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Is full-time work bad for our brains?

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Re: Is full-time work bad for our brains?

#101

Post by ktRolster »

maxwelljoslyn wrote: post #73
superuser2 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The 3pm crash" is well documented and extremely common. Personally, I set up my schedule so I am not trying to do intellectual work between 3 and 4. Eat a snack, walk to the Starbucks down the street, go to the gym, take a boring meeting - anything, and then resume programming when my body is ready (usually around 4/4:30). The Spanish have siestas. There is nothing wrong with you - this is human nature. It's in the…

The Chinese also practice the afternoon nap. Lunch break at work in China is two hours: one for eating, one for sleeping. White-collar workers all get this long of a break. As for blue-collar, I don't know if factory workers do, but it certainly applies to shop owners, street vendors, and many moped/tricycle drivers.

The naps don't look particularly comfortable: http://img2.izismile.com/img/img3/20100419/640/chinese_facto...

But you know, when someone gives you a 30 minute break, you take it!

Re: Is full-time work bad for our brains?

#102

Post by ktRolster »

TorKlingberg wrote: post #61
lj3 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you judge a team based on the revenue it brought in vs the cost of the employees in the team? Since profit is the real measure of success, it makes sense to use that as the metric. Measuring individual contributions is problematic, no matter the system you use. Measuring based on the entire team is much easier.

You would notice that the IT and security teams brought in zero revenue and fire them all.

Ha! In fact all you would need is a sales team!

Re: Is full-time work bad for our brains?

#104

Post by bqe »

quantumhobbit wrote: post #5

Stretching 2 hours of work into an 8-9 hour day through meetings and sneaky Reddit/hn usage is certainly bad for our brains. But this is the norm as long as managers interpret productivity as butts in seats.

Time spent at work is easy to measure. Productivity is difficult to measure.

Re: Is full-time work bad for our brains?

#105

Post by maxwelljoslyn »

nawitus wrote: post #100
maxwelljoslyn wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Chinese also practice the afternoon nap. Lunch break at work in China is two hours: one for eating, one for sleeping. White-collar workers all get this long of a break. As for blue-collar, I don't know if factory workers do, but it certainly applies to shop owners, street vendors, and many moped/tricycle drivers.

Where do they sleep?

Many people, especially shopkeepers and associates, sleep right at work! More than once I headed down to the cellphone store to recharge my minutes, only to remember the time when I found folks sleeping at the counter. Nothing for it but to return a little later.

Another popular way to sleep is to stretch out atop the seat and handlebars of one's e-bike (electric moped). Must be more comfortable than it looks.

Re: Is full-time work bad for our brains?

#106

Post by maxwelljoslyn »

ktRolster wrote: post #101
maxwelljoslyn wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Chinese also practice the afternoon nap. Lunch break at work in China is two hours: one for eating, one for sleeping. White-collar workers all get this long of a break. As for blue-collar, I don't know if factory workers do, but it certainly applies to shop owners, street vendors, and many moped/tricycle drivers.

The naps don't look particularly comfortable: http://img2.izismile.com/img/img3/20100419/640/chinese_facto... But you know, when someone gives you a 30 minute break, you take it!

That link returns a 500 error for me.

Re: Is full-time work bad for our brains?

#107

Post by Noseshine »

cubano wrote: post #64

I'm 50yo and am still learning new shit everyday...just a month ago I bit the bullet and learned enough javasc...excuse me ECMAScript, to be pretty damn dangerous :) Over the past weekend I learned docker and am now running containers all over the place...these aren't trivial things and the speed of which I'm picking stuff up is as fast, if not faster, then it has ever been for me. The point is I am 10 years older th…

    > I find it humorous that they are telling me I am
    > AT LEAST 25 IQ points dumber
They are not telling "you". Statistics != "everybody". No idea why you feel personally insulted. I heard x % of people are sociopaths (or insert something else bad here) - should I now complain "hey, I'm not a sociopath (or whatever)"?

Re: Is full-time work bad for our brains?

#108

Post by freshhawk »

madaxe_again wrote: post #67
BjoernKW wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I agree with that I'm still at a loss as to why butts in seats management is still so dominant today. It's almost as if everybody wakes up, reads Dilbert every morning thinking "Wow, that PHB guy certainly is a role model to aspire to." It's not as if these patterns can't be changed: The required technology has been available for more than a decade now. There are tried and tested approaches for organizing…

Because those of us who believe otherwise usually get beaten out and decide to not run businesses any more. My confounder doesn't like hiring, likes to have a huge pile of cash in the bank to no particular end, and sends people shitty emails if they're late in the morning. He's successfully killed off enthusiasm and passion for getting things done (mine included), and now people are either making time or leaving. We…

Wow, I've worked with "that guy" before as well. Like you said, it's a retreat to the status quo, and conservatism is a common response to feeling overwhelmed or like an imposter.

I now recognize it as a very accurate warning sign, this person has moved from trying whatever they can to help the business succeed to trying whatever they can to cover their ass and put on the appearance that they did all they could.

Re: Is full-time work bad for our brains?

#109

Post by ktRolster »

kamaal wrote: post #62
whack wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "What did you deliver this week? This month? This quarter?", should be the only relevant question in the workplace, managers included. Unfortunately, there's another camp that (with credible arguments) claims that task-estimates are almost always meaningless. If you buy into that camp, and if someone under-delivers, it doesn't tell you anything about whether or not they are performing poorly. They could simply be t…

>>Unfortunately, there's another camp that (with credible arguments) claims that task-estimates are almost always meaningless. This is largely because people cook up all kind of bull-crap work just to keep busy and have it look like the equivalent of 'moon-landing' just happened. Over years I have seen this phenomenon play out in every major company. The absolute worst I have seen is a whole team of 10-20 members ded…

Also look at: http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs .

The entirety of his argument has one data point: he has a friend who is a lawyer who thinks his job is useless for society.

Re: Is full-time work bad for our brains?

#110

Post by freshhawk »

cubano wrote: post #64

I'm 50yo and am still learning new shit everyday...just a month ago I bit the bullet and learned enough javasc...excuse me ECMAScript, to be pretty damn dangerous :) Over the past weekend I learned docker and am now running containers all over the place...these aren't trivial things and the speed of which I'm picking stuff up is as fast, if not faster, then it has ever been for me. The point is I am 10 years older th…

Does your anecdotal experience go against this research? Have you tried working fewer hours a week and noticed that you don't have an easier time learning things?

Go ahead and flip the framing to the other side if you feel offended, working less will give you 25 "extra" IQ points from your norm.

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