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I am continuously grateful that twelve years ago after dropping out of college with a complete lack of focus I came back a year later and learned how to actuall

I am continuously grateful that twelve years ago after dropping out of college with a complete lack of focus I came back a year later and learned how to actually work hard. Outside of food and bathroom breaks, if a problem demands it I can work for hours on end without breaking focus (and love it!). It’s one reason that open office floor plans or a culture of interruption are absolute hell on my quality of life. I’ve struggled at times though to figure out how to balance the need for off the cuff collaboration with teammates with the productivity that comes with isolation. I settled for what I estimate as a 40% loss at my last gig because it helped boost my teams’ overall productivity and improved the quality of our product. Having thought about it recently, I believe my ideal would be some kind of on/off cycle. Say, two days a week either remote or “quiet time” at the office, and three days anything goes.

mikekchar 9y ago
Virtually everyone I've met who has tried it says that 3 days a week remote is optimal. This is also my experience -- unfortunately I live on the other side of the world from my office at the moment so I'm permanently remote.
trevyn 9y ago
>I’ve struggled at times though to figure out how to balance the need for off the cuff collaboration with teammates with the productivity that comes with isolation. I suspect a good metric to use here is how valuable you perceive your collaboration time to be. i.e. if all your collaboration time was highly valuable and productive, you wouldn’t feel a need to change your balance. Thus, I’d suggest looking for ways to increase the value of collaboration time. I wonder if your issue stems from simply being more productive/experienced than your peers, which could give you the sense that collaboration slows you down.
segmondy 9y ago
How did you learn to work hard without breaking focus?
- mful 9y ago
  As someone who also had a longish path to learning to work hard, the answer for me was simple: practice. Gains in focus time (for me, anyway) are incremental, so it’s not like you wake up one day and can focus for 12 hours straight. Accept that it will be a slow road, and just keep trying to stay focused longer, whenever you sit down to work.
- psyc 9y ago
  When I see people comment that they can only focus on code for a few hours, I feel like a freak. I can focus on any one thing for 16 hours per day, indefinitely. I don’t know why. I don’t use tricks. And it energizes me. I have very low social needs. I doubt I’m neurotypical. I doubt John Carmack is.
- hesdeadjim 9y ago
  I'd say it was an unintentional lesson in the merits of grit. When I went back to school my attitude towards my non-computer science courses did not change -- I still very much disliked them. However what did change was that I decided I was going to graduate no matter what. It didn't matter how I felt or how much I'd rather do something else, I was going to study and graduate. And I did. And it was hard as hell. But I graduated and for the first time I really felt a sense of personal accomplishment. I hadn't finished college because someone told me I was supposed to, I did it because I wanted to. Once I left college and I got to work full-time in my field of choice this lesson paid dividends. When I have a problem I really enjoy trying to solve, the hours can melt away. When I have a problem I really don't want to solve, I can still sit down and force my way through it. And don't get me wrong, my brain still fights against me in those moments ("Hey guy, go check Hacker News or Reddit!"). But most of the time I am able to recognize when it is happening and reign it in as necessary.

mikekchar 9y ago

Virtually everyone I've met who has tried it says that 3 days a week remote is optimal. This is also my experience -- unfortunately I live on the other side of the world from my office at the moment so I'm permanently remote.

trevyn 9y ago

>I’ve struggled at times though to figure out how to balance the need for off the cuff collaboration with teammates with the productivity that comes with isolation. I suspect a good metric to use here is how valuable you perceive your collaboration time to be. i.e. if all your collaboration time was highly valuable and productive, you wouldn’t feel a need to change your balance. Thus, I’d suggest looking for ways to increase the value of collaboration time. I wonder if your issue stems from simply being more productive/experienced than your peers, which could give you the sense that collaboration slows you down.

segmondy 9y ago

How did you learn to work hard without breaking focus?

mful 9y ago
As someone who also had a longish path to learning to work hard, the answer for me was simple: practice. Gains in focus time (for me, anyway) are incremental, so it’s not like you wake up one day and can focus for 12 hours straight. Accept that it will be a slow road, and just keep trying to stay focused longer, whenever you sit down to work.
psyc 9y ago
When I see people comment that they can only focus on code for a few hours, I feel like a freak. I can focus on any one thing for 16 hours per day, indefinitely. I don’t know why. I don’t use tricks. And it energizes me. I have very low social needs. I doubt I’m neurotypical. I doubt John Carmack is.
hesdeadjim 9y ago
I'd say it was an unintentional lesson in the merits of grit. When I went back to school my attitude towards my non-computer science courses did not change -- I still very much disliked them. However what did change was that I decided I was going to graduate no matter what. It didn't matter how I felt or how much I'd rather do something else, I was going to study and graduate. And I did. And it was hard as hell. But I graduated and for the first time I really felt a sense of personal accomplishment. I hadn't finished college because someone told me I was supposed to, I did it because I wanted to. Once I left college and I got to work full-time in my field of choice this lesson paid dividends. When I have a problem I really enjoy trying to solve, the hours can melt away. When I have a problem I really don't want to solve, I can still sit down and force my way through it. And don't get me wrong, my brain still fights against me in those moments ("Hey guy, go check Hacker News or Reddit!"). But most of the time I am able to recognize when it is happening and reign it in as necessary.