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I found this article by Paul graham... http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html ...to be more instructive a

I found this article by Paul graham... http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html ...to be more instructive as it identifies a critical division between two types of "knowledge workers" that the above article overlooks. A "maker" by the very definition needs to be productive all day :) A "manager" can be productive even while distracted, and perhaps that's a natural state to be for managers.

candu 8y ago
More accurately: the manager isn't, strictly speaking, being "distracted" - the meetings and other such "interruptions" are a core part of their job. This was something I never properly appreciated before becoming a consultant. As you become more and more responsible for managerial tasks - direction, product / technical vision, coordination, scheduling / estimates, recruiting / hiring / onboarding, "selling" the product internally / externally, developing robust processes around common tasks, etc. - you need to appreciate that communication is, properly wielded, an incredible time-saver. Some of my most productive days have been ones where I didn't touch a line of code; instead, I helped clearly define the problem at hand, or helped onboard a fantastic new hire. These are the sorts of days that save you somewhere between weeks and years of time, depending on the importance of the problems / decisions involved. Conversely, I find many engineers are limited in their careers by a blind focus on "productivity" - forgetting that it's often not about superhuman individual effort, but rather about sustained, intelligent, and proactive team effort. (Not to mention that "seat time", "working hours", etc. slowly become proxy metrics for "productivity", thus ensuring burnout, mistakes, and wasted effort.)
- jimnotgym 8y ago
  > Some of my most productive days have been ones where I didn't touch a line of code; My most productive days ever were the ones where I drove over to another site to find out the problems they were having and then designed my tech around it. They weren't used to being consulted and helped. Their manager is now a big advocate for my changes, now I have a bigger budget and more staff. All from taking time out.

candu 8y ago

More accurately: the manager isn't, strictly speaking, being "distracted" - the meetings and other such "interruptions" are a core part of their job. This was something I never properly appreciated before becoming a consultant. As you become more and more responsible for managerial tasks - direction, product / technical vision, coordination, scheduling / estimates, recruiting / hiring / onboarding, "selling" the product internally / externally, developing robust processes around common tasks, etc. - you need to appreciate that communication is, properly wielded, an incredible time-saver. Some of my most productive days have been ones where I didn't touch a line of code; instead, I helped clearly define the problem at hand, or helped onboard a fantastic new hire. These are the sorts of days that save you somewhere between weeks and years of time, depending on the importance of the problems / decisions involved. Conversely, I find many engineers are limited in their careers by a blind focus on "productivity" - forgetting that it's often not about superhuman individual effort, but rather about sustained, intelligent, and proactive team effort. (Not to mention that "seat time", "working hours", etc. slowly become proxy metrics for "productivity", thus ensuring burnout, mistakes, and wasted effort.)

jimnotgym 8y ago
> Some of my most productive days have been ones where I didn't touch a line of code; My most productive days ever were the ones where I drove over to another site to find out the problems they were having and then designed my tech around it. They weren't used to being consulted and helped. Their manager is now a big advocate for my changes, now I have a bigger budget and more staff. All from taking time out.