Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Productivity Cycle

alexsexton.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 42 posts

Re: The Productivity Cycle

#21

Post by reneherse »

brd wrote: post #2

I am a big fan of these ideas. I've long since concluded that caffeine is a tool best used sparingly. As for the macro productivity cycles, I totally agree that they exist and I very much think that burn out is essentially a case of ignoring those cycles. Sometimes you just need to ease off and coast the downtrend. I'm hoping to, at some point in the near future, experiment with working/traveling across hemispheres i…

I too wish to make the same personal experiment. As I seem to be almost exclusively solar powered, I've resolved to spend my next winter as a summer, or at least as close to the equator as possible. :)

Re: The Productivity Cycle

#22

Post by brd »

reneherse wrote: post #21
brd wrote: post #2

I am a big fan of these ideas. I've long since concluded that caffeine is a tool best used sparingly. As for the macro productivity cycles, I totally agree that they exist and I very much think that burn out is essentially a case of ignoring those cycles. Sometimes you just need to ease off and coast the downtrend. I'm hoping to, at some point in the near future, experiment with working/traveling across hemispheres i…

I too wish to make the same personal experiment. As I seem to be almost exclusively solar powered, I've resolved to spend my next winter as a summer, or at least as close to the equator as possible. :)

if I make it to Argentina next winter consider yourself invited

Re: The Productivity Cycle

#23

Post by [deleted] »

eloff wrote: post #18
uioffoo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't go fuck yourself ? Every time I see your comment I always wonder why the FUCK you post link to your website. I mean, just see your own comment history. We all know you are girl who code, so there are thousands many like you , more smarter , brilliant than you. Don't for FUCKING sake relate everything to you. Its like saying I am super hard worker and everyone else is stupid. Again, go fuck yourself

Geez, take your own advice. And please leave this community.

[deleted]

Re: The Productivity Cycle

#24

Post by [deleted] »

visakanv wrote: post #19
uioffoo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't go fuck yourself ? Every time I see your comment I always wonder why the FUCK you post link to your website. I mean, just see your own comment history. We all know you are girl who code, so there are thousands many like you , more smarter , brilliant than you. Don't for FUCKING sake relate everything to you. Its like saying I am super hard worker and everyone else is stupid. Again, go fuck yourself

Hey, I'm sorry that somebody else is getting you down. Is everything okay? Are you going through any sort of trouble? I ask not to be condescending or sarcastic, but because there are usually deeper causes for such anger and aggression. You can talk to me if you like, email or whatever. Take care.

[deleted]

Re: The Productivity Cycle

#27

Post by cma »

Swizec wrote: post #9

The coolest thing about caffeine is that it does actually help with mental agility and various cognitive tasks. But surprisingly few cognitive tasks. It actually only increases your working memory and positively influences your ability to concentrate on a task. That's it. More interestingly still, it doesn't have any cognitive effects at all unless you're sleep deprived. It also doesn't have any cognitive effects in…

Flu medicine has caffeine because often people unknowing go through caffeine withdrawal unknowingly while they have the flu. Excedrin has it because people with headaches often just hadn't had their fix recently enough. Headaches are one of the major things a day or two after stopping.

Re: The Productivity Cycle

#28

Post by cma »

uioffoo wrote: post #14
dzink wrote: post #12

Nice work! In order to balance my project and school I ended up taking 2 hour naps around 6pm (right after school) to refresh my brain for coding between 8pm and 4am, then napping again till 8am for the 9am till 5pm cycle. The good news was that the project I was building allowed me to post all of my side projects for others to be able to contribute to and see all cool projects done around me ( http://doerhub.com ) ,…

Why don't go fuck yourself ? Every time I see your comment I always wonder why the FUCK you post link to your website. I mean, just see your own comment history. We all know you are girl who code, so there are thousands many like you , more smarter , brilliant than you. Don't for FUCKING sake relate everything to you. Its like saying I am super hard worker and everyone else is stupid. Again, go fuck yourself

Have you tried therapy?

Re: The Productivity Cycle

#29

Post by dschiptsov »

These "optimizations", assuming they are correct and will work, would give some 5% "improvement" as so many optimizations do.)

Another thing is all linked to this very meaningless term "creativity", and, perhaps, caffeine could somehow boost it, but in context of real craftsmanship we probably should talk about artistic sense and inspirations, insights, "flow" and "aha-moments" which, it seems, follow much more complex and subtle patterns than just sleep, routine, glucose and caffeine. This will definitely work for sports, but programming is not a sport, it is an art. And for an artist a Muse is required, not a military routine.

Of course, routines and rituals has tremendous power - entire religions are still standing on nothing but them, but this quite another subject.

Re: The Productivity Cycle

#30

Post by JTenerife »

dzink wrote: post #12

Nice work! In order to balance my project and school I ended up taking 2 hour naps around 6pm (right after school) to refresh my brain for coding between 8pm and 4am, then napping again till 8am for the 9am till 5pm cycle. The good news was that the project I was building allowed me to post all of my side projects for others to be able to contribute to and see all cool projects done around me ( http://doerhub.com ) ,…

Uhh, that's hardcore. On the one hand I admire that kind of energy and your results, on the other I'm old enough to see the risks. I hope that was only over a small period of time. Let me generalize without knowing you :-): You need to sleep more at night. It's all about waves. If you overstress during productivity periods your brain will go to a forced shut down afterwards. That can trigger serious issues (burnout a.ka.a. depression).
Post reply on HN