41–48 of 48 posts
I remember Jeff Bezos said that something like promoting more communication/collaboration is wrong. And managers should focus on making people working independently.
Silos are so much worse though. Open communication/collaboration is great but needs to be rate limited to enable focused work.
But if I get $1 for every comment nagging about daily standups I would be rich.
I guess the ones nagging about daily rather be interrupted every 30 mins.
Sometimes there is this guy like we had a guy who would come over at me before I took my jacket off in office with “quick question” - FFS we have daily for that.
Want to have a cake and wish happy birthday, just got back from vacay and want tell all amazing stories? FFS do it after daily not when you come in and with every person separately.
You have a question/celebration/fluff - do it after daily meeting.
I remember Jeff Bezos said that something like promoting more communication/collaboration is wrong. And managers should focus on making people working independently.
I'd love to see the original source for that one! Kind of ironic given RTO+bullpen approach we're seeing now.
See also Apple where quotes from previous CEOs no longer apply.
When I started working, more than 25 years ago, we had one team meeting per week (1 hour), very few other meetings. Cellphones were getting mainstream and people had these funny ringtones, but since communications were expensive, phones were not ringing often. The office phone was ringing even more seldomly. We had no ticketing system. Managers just trusted you for doing your work. When going to someone else desk we…
I am the author of this piece. It was something I put together as a curiosity and wanted to play with Astro. Hope you all enjoyed it!
I looked at the simulator mentioned at the end of the post.
The deep work I am often in requires way more than an hour of it and with continuity. This is because a lot of context needs to be held in memory and the loss from interruptions is thereby much higher.
It would have been better if the ranges on the following were wider, hitting may be even 16 hours for the first one below (not kidding).
>> What counts as deep work? 30m 45m 60m
>> How many blocks do you need? 1 2 3
PS: Why limit the range or quanta when the math framework you have painstakingly built allows for more.
Thanks.
I found it odd that breaks (e.g. lunch) were not part of the mix.
Interruptions are 'breaks' that clear your context memory by drawing it to something else entirely.
An activity like lunch, shower, etc., actually help by giving you moments to ruminate thoughts related to the deep work at hand, help capture the bigger picture and innovate.
I am a respected technologist and am credited with more than 100 inventions. Practically none of those came to me when I was at my workstation. Breaks that are not interruptions can be so good that one should purposefully mandate them into schedule.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many people have control over how their time is managed at the office?
Great management will do that automatically. Meetings will be sent so the team has 3-4 uninterrupted, solid working days with one day strictly dedicated to meetings and/or other interruptions.
I am the author of this piece. It was something I put together as a curiosity and wanted to play with Astro. Hope you all enjoyed it!
Anyway, thank you for putting it out there.