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> 2 talented young programmers working all-out 12 hours a day on one project will generally be more productive than 3 talented folks with family working all-out

by donkeyd 10y ago

> 2 talented young programmers working all-out 12 hours a day on one project will generally be more productive than 3 talented folks with family working all-out 8 hours a day There's actually a lot of research that says it's the opposite.[1] The big difference, I think, is that young developers, like the previous poster mentioned, are up-to-date on the latest technology and are willing to change things to work faster. I've been dealing with 'experienced' Ops trying to maintain control of everything, while slowing down development. The number of hours spent coding doesn't change much if the way development is done is incredibly slow. 1. https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/crunchmode/econ-hours-productivity.html https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/crunc...

optforfon 10y ago
I'll give you that not everyone is productive at 12 hours - but I'm not talking about everyone or even averages. The point is there are plenty of counterexamples of people that can work 12 hours days for months and are way more productive than anyone working 8 (hence "rock stars"). Some people really really love programming and don't have a life outside of work. A simple example is the overzealous founder/cofounder programmer that works 12 hours a day. I've seen people do that and they are very very productive b/c their heart is in it. I imagine some people with lots of stock options and/or coolaid-drinking also are very productive. Some people I've met that work at SpaceX sound incredibly productive. They probably eventually burn out, but with turn over being so high in our industry as it is, your employer doesn't really care. You'll leave after a year or two anyways. .. The link you put up is full of conjectures, but I didn't actually see any numbers... (it's a link to class? .. I don't even understand the website) I'm thinking more in the vein of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%E2%80%99_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%E2%80%99_law "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later"

by donkeyd 10y ago

optforfon 10y ago

I'll give you that not everyone is productive at 12 hours - but I'm not talking about everyone or even averages. The point is there are plenty of counterexamples of people that can work 12 hours days for months and are way more productive than anyone working 8 (hence "rock stars"). Some people really really love programming and don't have a life outside of work. A simple example is the overzealous founder/cofounder programmer that works 12 hours a day. I've seen people do that and they are very very productive b/c their heart is in it. I imagine some people with lots of stock options and/or coolaid-drinking also are very productive. Some people I've met that work at SpaceX sound incredibly productive. They probably eventually burn out, but with turn over being so high in our industry as it is, your employer doesn't really care. You'll leave after a year or two anyways. .. The link you put up is full of conjectures, but I didn't actually see any numbers... (it's a link to class? .. I don't even understand the website) I'm thinking more in the vein of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%E2%80%99_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%E2%80%99_law "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later"