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Startup work-life balance

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Re: Startup work-life balance

#31

Post by trhtrsh »

mberning wrote: post #27
crazygringo wrote: post #10

I used to program all the time in high school. I thought I was happy. Then I went to college, met all sorts of people, had lots of experiences, and realized how narrow my life, and concept of happiness was. So when I hear people talk about how much they love their work, that's their own balance... I can't help but wonder if they just haven't learned how great the other parts of life are. And how much a wider range of…

Absoutely. I was similar to the author all the through college. Then I got a job, which was a brutal entry level programmer job. It killed what little social life I had at that point. But the upside was that I was pretty good at it and started making some decent money. Over time I was able to use my professional capital to switch to a company with much healthier expectations. I was able to go out and explore the worl…

Sounds like you had a bad job, not a bad time programming/sciencing.

Re: Startup work-life balance

#32

Post by freshhawk »

hippo33 wrote: post #20
jusben1369 wrote: post #8

It feels like the author picked the 8 hour work day. I don't see that as part of the overall discussion on balance. The main point of balance is that you are a more complete human being when you participate in a wider range of activities. Even if that just means you're a better developer because you stepped away for an hour or a week and got a new perspective. Just because you're not miserable only doing primarily on…

Balance is what YOU as an individual need to be balanced. You are projecting your opinion on everyone else that you need to do other things to be happier. That is what makes YOU happy. So go do it! But, it doesn't mean that everyone will be happier doing that. The point of this post is that everyone needs balance and needs to do what they think will make them feel balanced. And rather than adhering to dogma of others…

Nope. Balance has a reasonably well defined meaning.

You can argue that balance isn't necessary for everyone or that the "balanced life" dogma is wrong. That's an interesting conversation. Better than trying to redefine balanced to mean "either balanced or the opposite, whatever you feel like", that seems rather silly.

Re: Startup work-life balance

#33

Post by bduerst »

drp4929 wrote: post #13
jszmajda wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's a fair argument. There's always a point in projects where you need to do something you don't want to do. At that point your work has become an obligation, which makes it something you don't love. You're forced to undergo the stress that we're discussing balancing. The key IMO is to find the right balance of working through that stress.

If you loath to do something then it induces stress. However, if you love your project then you're more likely to ensure that ship moves forward, even if it means doing tasks that you did not want to do originally.

I think that stress is a relative thing. You could have all the power and resources in the world, but you'll be stressed about something.

Re: Startup work-life balance

#34

Post by guylhem »

hippo33 wrote: post #20
jusben1369 wrote: post #8

It feels like the author picked the 8 hour work day. I don't see that as part of the overall discussion on balance. The main point of balance is that you are a more complete human being when you participate in a wider range of activities. Even if that just means you're a better developer because you stepped away for an hour or a week and got a new perspective. Just because you're not miserable only doing primarily on…

Balance is what YOU as an individual need to be balanced. You are projecting your opinion on everyone else that you need to do other things to be happier. That is what makes YOU happy. So go do it! But, it doesn't mean that everyone will be happier doing that. The point of this post is that everyone needs balance and needs to do what they think will make them feel balanced. And rather than adhering to dogma of others…

Balance is like an indifference curve in a time allocation between various things (work, friends, hobbies) one chose or has to do.

Each one of us has its own indifference curve. And when we age and add new things, the indifference curve change and therefore the repartition of time.

I for one loved videogames and invested most of my time in it. Now that I have other options (other "things" to do), even if videogames are still fun, they represent a lower proportion of my time because other things are just bringing more satisfaction.

Maybe if I added kids to the "things", they would take a bigger chunk of time - most people say they bring more satisfaction than most other things.

Re: Startup work-life balance

#35

Post by mapgrep »

Wait, why is Elon Musk being used as example of someone who doesn't need vacations? We don't know what his personal life is like, in comparison to all we know about his professional life. There is no data.

Digging into his personal life is widely considered off limits. Reporting is not done on it. If I were, for example, to assert that Musk has had two divorces in 2.5 years and that this may in fact reflect that his personal life is a mess, I'd probably get voted down. And maybe that would be fair, because who knows, maybe in that scenario both he and his ex wives are happy to end the lifetime marriage vows early. My point isn't that Elon Musk's life is a mess, my point is we don't know, so we shouldn't be using him as evidence of not needing to "balance" work life, unless we're ready to have an in-depth conversation about what most people consider (rightly or wrongly) to be off limits private matters.

Re: Startup work-life balance

#36

Post by benlower »

I find it odd that we call it "work-life" balance. So work comes first and life second? I've started calling it "life-work" balance. Not to imply that I work less but that things are well integrated and stuff that feels like work comes second :-)

Re: Startup work-life balance

#37

Post by hippo33 »

freshhawk wrote: post #32
hippo33 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Balance is what YOU as an individual need to be balanced. You are projecting your opinion on everyone else that you need to do other things to be happier. That is what makes YOU happy. So go do it! But, it doesn't mean that everyone will be happier doing that. The point of this post is that everyone needs balance and needs to do what they think will make them feel balanced. And rather than adhering to dogma of others…

Nope. Balance has a reasonably well defined meaning. You can argue that balance isn't necessary for everyone or that the "balanced life" dogma is wrong. That's an interesting conversation. Better than trying to redefine balanced to mean "either balanced or the opposite, whatever you feel like", that seems rather silly.

What you need to make your life feel balanced is different from your peers. If you need to take more time off, then do it. But if you only need 1 week of vacation like Elon Musk, then that's his balance. That's the point -- let's not create one standard set of rules for what balance is because people operate differently.

Re: Startup work-life balance

#38

Post by hippo33 »

mapgrep wrote: post #35

Wait, why is Elon Musk being used as example of someone who doesn't need vacations? We don't know what his personal life is like, in comparison to all we know about his professional life. There is no data. Digging into his personal life is widely considered off limits. Reporting is not done on it. If I were, for example, to assert that Musk has had two divorces in 2.5 years and that this may in fact reflect that his…

He was referenced, because of another article (see link in my post) on work-life balance.

Re: Startup work-life balance

#39

Post by bduerst »

hnriot wrote: post #14
ogama wrote: post #11

Her high school life sounds sad. If she really had a fulfilling social life in high school she wouldn't feel the need to tell us all how great it was that she didn't go to parties. It reminds me of people who are constantly broadcasting to everyone how happy they are. Chances are, they're not.

Cognitive dissonance.

Or confirmation bias / projecting.

"I didn't have a happy high school years so how can she?"

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