were expected to periodically stop working (programming) and carry papers to and from other cubicles and manager offices.

This apparently gave the impression that we were working very hard, when of course it was really making us less productive.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#54

Post by xyzelement »

This is an example of a helpful reframe. I've done something similar.

From my first job, I took the attitude of looking at work as a challenge I can take on and have fun doing it. For example "what can I learn / what experience do I need to level up to where my boss is" (then, repeat.) Or - "what hard puzzle/challenge can I take on that I don't know how to solve today?". Or "where can I position myself job-wise so I can learn the most?"

I find that this is both a set of questions that leads you into good places (you're constantly evolving) but also you frame it as fun. Someone else could approach the same situation with "I am anxious and I need to constantly sink or swim, how do I make myself crazy doing a bunch of work" and they'd certainly have less fun and perhaps not do as well.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#55

Post by michaelteter »

The real game in on-site and remote working is posturing and self/team-promoting during big company meetings.

It’s super annoying to hear the guy who always makes his team sound like they are inventing the iPhone each week, but it does seem to result in better promotion opportunities for that person (especially) as well as his team members (to a much lesser extent).

It does remind me of poorly designed quests where you have setup mini quests which do little aside from wasting your time, but are required if you want to succeed long term.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#56

Post by digging »

gbalduzzi wrote: post #17
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #4

>A Video Game that Pays Errr..no. I only played video games because they were fun, not because I made any money from them. While the job or workplace, for the vast majority of people on this earth, including those in SW development, is mostly an activity done out of necessity of not being homeless and not starving, usually picked on the basis of the highest compensation because that's what pays the bills, not out of…

The article does explain the comparison, and it doesn't mean that it's fun. These are the actual comparisons: > You interact with people from all corners of the world. > You complete tasks on different online platforms (Slack, GitHub, VS Code, Google Docs, etc.). > You have a list of your main quests to complete (you can find them in your journ… Kanban board!) > There are also side-quests to take care of (“Hey Damian…

[dead]

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#57

Post by devnullbrain »

FFP999 wrote: post #20
Waterluvian wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. Those bad early days of WoW where every quest description had to slowly appear on the screen.

That's one thing that drives me crazy, the occasional game I see where you can't accelerate the text at all, it just dribbles out onto the screen at the pace of the slowest reader imaginable.

As a child I could never tolerate watching my friends play Pokemon for that reason. You can increase the text speed from the processional default but none of them ever did.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#58

Post by byteware »

thih9 wrote: post #45

> Remote work is like playing a video game (…) Haha, no; at least not much more than regular work is - and it all depends on a particular workplace. Can you have a peaceful on-site office job with lots of uninterrupted focus time and challenging and engaging tasks? Yes. Can you have a miserable remote job with pointless meetings, deadlines, context switching and an overbearing meaninglessness? Also yes.

I am in a such a "meaningless" pickle myself, I have never imagined that hard tasks with strict deadlines are a breeze compared to this, it slowly but surely chips away my will to live, even though on the outside it sounds wonderful

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#59

Post by s-lambert »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #34
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #4

>A Video Game that Pays Errr..no. I only played video games because they were fun, not because I made any money from them. While the job or workplace, for the vast majority of people on this earth, including those in SW development, is mostly an activity done out of necessity of not being homeless and not starving, usually picked on the basis of the highest compensation because that's what pays the bills, not out of…

> usually picked on the basis of the highest compensation because that's what pays the bills, not out of which is most fun. I think you should reconsider some of your life choices then. You're spending a large part of your life working. Why wouldn't you choose a job that's fun? > job and tasks at work also happen to be an activity that's fun to you but that's super rare, and it's best not to spend your life searching…

> You're spending a large part of your life working. Why wouldn't you choose a job that's fun?

I've picked two jobs that I thought could be fun but both of them ended up being the same tedium as the non-fun jobs. How do you pick a fun job?

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#60

Post by simplify »

gbalduzzi wrote: post #17
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #4

>A Video Game that Pays Errr..no. I only played video games because they were fun, not because I made any money from them. While the job or workplace, for the vast majority of people on this earth, including those in SW development, is mostly an activity done out of necessity of not being homeless and not starving, usually picked on the basis of the highest compensation because that's what pays the bills, not out of…

The article does explain the comparison, and it doesn't mean that it's fun. These are the actual comparisons: > You interact with people from all corners of the world. > You complete tasks on different online platforms (Slack, GitHub, VS Code, Google Docs, etc.). > You have a list of your main quests to complete (you can find them in your journ… Kanban board!) > There are also side-quests to take care of (“Hey Damian…

I find the game analogy silly. Of course reality is "like" a game – games are inspired by and modeled after reality, after all!

If you flip it around to say "games are like working at a remote job", then the flaw becomes obvious. A remote job is not like playing all games – only the ones with activities that mirror what we already do in real life. Which is, ultimately, not a very interesting statement.

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