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Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours

alexstechthoughts.com

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Re: Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours

#41

Post by jasonlotito »

yangez wrote: post #5

> I have a friend who brags that he busts his * 60 hours a week driving a Coca-Cola delivery truck. Congratulations, I work 35 and make twice as much as he does. This is a straw man. The point is that if you worked 50 vs 35 hours at the same job, you'd simply get more done - even considering diminishing returns. There's a reason many hugely successful people are notorious workaholics - see Elon Musk, Oprah, Marissa M…

> There's a reason many hugely successful people are notorious workaholics

I'd imagine that part of the reason they can be workaholics is that they are hugely successful people. The type of work you do plays a huge rule in how much work you can do.

Especially when you consider this:

> The point is that if you worked 50 vs 35 hours at the same job, you'd simply get more done

Is not something you can bank on.

Re: Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours

#42

Post by [deleted] »

lazyjones wrote: post #25

Work isn't an end in itself, it's a means to an end. If you work hard and achieve your goals quicker (or at all) because of it, that's admirable as long as your trade-offs (spare time, family ...) are made consciously. If not, adjust your goals accordingly. Condemning hard work and long hours without any such considerations, is not constructive. Personally, I don't see a value in working as little as possible just to…

[deleted]

Re: Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours

#43

Post by Ataub24 »

One more thing about the post I wrote.

Jason Kincaid, formerly of TC, had a great tweet about four years ago- "The amount of fun you’re having at a party is inversely proportional to the number of times you’ve tweeted about it.”

Some joke and call it Kincaid's Law.

I think there is a new wrinkle to it:

"The amount of hard/smart work you are doing is inversely proportional to the number of times you’ve tweeted about it.”

Re: Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours

#44

Post by sharemywin »

jasonlotito wrote: post #30
rfnslyr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meetings: where minutes are taken and hours are wasted.

Depends on the meetings. And if you are wasting time in meetings, then you are wasting time in meetings.

I agree with that. Sometimes a meeting is the only way to get the right people talking about the problem or issue.

Re: Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours

#45

Post by rfnslyr »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #22
rfnslyr wrote: post #3

When I worked at a large corporation, I nearly automated all of my work and I was called lazy. I'd do about an hour work a day, customize an existing script to process new data, then read for the remaining 6 hours. Co-workers called me a lazy nerd and proceeded to copy paste words into excel for 8 hours. Now I get to wake up at 12, smoke a joint, have a beer, take a shower, go for a walk with my dog, and then work on…

your mention of lawyers reminds me of the Kia Motors outside counsel technology audit[1]. Many lawyers waste ridiculous amounts of time doing busywork. In my day job, I spend many hours visiting customers and spend much of that time adding automation for them, simple bash scripts that allow them to do things much more quickly. Yesterday, I taught someone the rename command[2]. Previously, they had been spending an do…

A few of my friends who are aspiring lawyers are terribly depressed because of their current work. They honestly thought they were going to walk straight into 100,000k/year jobs. Now they're pushing paperwork all day for a third of that salary :\

Re: Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours

#46

Post by wf »

This seems incredibly one sided to me and I'm surprised at the number of people who are in agreement. I guess if you make the assumption that the person is lazy or inefficient and that's the reason they're working hard then this would make sense. However, I'm 24; I work a day job from 8 to 5; I go to the gym and go home and work on a startup from ~7-12 and do it all over again. And yea, I'm proud of that.

Not only that, but I like when I see other people who "#hustle" because it motivates me. I like to know my friends or people I respect are working hard to achieve a goal they're excited about. Also "Working hard vs working smart is something you don't learn till you burn out a few times." What? That is just untrue. I agree after you do something the first time you'll definitely become more efficient at executing it, but if you approach problems practically you can almost always break them down and work them "smart". This post just annoys me.

Re: Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours

#48

Post by chasing »

yangez wrote: post #5

> I have a friend who brags that he busts his * 60 hours a week driving a Coca-Cola delivery truck. Congratulations, I work 35 and make twice as much as he does. This is a straw man. The point is that if you worked 50 vs 35 hours at the same job, you'd simply get more done - even considering diminishing returns. There's a reason many hugely successful people are notorious workaholics - see Elon Musk, Oprah, Marissa M…

Elon Musk, Oprah, Marissa Meyer, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey -- these are people who have been wildly over-compensated for their time. (Not that they don't deserve what they get, but they make huge amounts of money.) They work because they want to, and if they didn't they could retire tomorrow and live like kings/queens for the rest of their lives. Odds are, you're not in this camp. And never will be.

(And sometimes I wonder: Are all of these top-tier people workaholics? Or is that a myth that's sometimes created to both justify the amount of compensation they receive and to promote workaholism in their employees? Also: Is it easier to seem like a workaholic if you've got huge piles of cash to pay other people to actualize your visions for you?)

Re: Stop Glorifying Hard Work and Long Hours

#50

Post by dfc »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #22
rfnslyr wrote: post #3

When I worked at a large corporation, I nearly automated all of my work and I was called lazy. I'd do about an hour work a day, customize an existing script to process new data, then read for the remaining 6 hours. Co-workers called me a lazy nerd and proceeded to copy paste words into excel for 8 hours. Now I get to wake up at 12, smoke a joint, have a beer, take a shower, go for a walk with my dog, and then work on…

your mention of lawyers reminds me of the Kia Motors outside counsel technology audit[1]. Many lawyers waste ridiculous amounts of time doing busywork. In my day job, I spend many hours visiting customers and spend much of that time adding automation for them, simple bash scripts that allow them to do things much more quickly. Yesterday, I taught someone the rename command[2]. Previously, they had been spending an do…

Try this rename script if you really want to profit:

http://plasmasturm.org/code/rename/

The -z flag is phenomenal. The only thing I wish it had was a -R for recursive.

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