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Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
51–60 of 125 posts
Re: Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s actually one of the best arguments for pairing/mobbing that people don’t like to talk about. When you are sitting at a keyboard with other people, there’s no chance you’re going to browse. You and everyone else involved will be 100% focused on the task. They actually tested this with brainwave scans and found that concentration levels were significantly higher than working independently.
Is there a service/product that does this?
Check out https://www.flow.club/
Re: Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
#53I recently did a digital declutter, as described in Cal Newport's book Digital Minimalism.
One hobby I picked up much more easily than anticipated: microcontroller programming. With the spare energy and mindspace freed up from scrolling social media, I'm now expanding my skillset and reading far more books.
I'm not claiming to have boosted my skills to an unrealistic degree, but the benefits of giving up the dumb online activity are very real, very tangible, and very valuable IMO.
Re: Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
#54>> Since graduating from undergraduate studies (which marks exactly one year as I write this post) Author sounds young .. yes, absolutely try to consume less and create more, it's way more life-affirming than the opposite configuration, but: Getting better at your job, like everything else in life, is just a function of time. Show up, and then show up consistently. Put in the time. Be patient. Lead with an open mind…
Totally agree with everything you've said, brain train for the actual job by doing the actual job and immersing in it as thoroughly and consistently as you can, do things others find boring or difficult. In case the author IS young, I would also add this: Stay away from startups with capricious, absentee or already wealthy founders, find the most productive, stable environment you can. If you work in an environment w…
> If you work in an environment where personal production and job security are orthogonal you might find yourself getting rug pulled where effort/contribution are fully decoupled from reward.
This is a great point.
When you find yourself in a workplace where job security is based more on vibes than production it creates a false sense of security. You think your personal productivity doesn't matter and that you can vibe your way into the good graces of people making decisions.
When jobs security is decoupled from productivity, the winds of the company can and do change frequently. Other people are going to be better at playing the vibes game than you are. Vibes-based companies are overly vulnerable to politics.
It's good to work at companies where productivity is tied to personal performance, even if measuring productivty is far from perfect.
Re: Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
#55For what it's worth, I've recently started writing a small open-source tool to avoid consuming too much in the way of videos and social networks.
https://github.com/Yoric/keep-it-focused/
We'll see whether that works.
Re: Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
#56Excellent blog post. Summed up what I've been thinking for the past few years. I find myself endlessly consuming content (videos, podcasts, etc.) that I would deem "educational". It feels good, like you're learning something new, improving yourself. But at the end-of-the day you aren't. Your brain is just sitting there passively - not really doing any hard work. Instead of your brain generating ideas and solving prob…
Heh, well yes and no.
I feel like if you are the kind of person who builds or fixes things, there are certain topics that could be worth watching in your free time because they let you look over the shoulders of experts to grain some general understanding that you might not otherwise get exposed to.
For example, I watch a channel run by a guy who repairs cars for a living because he's entertaining to watch, not because I want to be a mechanic. Watching his channel is MOSTLY entertainment for me but after years of watching, I have learned enough about car maintenance that I'd would feel comfortable at least attempting a wide variety of repairs on my own cars that I would have never even considered attempting otherwise.
Often these videos lead ideas or projects that I have implemented in real life. I build a bandsaw out of wood, for example. https://blog.bityard.net/articles/2019/January/i-built-a-ban...
Re: Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Totally agree with everything you've said, brain train for the actual job by doing the actual job and immersing in it as thoroughly and consistently as you can, do things others find boring or difficult. In case the author IS young, I would also add this: Stay away from startups with capricious, absentee or already wealthy founders, find the most productive, stable environment you can. If you work in an environment w…
> If you work in an environment where personal production and job security are orthogonal you might find yourself getting rug pulled where effort/contribution are fully decoupled from reward. This is a great point. When you find yourself in a workplace where job security is based more on vibes than production it creates a false sense of security. You think your personal productivity doesn't matter and that you can vi…
> When jobs security is decoupled from productivity, the winds of the company can and do change frequently.
But that is always the case, and the "productivity=security" environment is artificial and unnatural.
The large forces beyond your control dominate the world, and the whole companies get hit by redundancies because the market changed, AI ate some section of the market, or the banks were too busy playing with mortgages and collapsed the whole global economy.
My experience indicates that it's more important to be working on the right thing, than to be super productive working on the wrong thing.
Re: Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
#58>> Since graduating from undergraduate studies (which marks exactly one year as I write this post) Author sounds young .. yes, absolutely try to consume less and create more, it's way more life-affirming than the opposite configuration, but: Getting better at your job, like everything else in life, is just a function of time. Show up, and then show up consistently. Put in the time. Be patient. Lead with an open mind…
This. Slow, but consistent is the way to win. Like they say in Rally Racing: Slow is fast and fast is slow. There's no shortcut other than understanding. Which takes time and good input (great books, good mentors, practical experiences,..). And everything is driven by social factors, not technical prowess. The latter helps with solving problem, but the former defines the problem in the first place. Improve your soft…
It’s not about aptitude it's about the way you’re viewed.
Re: Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s actually one of the best arguments for pairing/mobbing that people don’t like to talk about. When you are sitting at a keyboard with other people, there’s no chance you’re going to browse. You and everyone else involved will be 100% focused on the task. They actually tested this with brainwave scans and found that concentration levels were significantly higher than working independently.
Wouldn’t that lead to burnouts?
You don't pair for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Re: Digital consumption keeps me from getting better at my job
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not true. These mobs often become a theater production where everyone pretends to be focused but they’re just collectively pushing along until hopefully someone solves the problem and they are released from their torturous exercise.
That’s just how meetings in general often work.
poorly run meetings that is.
This usually indicates the process is wrong, or you have wrong people on the call, or without preparation.