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>> 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…
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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.
> 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. The ADHD community calls this body doubling and yes it works.
similar studies on body doubling also showed participants feeling more social pressure to conform to well-established methods rather than branching out and experimenting, and similarly participants felt more judged whenever they ended up taking a risk that either didn't pan out or did so differently than imagined.
I don't want every workplace in the world to conform to whatever standards produce straight productivity; as a human, even one with adhd, I want to feel that there is room for cleverness and creativity in the world I work in.
>> 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…
Couldn't agree more. Laziness, lack of skill, poor communication, and unexplained delays are so much the norm that people who need something done are willing to pay top dollar just for the mediocre folks. I'm thinking mechanics and home repair contractors as the most obvious example but there are white collar equivalents too. I'm trying to teach my kids that these days, if you are working for someone else, literally…
Then stop consuming! A champion has discipline. A champion athlete doesnt grow morbidly obese off pizza and then complains it’s the pizzas fault - stop, or drastically reduce, eating. “It’s not easy”, of course it isn’t, all greatness requires sacrifice, are you going to go to the gym (learn new programming skill) or sit there eating donuts?
I say this as a person with both ADHD and depression that has a successful career as an academic scientist, and has also won as a competitive strength athlete, and been competitive bodybuilder lean at times.
Discipline and good habits are important, but are often not the full picture, especially for people that are not neurotypical. Executive function isn’t something you can just decide to have if you don’t have it… and being belittled by people that do have it and don’t understand won’t help either.
I spent a lot of my life trying to figure out why what I wanted to do in life still wasn’t happening when I felt fully committed and like I was trying 100%. Eventually I found other people struggling with the same issues and started building a toolbox of little techniques that worked for me.
As a software developer there’s the added pressure to, always be improving or be irrelevant. This is on top of the fear of missing out from content creators farming engagement. That’s a lot of pressure to stay engaged and keep watching.
I don’t always disconnect myself. But I am happiest when I find a better balance between what I consume and create. I feel better when I’m creating something. And some times that means I have to be more selective about what and when I consume.
Try using playlists and schedules. Allow yourself a space to explore and consume. Just be mindful and try not to go over your planned time for it. I find it helps prevent me from feeling guilty about spending too much time and alleviates the feeling that I might miss out on something neat.
>> 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…
I can relate quite a bit. I've experienced this state of overwhelm a few times and I developed some interventions for myself over time. I wrote post about it, if you want to take some inspiration: https://yoyo-code.com/managing-information-diet/
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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.
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.
I did not have a single inkling of what the project was in detail or understood anything that was being talked about or written. But I was expected to 'contribute' in a performative way to show that I was useful to the team. It was perhaps the worst intro to a company you can have.
To this day I despise mob programming.
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> 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. The ADHD community calls this body doubling and yes it works.
the problem being that focus isn't the sheer soul metric that establishes productivity, its' field dependent. similar studies on body doubling also showed participants feeling more social pressure to conform to well-established methods rather than branching out and experimenting, and similarly participants felt more judged whenever they ended up taking a risk that either didn't pan out or did so differently than imag…
Body doubling is good for clear tasks with clear outcomes. When you're at the "figuring out what to even do here" stage, you need a different approach. Sometimes the most productive path forward is to sit in a hammock and just think for 3 hours.
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> 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 mo…
If they weren’t, then they would cease to significantly affect things on such a scale.