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A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

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Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#111

Post by johnnyanmac »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #63
michaelteter wrote: post #52

> easy to confuse physical presence with productivity Early in my career I worked for the US division of a giant Japanese company. On the occasions that executives from Japan would come visit, we were expected to periodically stop working (programming) and carry papers to and from other cubicles and manager offices. This apparently gave the impression that we were working very hard, when of course it was really makin…

Maybe management knew you were faking and it’s the thought that counts?

Maybe, but that's also just how Japanese culture was for decades. Presentation matters 10x more there than in America (and presentation still matters quite a bit in the US).

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#112

Post by techdmn »

david422 wrote: post #64
michaelteter wrote: post #52

> easy to confuse physical presence with productivity Early in my career I worked for the US division of a giant Japanese company. On the occasions that executives from Japan would come visit, we were expected to periodically stop working (programming) and carry papers to and from other cubicles and manager offices. This apparently gave the impression that we were working very hard, when of course it was really makin…

I've learned that appearances can be just as important as actually being productive. ie It's important that the big bosses know who you are and think you are productive, and sometimes that means being less productive in order to show that you are productive.

I am endlessly annoyed by the gap between providing value and appearing to provide value. In an ideal world management would be able to distinguish between those working hard to serve customers, improve the bottom line, etc, and those working hard to give that appearance, rewarding the former and penalizing the latter. The gap between such a world and the one I regularly experience however, is so wide as to be nearly unfathomable.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#113

Post by hiAndrewQuinn »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #104
hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #89

I wonder if I've had an unusual start to my career wrt remote work. My career began remote, stayed that way until my employer enforced RTO still during COVID-19... which I proceeded to follow for about 2 weeks before moving to Finland for some reason, where WFH is more the rule than the exception for software jobs. On the other hand, WFH is the only reason I have any desire to do 10-11 hour days, because I genuinely…

>moving to Finland for some reason, where WFH is more the rule than the exception for software jobs Maybe I should move to Finland. Here in Austria the norm is working in the office and WFH the rare exception.

I'd recommend it if you're like me and basically only care about having a quiet life with your family. I'm on the extreme end of not enjoying big events, though, to the point where I didn't even attend my own birth.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#114

Post by Aurornis »

michaelteter wrote: post #52

> easy to confuse physical presence with productivity Early in my career I worked for the US division of a giant Japanese company. On the occasions that executives from Japan would come visit, we were expected to periodically stop working (programming) and carry papers to and from other cubicles and manager offices. This apparently gave the impression that we were working very hard, when of course it was really makin…

Weirdly, I've been asked to do the virtual version of this with a remote job.

The company's business analysts started tracking everything in dashboards, including our Slack messages. Apparently they would pull up charts of things like messages sent by team or by person, and charts showing when people sent Slack messages.

They tried to claim it was just for fun, but then someone slipped up in a meeting and said that they didn't think a team was working much because their Slack activity was low.

After that, managers asked us to move more conversations into Slack channels, send morning and evening updates, break up long messages into smaller messages, and other things to get our numbers up. You could tell the managers hated it as much as everyone else, but I guess they were doing us a favor by telling us how to play the game.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#115

Post by ngcc_hk »

michaelteter wrote: post #52

> easy to confuse physical presence with productivity Early in my career I worked for the US division of a giant Japanese company. On the occasions that executives from Japan would come visit, we were expected to periodically stop working (programming) and carry papers to and from other cubicles and manager offices. This apparently gave the impression that we were working very hard, when of course it was really makin…

Or no of programmer … the founder of this site actually have to hire some more body so yahoo can buy his two person lisp based software.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#116

Post by TheAceOfHearts »

helloplanets wrote: post #103

Out of all the games that would be closest to WFH, EVE Online takes the cake. Most people who play the game seriously are part of a bigger organization, usually climbing the ladder by being trustworthy throughout the years. A lot of important things take place outside of the game itself, on Discord and sometimes even face to face. The end game is basically you being able to effectively operate within an organization.…

For anyone interested in learning more, Into The Deep recently released a 6 hour documentary on the history of EVE Online [0].

[0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BCSeISYcoyI

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#117

Post by sandworm101 »

hutzlibu wrote: post #110
RussianCow wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But to be fair, "there is no solution" is, itself, a solution. Even in Tetris, which has no natural win condition, you're playing towards a specific, well-defined goal (points, generally). The OP's point still stands in that there's no ambiguity in a game, whereas the real world is full of it.

"The OP's point still stands in that there's no ambiguity in a game" What about minecraft and other open world sandbox games? Sometimes you can play a story, but minecraft got succesful before it had anything like it.

That is the difference between a "game" and a "toy". One does not win or finish playing with a toy. Some software is games. Other software is a toy. This was a big deal when SimCity was pitched. There is no win. That's OK.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#118

Post by the_sleaze9 »

Aurornis wrote: post #114
michaelteter wrote: post #52

> easy to confuse physical presence with productivity Early in my career I worked for the US division of a giant Japanese company. On the occasions that executives from Japan would come visit, we were expected to periodically stop working (programming) and carry papers to and from other cubicles and manager offices. This apparently gave the impression that we were working very hard, when of course it was really makin…

Weirdly, I've been asked to do the virtual version of this with a remote job. The company's business analysts started tracking everything in dashboards, including our Slack messages. Apparently they would pull up charts of things like messages sent by team or by person, and charts showing when people sent Slack messages. They tried to claim it was just for fun, but then someone slipped up in a meeting and said that t…

good managers in a bad ecosystem. Sounds like you were lucky to have them.

Y'all should've written some automation to send random buzzword paragraphs and system diagrams at a regular, random cadence.

Re: A Video Game That Pays: Lessons Learned from Working Remotely

#120

Post by pixelbyindex »

byteware wrote: post #58
thih9 wrote: post #45

> Remote work is like playing a video game (…) Haha, no; at least not much more than regular work is - and it all depends on a particular workplace. Can you have a peaceful on-site office job with lots of uninterrupted focus time and challenging and engaging tasks? Yes. Can you have a miserable remote job with pointless meetings, deadlines, context switching and an overbearing meaninglessness? Also yes.

I am in a such a "meaningless" pickle myself, I have never imagined that hard tasks with strict deadlines are a breeze compared to this, it slowly but surely chips away my will to live, even though on the outside it sounds wonderful

The best encouragement I have for this thought trap is to not put your career on a pedestal, and instead find the things you truly want to progress in or enjoy and focus on those.

In my case, despite being a programmer, I am a creative type. I have found that I routinely need:

- 1-2 hours per week playing an instrument or writing

- A date with my wife that is scheduled like a meeting that I cannot ignore or cancel

- A secondary (or 3rd or 4th) project outside of work, where there is a clear goal and progress is measurable (indie game dev for me)

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