14 ms·
XKCD's "Is it worth the time"[1] grid seems appropriate here. Amazing how often I keep coming back to it, and how it really does play out. [1] https://xkcd.com
by vz8 7y ago
XKCD's "Is it worth the time"[1] grid seems appropriate here. Amazing how often I keep coming back to it, and how it really does play out.
[1] https://xkcd.com/1205/ https://xkcd.com/1205/
- atoav 7y agoA classic. However I like to note: sometimes it is also worth shaving something off that just annoys you, even if it doesn't take that much longer. Annoyances are a bit harder to quantify, but they also add up over the weeks.
- dspillett 7y agoAnnoyances have an effect beyond the time they take up: by definition they hang about taking a little bit of mental energy away from subsequent tasks.
- rijoja 7y agoyeah and humans short term memory is quite limited also automating away these small things reduces the risk of human error.
- lonelappde 7y agoTrivial annoyances can be fixed by CBT (fixing your brain to not overeact), without needing to spend time fighting the world.
- ptato 7y agohow?
- kortex 7y agoHa. I've been trying to fix my brain with CBT to not overreact for...20? years now. Sometimes it is just easier to fight the world. I feel my drive to de-frustrate the world make me a better engineer/designer.
- dgb23 7y agoI agree, fixing and creating things is what we do. It makes us happier and better. Another demotivating argument one might hear often is that building X, learning Y or using Z has no business value because there already exists something that you could do/use. That argument makes sense if your primary concern is to solve a particular domain problem AKA you are a 'business person'. But a craftsman/engineer/designer etc. Your primary value comes from your skills and knowledge.
- dgb23 7y agoA couple of useful additions would be: 1. You can multiply the number by amount of users of your automation. 2. If your automation is valuable to others you gain social attraction or financial leverage or both/similar. I'm a programmer first and foremost, so the following things are true in my case as well: 3. Automating a task can lead to learning valuable lessons about: automation itself, the task, any tools/languages you use to automate it. This cannot be encoded easily and is not deterministic. As a programmer learning new skills, improving my craft and gaining pieces of domain knowledge is my primary way of investment. 4. Enjoyment of doing the automation, non-deterministic value. 5. Avoiding suffering, the task might not be time consuming but "hard". Good examples of 5: * interfaces or synchronizations of values that are not failure proof, so you need to concentrate, which is taxing. * the task is boring it itself (often the case) * the task is associated with boring/stressful/generally negative things.