5 ms·

How We Get Things Done (2015)

100 points by bootload 11y ago

amelius 11y ago
> There are few problems that can’t be solved quickly by judicious browsing of Stack Overflow. Only for the simplest of problems.
- kbart 11y ago
  But most of the problems usually are the simple ones, so I don't see a contradiction here.
- hguant 11y ago
  YMMV, but I've found StackOverflow helps immensely by keeping you out of the weeds and focused on the task at hand. Yes it works best for simple problems - that's the point. I'm not paid to solve simple problems. SO keeps me from getting distracted by the "simple" things - I think we've all gone down the rabbit hole of "well how does this actually work" more than once.
- mercury_craze 11y ago
  I read this as "If you need to use stack overflow then you're not a real programmer. " Was that your intention?
  - golergka 11y ago
    No, it's "if you constantly need to use stack overflow, you're most likely a beginner in a given tech", and real programmers are going though beginner phase much more often than fake programmers, because they learn more new stuff. But also "if most of your problems can be solved by stack overflow" than you're either not solving hard problems, or, and this is much, much worse, you're not aware that you're facing hard problems with things like architecture and code organization, and solve them in a naive, straight-forward way, not even recognizing the future implications — and that, indeed, means that you're not a real programmer.
    - enraged_camel 11y ago
      I find myself coming back to stackoverflow after I leave a language/toolset for a while. I'm not a "beginner" in those things but stuff like syntax may not be fresh on my mind, and SO is great for reminders like that.
    - rqebmm 11y ago
      When I first started programming professionally a few years ago I, like any beginner, leaned heavily on Stack Overflow. When I became experienced I prided myslf on the ability to solve simple poblems with nothing more than my knowledge of the language, frameworks, and occasional trip through the reference manual. Eventually I realized it was just faster to google those questions as soon as I had them rather than try to remember or solve simple problems. Stack Overflow is useful precisely because it lets me focus my mental energy on solving hard, "real programmer" problems like architecture and code organization.
specialk 11y ago
Concentration indicators: Wearing headphones Working away from normal desk Interruptions still happen, of course. When one does, we suggest letting the person know upfront that you’re concentrating on something, and asking them if it’s urgent. And if you’re the person doing the interrupting, try not to get offended when you get asked if your needs are urgent. OMG yes big fan of this. Setting expectations up front for this kind of behaviour is great. Without a 'culture' for allowing people to stay focused without an immediate interruption, I have always found it hard to explain to people interrupting me why they could have used an asynchronous communication tool, like Slack/HipChat/email, for non-urgent questions.
- rocketcity 11y ago
  Trying to figure out how to tackle this issue right now as we just went to an open floor-plan. Wondering if getting all of the team using https://blink1.thingm.com/ https://blink1.thingm.com/ with a standard set of color code conventions (red=Do Not Disturb) would work better. The headphones trick doesn't seem to be sending any message at all. Really great list though. Good read.
  - bsbechtel 11y ago
    Can't you just have a card on everyone's desk. One side is green, one side is red. If you put the red side up, it means do not disturb? I don't mean this in any way as a personal attack on you, but tech culture in general sometimes gets too focused on using technology instead of just finding a solution that works. Sometimes it's good to take a step back and ask again what the goal is.
    - rocketcity 11y ago
      Sounds much more efficient. But who doesn't love over-engineering a solution?
    - karmakaze 11y ago
      The headphones act can be unconscious, seeking silence, whereas a card is more abstract and could have stale state. My fave is putting in earbuds, then noise-cancelling headphones, and no music. The earbuds reduce subsonic cancelling pressure. Sometimes people are just listening to music and could be interrupted. How do we distinguish this form?
why-el 11y ago
> In many chat tools, notification state is not preserved across network reconnection or signout/signin. If you send someone a message, you have no way of knowing if they’re ever going to notice it. This is no longer true with Slack no? I mean, Slack is smart about when to email you in case you miss reading a post, and it's all perfectly synced between desktop and mobile.
- damncabbage 11y ago
  Agreed; HipChat is unfortunately a bit terrible about this. I'll often "lose" a notification from someone when I'm offline: it sends an email, yep, but the chat client itself loses the "unread message" bubble. I have to make sure I check email on every reconnect.
jimbokun 11y ago
"Our open plan office is great for camaraderie and vibe, but it can sometimes make it difficult to focus, especially if you’re working on a task that requires deep concentration. Some people hold a lot of context in their working memory at any one time, others don’t. Some people welcome interruption, others don’t. To work together effectively, we ensure that everyone is aware of the almost-universal-but-usually-unspoken ways that engineers work day to day." It's fascinating how resilient the open office plan is to all the research showing it's bad for productivity. "Camaraderie and vibe" are difficult to quantify, or to even explain in concrete terms how they contribute to profits, revenues, or whatever your most important metrics are. Or, for that matter, demonstrating "camaraderie and vibe" actually increase with an open plan office, versus individual offices. On the other hand, the ability of engineers to focus and solve problems obviously has a direct influence on the company's bottom line, I would think. Frankly, it would be refreshing to see more executives just admit they don't want to spend the extra money for real offices, than hiding behind "camaraderie and vibe" to justify their decisions while trying to still seeming cool and hip.
EvanPlaice 11y ago
Is it me or do posts about GTD like these come off as masturbatory. IMHO, GTD is the 'paint shedding' of project management. It's a good 'filler' for management that lacks creativity and/or the courage to take risks. ----- In a sort of pseudo Maslow's hierarchy of team effectiveness here's how I'd order needs from foundational to self-actualization. 1. Trust A team that lacks trust is one where everybody switches from an 'us' to a 'me' mindset. Employees that are terrified of making mistakes won't take risks and may fail to perform at times when taking action is critical. People working in an environment of distrust will inevitably silo knowledge out of the interest of self-preservation. Self-serving management can be especially destructive to the cohesiveness of a team due to their wider reach. 2. Responsibility Related to trust but there are some cases where a person is well intentioned but may be incapable of doing the work on their own. It's the employees responsibility to seek help and the managers responsibility to identify and assist those who are struggling. 3. Resources A more difficult problem for management due to financial constraints and bureaucratic barriers. A team won't be able to realize it's full potential without the support of good leadership to fight for the tools/resources necessary to do the job right. 4. Mentorship Not always possible if time constraints are an issue. If 1-3 aren't suffuciently covered the team may be stuck in a cycle of perpetual death marches. Either way, if room can be made to foster mentorship it should. Not only does it bring up the struggling employees. It may even act a catalyst that transforms a very skilled 2x engineer who works well on their own into a 10x engineer capable of making organization-wide improvements that benefit everybody. This is the environment where leaders are born. 5. Professional Development The best of organizations don't have to fight to keep employees because their culture can't be found elsewhere. Information sharing, widespread experimentation, community engagement, etc... Can be positive signals that a company is harnessing its full potential. Not only is working for such an organization a great experience but it literally levels up the skills of its employees and the organization as a whole. ----- Notice how I never mention process? That's because it doesn't matter nearly as much as the so-called 'process experts' are willing to admit. No matter the workflow chosen. If you compare cohesive team with strong leadership and persistent culture against a team built on foundations of mistrust... The former will outperform the latter, attract better talent, improve faster over time, and produce better results. The changes with the potential for the greatest impact come from shifts in priority. The first shift is from identifying the 'what' to an actionable 'how'. The second comes from a transition of 'how' to building a persistent culture based on 'why' the organization works the way it does. Leadership that constantly cycles through various iterations of 'how' are holding their organization back from realizing its full potential. Standardizing on a process like agile has a few benefits. It looks good on a resume, is easy to measure, and lowers the barrier to onboarding new employees. What it explicitly does not address is a lack of strong leadership and/or purpose that organizations require to be successful. I'm no expert in this domain but I have had the privilege of working alongside some truly exceptional leadership, as well as experience working with some extremely dysfunctional organizations. Aside: If you really need a solution to fix the issue of unnecessary interruptions. Disable all notifications on a predefined schedule and stick a red sticky note to the side of your monitor that reads "not now chief, I'm in the zone".

100 points by bootload 11y ago

> There are few problems that can’t be solved quickly by judicious browsing of Stack Overflow. Only for the simplest of problems.

kbart 11y ago
But most of the problems usually are the simple ones, so I don't see a contradiction here.
hguant 11y ago
YMMV, but I've found StackOverflow helps immensely by keeping you out of the weeds and focused on the task at hand. Yes it works best for simple problems - that's the point. I'm not paid to solve simple problems. SO keeps me from getting distracted by the "simple" things - I think we've all gone down the rabbit hole of "well how does this actually work" more than once.
mercury_craze 11y ago
I read this as "If you need to use stack overflow then you're not a real programmer. " Was that your intention?
- golergka 11y ago
  No, it's "if you constantly need to use stack overflow, you're most likely a beginner in a given tech", and real programmers are going though beginner phase much more often than fake programmers, because they learn more new stuff. But also "if most of your problems can be solved by stack overflow" than you're either not solving hard problems, or, and this is much, much worse, you're not aware that you're facing hard problems with things like architecture and code organization, and solve them in a naive, straight-forward way, not even recognizing the future implications — and that, indeed, means that you're not a real programmer.
  - enraged_camel 11y ago
    I find myself coming back to stackoverflow after I leave a language/toolset for a while. I'm not a "beginner" in those things but stuff like syntax may not be fresh on my mind, and SO is great for reminders like that.
  - rqebmm 11y ago
    When I first started programming professionally a few years ago I, like any beginner, leaned heavily on Stack Overflow. When I became experienced I prided myslf on the ability to solve simple poblems with nothing more than my knowledge of the language, frameworks, and occasional trip through the reference manual. Eventually I realized it was just faster to google those questions as soon as I had them rather than try to remember or solve simple problems. Stack Overflow is useful precisely because it lets me focus my mental energy on solving hard, "real programmer" problems like architecture and code organization.

specialk 11y ago

Concentration indicators: Wearing headphones Working away from normal desk Interruptions still happen, of course. When one does, we suggest letting the person know upfront that you’re concentrating on something, and asking them if it’s urgent. And if you’re the person doing the interrupting, try not to get offended when you get asked if your needs are urgent. OMG yes big fan of this. Setting expectations up front for this kind of behaviour is great. Without a 'culture' for allowing people to stay focused without an immediate interruption, I have always found it hard to explain to people interrupting me why they could have used an asynchronous communication tool, like Slack/HipChat/email, for non-urgent questions.

rocketcity 11y ago
Trying to figure out how to tackle this issue right now as we just went to an open floor-plan. Wondering if getting all of the team using https://blink1.thingm.com/ https://blink1.thingm.com/ with a standard set of color code conventions (red=Do Not Disturb) would work better. The headphones trick doesn't seem to be sending any message at all. Really great list though. Good read.
- bsbechtel 11y ago
  Can't you just have a card on everyone's desk. One side is green, one side is red. If you put the red side up, it means do not disturb? I don't mean this in any way as a personal attack on you, but tech culture in general sometimes gets too focused on using technology instead of just finding a solution that works. Sometimes it's good to take a step back and ask again what the goal is.
  - rocketcity 11y ago
    Sounds much more efficient. But who doesn't love over-engineering a solution?
  - karmakaze 11y ago
    The headphones act can be unconscious, seeking silence, whereas a card is more abstract and could have stale state. My fave is putting in earbuds, then noise-cancelling headphones, and no music. The earbuds reduce subsonic cancelling pressure. Sometimes people are just listening to music and could be interrupted. How do we distinguish this form?

why-el 11y ago

> In many chat tools, notification state is not preserved across network reconnection or signout/signin. If you send someone a message, you have no way of knowing if they’re ever going to notice it. This is no longer true with Slack no? I mean, Slack is smart about when to email you in case you miss reading a post, and it's all perfectly synced between desktop and mobile.

damncabbage 11y ago
Agreed; HipChat is unfortunately a bit terrible about this. I'll often "lose" a notification from someone when I'm offline: it sends an email, yep, but the chat client itself loses the "unread message" bubble. I have to make sure I check email on every reconnect.

jimbokun 11y ago

"Our open plan office is great for camaraderie and vibe, but it can sometimes make it difficult to focus, especially if you’re working on a task that requires deep concentration. Some people hold a lot of context in their working memory at any one time, others don’t. Some people welcome interruption, others don’t. To work together effectively, we ensure that everyone is aware of the almost-universal-but-usually-unspoken ways that engineers work day to day." It's fascinating how resilient the open office plan is to all the research showing it's bad for productivity. "Camaraderie and vibe" are difficult to quantify, or to even explain in concrete terms how they contribute to profits, revenues, or whatever your most important metrics are. Or, for that matter, demonstrating "camaraderie and vibe" actually increase with an open plan office, versus individual offices. On the other hand, the ability of engineers to focus and solve problems obviously has a direct influence on the company's bottom line, I would think. Frankly, it would be refreshing to see more executives just admit they don't want to spend the extra money for real offices, than hiding behind "camaraderie and vibe" to justify their decisions while trying to still seeming cool and hip.

EvanPlaice 11y ago

Is it me or do posts about GTD like these come off as masturbatory. IMHO, GTD is the 'paint shedding' of project management. It's a good 'filler' for management that lacks creativity and/or the courage to take risks. ----- In a sort of pseudo Maslow's hierarchy of team effectiveness here's how I'd order needs from foundational to self-actualization. 1. Trust A team that lacks trust is one where everybody switches from an 'us' to a 'me' mindset. Employees that are terrified of making mistakes won't take risks and may fail to perform at times when taking action is critical. People working in an environment of distrust will inevitably silo knowledge out of the interest of self-preservation. Self-serving management can be especially destructive to the cohesiveness of a team due to their wider reach. 2. Responsibility Related to trust but there are some cases where a person is well intentioned but may be incapable of doing the work on their own. It's the employees responsibility to seek help and the managers responsibility to identify and assist those who are struggling. 3. Resources A more difficult problem for management due to financial constraints and bureaucratic barriers. A team won't be able to realize it's full potential without the support of good leadership to fight for the tools/resources necessary to do the job right. 4. Mentorship Not always possible if time constraints are an issue. If 1-3 aren't suffuciently covered the team may be stuck in a cycle of perpetual death marches. Either way, if room can be made to foster mentorship it should. Not only does it bring up the struggling employees. It may even act a catalyst that transforms a very skilled 2x engineer who works well on their own into a 10x engineer capable of making organization-wide improvements that benefit everybody. This is the environment where leaders are born. 5. Professional Development The best of organizations don't have to fight to keep employees because their culture can't be found elsewhere. Information sharing, widespread experimentation, community engagement, etc... Can be positive signals that a company is harnessing its full potential. Not only is working for such an organization a great experience but it literally levels up the skills of its employees and the organization as a whole. ----- Notice how I never mention process? That's because it doesn't matter nearly as much as the so-called 'process experts' are willing to admit. No matter the workflow chosen. If you compare cohesive team with strong leadership and persistent culture against a team built on foundations of mistrust... The former will outperform the latter, attract better talent, improve faster over time, and produce better results. The changes with the potential for the greatest impact come from shifts in priority. The first shift is from identifying the 'what' to an actionable 'how'. The second comes from a transition of 'how' to building a persistent culture based on 'why' the organization works the way it does. Leadership that constantly cycles through various iterations of 'how' are holding their organization back from realizing its full potential. Standardizing on a process like agile has a few benefits. It looks good on a resume, is easy to measure, and lowers the barrier to onboarding new employees. What it explicitly does not address is a lack of strong leadership and/or purpose that organizations require to be successful. I'm no expert in this domain but I have had the privilege of working alongside some truly exceptional leadership, as well as experience working with some extremely dysfunctional organizations. Aside: If you really need a solution to fix the issue of unnecessary interruptions. Disable all notifications on a predefined schedule and stick a red sticky note to the side of your monitor that reads "not now chief, I'm in the zone".