4 ms·

> (I'm grateful my natural inclination has proved out to be a good use of time, but now I don't even feel guilty about it, which is nice.) Are you sure you are

by cubano 11y ago

> (I'm grateful my natural inclination has proved out to be a good use of time, but now I don't even feel guilty about it, which is nice.) Are you sure you are not just experiencing confirmation bias? A lot of very high-octane code has been written by devs who eschew social contact (any distractions, really) for the duration of the push, so I suppose it just depends. I have a hard time believing that any "study" can really tease out optimum productivity for all cases.

Lawtonfogle 11y ago
It could be something where a short term optimization does not apply to a long term problem. Take running. Trying to get from point A to B as fast as possible requires different strategies depending upon how far apart they are. A very short distance is best done by going all out 100%, but if you do that for a marathon you'll be beaten by someone who paces themself.
- silverbax88 11y ago
  This is a great analogy. Who would win in a race between Usain Bolt and paralympian marathoner Marcel Hug? Depends on the length of the race.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Your analogy about running is very good, althought I think there's also another aspect - a lot depends on personal idiosyncrasies and relation between a person and a task. For instance, if I'm free to work on my personal projects, I prefer not to have any social contact with anyone except pizza delivery guy for extended periods of time. On the other hand, I need Hacker News and Facebook Messenger to get through the day at $dayjob.
jerf 11y ago
"Are you sure you are not just experiencing confirmation bias?" "I did a thing" -> "Study comes out which says the thing is a good thing" does not conform to any useful definition of "confirmation bias" I can think of. (I can stretch it, but the result is not a useful definition.)

4 ms·

> (I'm grateful my natural inclination has proved out to be a good use of time, but now I don't even feel guilty about it, which is nice.) Are you sure you are

by cubano 11y ago

Lawtonfogle 11y ago
It could be something where a short term optimization does not apply to a long term problem. Take running. Trying to get from point A to B as fast as possible requires different strategies depending upon how far apart they are. A very short distance is best done by going all out 100%, but if you do that for a marathon you'll be beaten by someone who paces themself.
- silverbax88 11y ago
  This is a great analogy. Who would win in a race between Usain Bolt and paralympian marathoner Marcel Hug? Depends on the length of the race.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Your analogy about running is very good, althought I think there's also another aspect - a lot depends on personal idiosyncrasies and relation between a person and a task. For instance, if I'm free to work on my personal projects, I prefer not to have any social contact with anyone except pizza delivery guy for extended periods of time. On the other hand, I need Hacker News and Facebook Messenger to get through the day at $dayjob.
jerf 11y ago
"Are you sure you are not just experiencing confirmation bias?" "I did a thing" -> "Study comes out which says the thing is a good thing" does not conform to any useful definition of "confirmation bias" I can think of. (I can stretch it, but the result is not a useful definition.)