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What “work” looks like

blog.jim-nielsen.com

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Re: What “work” looks like

#191

Post by SoftTalker »

wrs wrote: post #183
scruple wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly not conclusive at all, but... Top results from a Google search: > Individually, an American coffee drinker consumes about three cups of coffee per day. > Italians drink an average of 3 coffees a day It seems that the averages are roughly equal. Of course there are outliers everywhere.

Presumably the American is having a cup of drip coffee (100mg caffeine) whereas the Italian is having a shot of espresso (60mg).

More likely these days, the American is having some kind of warm, sweet milkshake with a couple of shots of espresso in it.

Re: What “work” looks like

#192

Post by sibeliuss »

et1337 wrote: post #7

For the past 3 years I’ve worked in an almost 100% pair programming environment. It works wonders for a lot of problems, especially around “code ownership”. It’s much harder to get precious with your code, or point fingers at someone else’s code, when the responsibility for every line is shared by at least two people. But I found that the pressure of pairing shuts down a lot of thought. Long silences are forbidden in…

Were you required to pair? I'm always curious about this kind of arrangement, and fear that it can often be a sort of crutch, especially for more Jr engineers who don't yet have the experience writing a large amount of code on their own.

Re: What “work” looks like

#193

Post by gernb »

nottorp wrote: post #87
gernb wrote: post #59

I find I'm way more productive when I can discuss solutions with coworkers often. Run ideas buy them, etc. My thinking gets clearified and they often suggest things that lead to better designs. With that, I get a clearer mental picture and implementation goes much much faster than when I'm alone. Further, I can't think everything through so being able to bounce ideas off coworkers as I'm implementing is invaluable If…

> so being able to bounce ideas off coworkers After those ideas come up when solo though?

No, if I have to do it solo and then wait until non-solo to discuss I lose the flow.

To me it's like music. I can't jam without people to jam with live.

Re: What “work” looks like

#194

Post by bobthepanda »

gausswho wrote: post #175
Test0129 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drink plenty of coffee and still take naps. Its hard for people to remember these days but the "lazy nappers" meme started during the industrial revolution. We've only had a 40 hour week, for example, for a (relatively) small amount of time here in America.

Do the majority of American workers even cap at 40?

At one job? It’s possible and doable.

A lot of people who are working in precarious situations actually work two or more jobs at less than 30 hours each, because 30 is when you qualify for employer provided health insurance.

Re: What “work” looks like

#195

Post by samstave »

lqet wrote: post #147
mr_gibbins wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snap. Whenever I sat down to cast about for ideas on how to develop the initial form of my PhD, nada, zip. Deliberate concentration on one thing was a shortcut to procrastination. The 'big idea' came when I was on campus, standing outside smoking. Hit me like a bombshell. I literally ran to see my supervisor, blurted out IT'S JUST A F**G MOLECULE, cleared off his whiteboard and spent the next hour sketching out what…

I also vividly remember the moment I had idea 1 from my list above. It was such a nice warm autumn day in the last months of a very turbulent year: I struggled finding something worth doing a PhD on, and in the 10 weeks before, I got married, my wife got pregnant, was rushed into emergency for a suspected ectopic pregnancy a few days later, which then suddenly turned out to be a completely normal pregnancy. I also ha…

What was the idea/paper/phd about???!

Re: What “work” looks like

#196

Post by samstave »

gman83 wrote: post #110
mellavora wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Churchill also saw the value of the nap: “Nature has not intended mankind to work from eight in the morning until midnight without that refreshment of blessed oblivion which, even if it only lasts twenty minutes, is sufficient to renew all the vital forces… Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to acc…

If I was drinking whiskey for breakfast I'd probably need to take a nap in the afternoon as well.

>>“Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea."

Churchill: "Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.”

Re: What “work” looks like

#197

Post by [deleted] »

MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #171
crazygringo wrote: post #152

This is one of the most absurd, black-and-white things I've ever read. Does innovation come from running, showering, lying in bed? Absolutely, no question. But at the same time, when you get a diverse group of people to solve particular problems, they generally come up with far better solutions than any one of them would have on their own. Because these are really about two totally different types of problems. The fi…

> The obvious answer is that both are valuable. The idea that they are somehow at odds, or that only the first one is "work", is ludicrous. It's true that "individual contributor" jobs often fall more into the first category. But to denigrate the second category as "not work" is both disrespectful and, frankly, just idiotic. But let's be honest. Most mantras try to force all work into the "group collaboration" bucket…

[deleted]

Re: What “work” looks like

#198

Post by jcpst »

Multicomp wrote: post #112
dark_star wrote: post #4

Software development is creative work. Creative insight can come anywhere, any time. Better ideas can make difficult things easy. And make the impossible– possible. So the most important thing on a software team (or really any team creating high technology products or services) is an environment where team members feel safe to be themselves– psychologically safe, where they can try out new things, make mistakes, fail…

> You have to be at your keyboard or lab bench or whatever enough to make things. But if you are there too much your creativity plummets. I agree, one of the ideas that I started applying from the book "steal like an artist" involved having an analog and a digital desk for work. You have creative ideas and brainstorm at the analog desk, then document, iterate, and refine your ideas at the digital desk.

It seems that no matter what ideas I come up with for capturing creative moments, it becomes vastly simpler if I just use pencil and paper. But I have started finding ways to capture with tech in a low-friction way.

One of them is using the Voiceliner app during times where it's not convenient to write things down. It also forces me to express my idea in natural language.

Re: What “work” looks like

#199

Post by adrian_b »

Jakob wrote: post #114
evrydayhustling wrote: post #91

These ideas are intuitive, but I can't find the research backing them. The blog quotes another blog [1] which claims research but doesn't reference it. That one uses a quote from an MIT article [2], which is a perspective piece with no actual experiments. People use "research says" to add gravity to ideas, but it's important to share (and check) the sources. [1] https://paulitaylor.com/2022/05/06/the-case-against-col…

Agreed, while I prefer deep work in solitude, there is a lot of literature which suggests that collaboration enhances outcomes. Random example: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00221...

In my opinion, collaboration certainly enhances outcomes, but only when it alternates with solitary work.

Re: What “work” looks like

#200

Post by dec0dedab0de »

crazygringo wrote: post #152

This is one of the most absurd, black-and-white things I've ever read. Does innovation come from running, showering, lying in bed? Absolutely, no question. But at the same time, when you get a diverse group of people to solve particular problems, they generally come up with far better solutions than any one of them would have on their own. Because these are really about two totally different types of problems. The fi…

I think design by committee rarely turns out well. However, listening to the groups response to an already working product/demo can be very valuable before the next release.
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