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GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

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Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#111

Post by quantum_nerd »

dsmithatx wrote: post #78
p4wnc6 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had interviewers ask me why I had certain gaps in my contribution graph before. Sometimes from large, successful tech companies that are widely sought after for jobs.

Perhaps it was more of a personality test to see how you would answer and not them caring about gaps. Maybe they were seeing if you would come up with a crazy excuse and get defensive. Just a thought. Edit - It is interesting without knowing intention people say to pass on the employeer. How many interviewers ask stupid questions not realizing they might miss out on a great hire? I think often companies forget that w…

Seriously?? is this what tech hiring has turned into? pseudo-reverse psychology and mind tricks. I didn't even know the "green" GH contributions were that important.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#112

Post by Smudge »

mburns wrote: post #110
Smudge wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zach Holman has an interesting writeup on focusing on maintaining that streak, and how it (among other factors) eventually led to burnout: https://zachholman.com/posts/streaks/ Personally, I find the contribution chart both motivating and frustrating. The contribution chart is enough of a signal that I try to make sure it looks healthy each week. But, at the same time, it's far from a perfect tool for assessing how p…

Geoff Greer has a great counterpoint to that article (published around the same time): http://geoff.greer.fm/2015/01/07/burnout-is-in-the-mind/

Burnout is the western equivalent of "fan death," really? I don't buy it.

I appreciate the argument that burnout is more like depression, and should be approached with the same mindset. (i.e. simply taking time off of work might not cure it.)

But that's not really a valid counterpoint. One person's ability to have a 2-year Github streak is not evidence that burnout is just "in the mind," as he puts it. It just means that he's found a particularly sustainable balance. In fact, I'd argue that he's kind of an outlier. That 2-year streak would definitely not work for everyone.

What we commonly refer to as "burnout" can also surface with very physical symptoms. Blood pressure spikes, teeth grinding, weight loss or gain, physical exhaustion, even heart attacks. Maybe these symptoms are better attributed to stress or lack of exercise, but when they are a result of overwork and, more specifically, the compulsive need to work at a certain level despite all costs, that's burnout. It's not good and should not be taken lightly.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#113

Post by schoen »

When I saw this title, I thought it was going to be about privacy rather than about incentives and motivation! I was envisioning something about Orthodox Jews who secretly code on shabbat and had other people notice because of their contribution graph, or maybe people whose employers thought an employee's graph reflected too much or too little effort or effort at the wrong time or something. ("Why are you working on the weekends?" or "why are you not working on the weekends?", maybe.)

On the other hand, the privacy argument might be hard to sustain because an external site or tool can regenerate much of it from the user's individual git commits.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#114

Post by Symbiote »

salvadors wrote: post #107
Symbiote wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's "work work" (tasks you're being employed to do) then it's illegal in most of the EU to work every day — see the Working Time Directive¹, which requires at least 24 hours of non-work time every week, for most occupations. I'm paid to work on free software. In the last year, my Github profile shows a single commit on a weekend, when I made a pull request on a browser extension I use. I'd rather spend my weekend…

It's illegal for your employer to require you to work. That's not quite the same thing.

Are you sure? I'm not a lawyer,but the British law seems pretty clear that this isn't negotiable: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/11/m...

(The worker can ignore the 48 hour limit, but not the 24 hour break limit.)

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#116

Post by foota »

leshow wrote: post #101
grantcox wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that it's a largely irrelevant / frivolous feature, and if someone cares deeply about it, it's likely a sign of some deeper psychological issue. But deeper psychological issues are real, and gamification definitely pushes a certain agenda. When that agenda (in this case "streaks" and "commits per day") isn't really serving a community, it would be sensible for the community to tweak those rules. Putting some…

This is a really dumb way of thinking about things. If you truly think this person has a mental issue, then tweaking the commit graph on github is not going to do anything about it.

I disagree, it seems like enabling someone's unhealthy behavior is something that should be avoided in society. Although perhaps that's a bit of a slippery slope? For instance, some people are alcoholics and we still sell alcohol and I don't view that as wrong. Though we do for instance prohibit overservice. I'd love to hear some other people's opinions.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#117

Post by leshow »

foota wrote: post #116
leshow wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really dumb way of thinking about things. If you truly think this person has a mental issue, then tweaking the commit graph on github is not going to do anything about it.

I disagree, it seems like enabling someone's unhealthy behavior is something that should be avoided in society. Although perhaps that's a bit of a slippery slope? For instance, some people are alcoholics and we still sell alcohol and I don't view that as wrong. Though we do for instance prohibit overservice. I'd love to hear some other people's opinions.

i think you don't agree with yourself there. anything can be taken by someone the wrong way.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#118

Post by cyphar »

Symbiote wrote: post #114
salvadors wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's illegal for your employer to require you to work. That's not quite the same thing.

Are you sure? I'm not a lawyer,but the British law seems pretty clear that this isn't negotiable: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/11/m... (The worker can ignore the 48 hour limit, but not the 24 hour break limit.)

From the link you provided:

> an adult worker is entitled to an uninterrupted rest period of not less than 24 hours in each seven-day period

The key word is "entitled", meaning that an employer cannot force them to work (or fire them if they don't work). The worker can choose to do whatever they want with their time, so long as they retain the right to exercise their legally permitted break.

It would be a very weird law to not allow a worker to do any work related to their job during their free time. Would that mean that a musician couldn't play music during their free time?

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#119

Post by zenogais »

phasmantistes wrote: post #88
zenogais wrote: post #79

Even though this may just be an April Fool's joke. My 2 cents. This is a "give a man a fish" solution that doesn't address the root cause of the issue (and that parable is all about fixing root causes). This likely has more to do with the inability of some individuals to create personal boundaries and regulate their own behaviours than it does with the presence of an infographic. That individual inability will still…

I'm not sure the analogy holds. Yep, some people have difficulty building boundaries between their work life and their non-work life, or between their coding life and their non-coding life. (Some people don't want to build those boundaries, and that's fine, but some people do want to build them and yet have a hard time doing so.) But just because they have a hard time doing something other people find easy doesn't me…

This isn't an issue of making something easier for everyone. Sadly it's not that cut and dried.

This is a request to destroy or completely disfigure, to the point of uselessness, a UI element that some people and teams legitimately find useful, all for the sake of protecting people (we don't know who or how many) who might plausibly harm themselves using it because of a lack of self control. Control that other people clearly demonstrate can be developed.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#120

Post by arien »

kedean wrote: post #103
arien wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or a little cronjob that commits harmless changes later in the week? :P I don't care about the contribution streak, but do have friends who comment on theirs on Twitter now and then. I suppose it's just another thing to be proud of...

And then what's the point? You aren't proving anything to the world, and they can trivially see that you didn't do any real work. It's like saying "I'm going to write a part of my novel every day from now on", then every day you type one letter. It's very clearly gaming the system, and for absolutely no gain. You gained no skills, you didn't show yourself to be of value, you don't even get an imaginary reward. The in…

Exactly, I do agree with what you said.

But, this is true whether you commit a few irrelevant lines manually or automatically. So if you're going to do it just for the sake of showing off, at least make it efficient, no? :P

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