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> "if you work with computers it's nearly impossible to have your brain wired in productive tasks for more than, on average, 4 hours a day" :-) Definitely truth. IMHO the real problem of our productivity is The Internet.
Self-discipline is, no doubt, a real challenge for many developers.
> "if you work with computers it's nearly impossible to have your brain wired in productive tasks for more than, on average, 4 hours a day" :-) Definitely truth. IMHO the real problem of our productivity is The Internet.
I just find these kinds of statements to be more self-justification than anything else. "No one should ever work more than 40 hours a week!" "Productivity beyond 4 hours a day is impossible!" Why must I shackle myself to these seemingly arbitrary limitations that other people have? If I'm having fun coding something for 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week, and I feel I can sustain this output, why do I have to limit myse…
Also, some people in 2 hours can obtain the same results of me doing 8 hours of work - that's about quality, so the "woking-harder" it's not a valid argument: the real problem is "working focused"
As I am a student... The hours can be very weird. I can walk around my room aimlessly, repeatedly, not capable of doing a single thing for entire hours. But then I sit down at my desk and churn out a few hundred lines of code and write up a report that uses the results of that code. "In-the-zone" can be anything from 3 hours to 6 consecutively, and what triggers it I do not know.
Some of my compatriots feel the need to fool themselves into working 12+ hours a day on their assorted homework/code-work... I try not to do this, and generally I'm very low-stress, because I know when I need to be I crank out pages upon pages of (hopefully high quality) empirical work (assuming I have the data). It's much less frazzling than "omg I can't see my friends or chill for even an hour for coffee... Because I have an exam on Monday". An hour never killed anyone :D
Just my 0.02
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just find these kinds of statements to be more self-justification than anything else. "No one should ever work more than 40 hours a week!" "Productivity beyond 4 hours a day is impossible!" Why must I shackle myself to these seemingly arbitrary limitations that other people have? If I'm having fun coding something for 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week, and I feel I can sustain this output, why do I have to limit myse…
As someone who's been there done that: throttling yourself a little bit is a lot more productive in the long-term. I used to work to the point of exhaustion. Now I work to a clock I've come up with empirically. This means that instead of having bursts of super productivity followed by weeks/months of tiredness or simple "Meh, that's not interesting" I can trod along, putting one foot in front of the next, with a cons…
It's definitely my way of thinking, since today has worked well, and I'm glad that someone applies it harder than me.
An option not listed here is that I think I have bursts of massive productivity that last a few days to a week where I get intensely productive work done with barely a break to eat. 12, 16 hours per day. Then I go a week or so just doing the bare minimum to keep things rolling, which sometimes is zero hours of productive work. That cycle repeats.
I have a week where I get massive work done, then 2-4 come, where I can't get up to do anything at all.
About 12. I've optimized my life to a point where I have no outside disturbances beyond my work. I have 3 days left of my day job, then I'm taking my own business full time. I've been working 7am - 3pm at my day job, 4pm - 11pm at my side projects. Dropping the day job.
Optimized your work life maybe, your life though... I'm not so sure.
It's not a way to live forever, but for people who can work like that, for a few years it can suit them really well.
The con of the startup racket is that so many people think they're buying their freedom with the 16+ hour days (and have been misled into believing that) when, in fact, the proportion who actually become billionaires or major venture capitalists is pretty terrible.