The sad thing is that the way the software industry is structured, it creates environments where juniors are doing the deep work and people with more experience are doing shallow logistical work.
We have it totally backwards.
Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
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Re: Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
#32I'm so tired of these articles that rehash the same idea over and over. Feel like life is too short to setup some complicated discipline system to force yourself to chug something down that you hate. You either enjoy doing it or you don't. Focus on deriving joy out of the process and not the end result.
What's the greatest accomplishment you're aware of that didn't require "chugging down" some hard work that the person hated?
Re: Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
#33I currently reading this article. Sofar, I really enjoy it.
Re: Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
#34The sad thing is that the way the software industry is structured, it creates environments where juniors are doing the deep work and people with more experience are doing shallow logistical work. We have it totally backwards.
Do you want people with an inferior knowledge of the complexities of the system making the large, broadly-impacting decisions?
Someone's gonna get the less experienced junior somewhere.
Re: Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
#35Interesting that this is currently #1 on HN, but (as of right now) 100% of the comments are dismissive & derogatory. How does this happen? Is it just easier to leave a negative comment than to say something meaningful if you enjoyed the article?
"I agree" adds little to the conversation. "I disagree and here's why" adds more, and is more emotionally satisfying to write.
Though it's not uncommon to see posts of the "I agree, and here's an anecdote as to why" variety getting heavily upvoted, but those are harder to write, and so less frequent.
Re: Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
#36The sad thing is that the way the software industry is structured, it creates environments where juniors are doing the deep work and people with more experience are doing shallow logistical work. We have it totally backwards.
A lot of shallow logistic work requires domain knowledge the juniors don’t have.
Maybe pairing would help here as a way to get more of this knowledge transferred more quickly so the shallow work can be spread out?
Re: Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
#37"The importance of deep work" seems so fundamental that you'd think everybody would be aware of it by now - yet open offices are nearly universal (or at least were before this corona virus panic started). Is it that the people making the decisions genuinely don't understand "deep work", or that they think everybody can do their "deep work" for four years in college and be done with deep work for the rest of their liv…
Open office plans were a reaction to teams that didn't communicate effectively (or at all). The idea was that putting everyone in the same area encouraged communication and cohesion. It also allowed for spaces that were chic and 'creative', because somehow creativity is impossible in offices that have the aesthetic appeal of a solitary confinement cell.
Honestly, I believe most of the value derived from open office plans is that it is harder to fake work and fake productivity. Now, everything that people were doing is out in the open and provides some measure of accountability. Maybe I'm being a bit too cynical, but I think that's a big contributor as to why open office environments are common.
And partially yes, it's because some people making the decisions don't understand the value of 'deep work' and the environments that encourage it.
Re: Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
#38Interesting that this is currently #1 on HN, but (as of right now) 100% of the comments are dismissive & derogatory. How does this happen? Is it just easier to leave a negative comment than to say something meaningful if you enjoyed the article?
Upvoting is an easier way to "bookmark" a submission than it is to "favorite" it. Favoriting requires clicking into the comments first.
People who care enough to comment on the title (ha) or add comments are an overlapping group.
Re: Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
#39How do you balance the want/willingness to do deep work with the external pressures of the tech world that result in new fires emerging constantly?
Re: Deep Work and the 30-Hour Method for Learning a New Skill (2018)
#40It's easy to dismiss "Deep Work" articles for their use of buzzwords and pop-psychology, but this sort of structured language really does help drive the point home for some people.
The core concept of Deep Work isn't really controversial. Everyone knows that hard problems require focus, but that doesn't seem to stop people from surrounding themselves with notifications and distractions. It also doesn't stop many companies from burying their employees under a deluge of Slack notifications and must-respond-immediately e-mail expectations.
Once you start putting a name on it (It's not focus, it's "Deep Work (TM)"!) it becomes an easier sell to many (though not all) of the people who need to hear it. Attaching an explanation, a methodology, or a movement to something really does seem to amplify the importance.
It's the same effect that makes "Dopamine fasting" more poignant than suggesting that people take a day off of watching TV, checking their phones every 10 minutes, and browsing time-waster websites all throughout the day. They're the same thing in concept, but once you attach a catchy name and/or a semi-scientific explanation to something, many people start taking it more seriously.
In my time mentoring junior devs, one of the biggest predictors of future success was a person's ability to sit down, focus, and get work done. Many college grads are coming from an environment where their classes are neatly divided into 1-hour classes spread throughout the day. They're pulled in many directions by their phones, social engagements, activities, homework, and classes. They get in the habit of only focusing for 1-2 hours at most before going on to the next thing. Once they graduate and have to sit in one place and work on one thing for 8 hours a day, many of them struggle. If I try to lecture them on the importance of sustained focus and minimizing distractions, I sound like an out of touch old guy. If I instead say "Hey, we practice Deep Work here. Let me get you a copy of a Deep Work book so you can join us" then they're on board.
So you may not like the branding. You may not like seeing the same topic rehashed over and over again. But practically speaking, I don't care how it's accomplished. As long as it gets more people to take sustained focus seriously (both employees and managers alike) then I'm all for it.