Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity • Hacker News Board

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#31

Post by gyardley » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:16 PM UTC

hkyeti wrote: post #4

what's up with all the swearing? this trend of swearing as linkbait is getting pretty lame.

It's just an intensive. Probably the most innocuous use of the word 'fuck' there is.

If English had standard intensive forms, and we could add additional intensity just by tweaking a word ending, we wouldn't have this issue. But we don't.

Normally I think unnecessary swearing is lame too, but I'm having trouble figuring out a better way to intensify 'go home'. 'Go the heck home' is corny, 'seriously, go home' lacks the same punch, and 'GO HOME!' is just ugly.

I wish I knew how and when 'the fuck' became the intensive of choice after an imperative. Now that'd be interesting.

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#32

Post by coderdude » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:19 PM UTC

j_baker wrote: post #28

coderdude wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like this? http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=fuck Perhaps if we narrow it down to titles only: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+...

No, I mean the specific examples that prompted you to make the comment I was responding to. You wouldn't make such a broad claim without at least one or two examples, would you?

Suffice it to say that any of the examples you find in those search results are examples of "fuck" being used as link bait.

Even the submissions with "fuck you money" in the title since that is a linkbait-y term unto itself. I am of the opinion that unless you're discussing the word 'fuck' there is almost no possible reason to use it in a title unless it's to attract clicks and votes by eliciting an emotional response.

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#33

Post by ctdonath » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:23 PM UTC

gyardley wrote: post #31

hkyeti wrote: post #4

what's up with all the swearing? this trend of swearing as linkbait is getting pretty lame.

It's just an intensive. Probably the most innocuous use of the word 'fuck' there is. If English had standard intensive forms, and we could add additional intensity just by tweaking a word ending, we wouldn't have this issue. But we don't. Normally I think unnecessary swearing is lame too, but I'm having trouble figuring out a better way to intensify 'go home'. 'Go the heck home' is corny, 'seriously, go home' lacks t…

Innocuous perhaps, but the real time net-nanny filters installed by IT don't know or care. I can't read the article because of the proliferation of blacklisted words. I can't even read the Hacker News comments about it because of all the discussion using the opportunity to use such blacklisted words. Had to switch to my own personal system & ISP just to make this comment. Whatever the quality of the article, however salient his point, a lot of people are blocked from reading it - never mind poignant commentary getting lost amid all the blather over whether or not a four letter word should be used.

"Go home" doesn't need an intensive on par with cursing or copulation.

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#34

Post by Duff » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:24 PM UTC

hkyeti wrote: post #4

what's up with all the swearing? this trend of swearing as linkbait is getting pretty lame.

It's a gimmick to attract attention. It's the verbal equivalent of Ozzy Osborne biting the head off of a bird on TV, except lamer.

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#35

Post by bradheintz » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:45 PM UTC

ctdonath wrote: post #33

gyardley wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just an intensive. Probably the most innocuous use of the word 'fuck' there is. If English had standard intensive forms, and we could add additional intensity just by tweaking a word ending, we wouldn't have this issue. But we don't. Normally I think unnecessary swearing is lame too, but I'm having trouble figuring out a better way to intensify 'go home'. 'Go the heck home' is corny, 'seriously, go home' lacks t…

Innocuous perhaps, but the real time net-nanny filters installed by IT don't know or care. I can't read the article because of the proliferation of blacklisted words. I can't even read the Hacker News comments about it because of all the discussion using the opportunity to use such blacklisted words. Had to switch to my own personal system & ISP just to make this comment. Whatever the quality of the article, however…

So you you work at a company so censorious and distrustful that it expends labor and money to make sure you don't view any content with the dreaded F-word in it. And the OP is responsible for tuning her content to this company's perceived needs... why, exactly?

I'd be curious how the management of this company (and others like it) feel about the actual content of the talk - sustainable pace vis-a-vis productivity & all that. I would not be at all shocked to find out that there was an inverse correlation between employee distrust and a GTFH ethic.

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#36

Post by famousactress » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:52 PM UTC

neilmiddleton wrote: post #23

famousactress wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love swearing. I also actually agree with the OP. It's getting a little old. Some of the presentations I'm seeing really feel a little patronizing linkbait. But you know what I really can't stand? The word professional , used in this context. What does that even mean? I find it such an obnoxious term when used to suggest that the privilege of working comes at the cost of subscribing to some universal etiquette.

Professional = something you'd say in front of your clients / customers / potential employers etc.

I respectfully disagree that you believe that's the definition. The presenter gave this talk and put it on the internet, with what I can only presume is her actual name. So I'd submit that she said things she has no problem with her clients/customers/employers seeing or hearing.

My guess is that when you use the word professional you mean things that you would say in front of your clients/customers/employers, and that's what irks me about the term.

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#37

Post by jsaxton86 » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:52 PM UTC

To me, the most interesting part of this video was the graph of worker efficiency as a function of hours worked per week, which can be found here as part of a fascinating study: http://cmdept.unl.edu/drb/Reading/overtime1.htm

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#38

Post by chc » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 5:57 PM UTC

docgnome wrote: post #29

j_baker wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swearing serves a purpose: to express strong emotion. In this case, the author is expressing that it's really important to take breaks. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

The problem I have with this is nicely illustrated by a (possibly apocryphal) story about John Steinbeck. He wrote to a college paper that was printing an entire page of the word "FUCK" He asked them to stop, not because it was offensive, but because it was devaluing the word. Swearing only serves to get a strong emotional reaction when it's uncommon.

You seem to be disagreeing with a fictional comment that said "People should swear a lot," rather than the real parent, which said "I think it's pretty well justified in this case."

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#39

Post by chc » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 6:06 PM UTC

j_baker wrote: post #28

coderdude wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like this? http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=fuck Perhaps if we narrow it down to titles only: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+...

No, I mean the specific examples that prompted you to make the comment I was responding to. You wouldn't make such a broad claim without at least one or two examples, would you?

On the contrary, it's unreasonable to make a broad claim based on one or two examples. When people say "I keep seeing people do this," it's based on a memory of repeatedly seeing similar things, not any one specific example they have in mind. Similarly, I noticed today that a lot of people around here have silver cars, but I couldn't name for you any specific silver car I saw on my commute today.

Re: Working Too Much is Hurting Your Productivity

#40

Post by 3am » Thu, Mar 29, 2012, 6:20 PM UTC

hkyeti wrote: post #4

what's up with all the swearing? this trend of swearing as linkbait is getting pretty lame.

I felt the same way, fwiw, and I'm glad you mentioned it. I considere it an immature form of attention-getting, and counterproductive (I don't need to click through to read someone's opinion on work schedules from someone who isn't mature enough to express themselves without swearing)