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Rules of Thumb for a 1x Developer During work hours stay away from: * HN * Facebook * Twitter * Reddit * Any other thing constantly distracting you and ta
by imron 6y ago
Rules of Thumb for a 1x Developer
During work hours stay away from:
* HN
* Facebook
* Twitter
* Reddit
* Any other thing constantly distracting you and taking away your attention from your job
Congratulations, you are now 3-10x developer.
- war1025 6y ago> Congratulations, you are now 3-10x developer. Congratulations. You are still getting paid the same. Boosts in productivity need to come with boosts in pay, otherwise the logical thing to do is to scale back your effort to a point where the amount you get done matches the amount you get paid for.
- jamespollack 6y agoexactly! if you're taking home the same salary whether you're creating massive value for the company, why bother?
- dang 6y agoSelf-respect?
- cambalache 6y agoIf you tie your self-respect on how useful are you to the company that pays you, you are fucked. For them you are just a number.
- discreteevent 6y agoSo is every professional you pay money to. But you will still recommend some and not others. When times get tight, those guys still make a living.
- cambalache 6y agoIf you are an independent service worker yeah, I understand, go the extra mile with your customers, it is good for business. But if you are drone #139098123 in generic corporation X, you should not give a fuck on your reputation as long as you are doing your work. If they dump you, you go and get another job, there is a big world out there.
- sixstringtheory 6y ago> you should not give a fuck on your reputation as long as you are doing your work But we're talking about reputation based on the quality/quantity of work you do. I think there's a difference between taking pride in your work, and breaking your back for your employer. I think the former is what's being advocated for in this thread. Also, if you feel like you're drone #139098123 in a soul sucking abyss, and can't be bothered to be interested in the activity you spend a majority of your waking hours supposedly doing in this short life, then I encourage you to look for something better. I know all too well that it's easier said than done, but it's better to start while you still have the soul sucking job instead of after they "dump you."
- cambalache 6y agoNo, the original chain was about the choice of being full-gas all the time for your employer or pace yourself.
- sixstringtheory 6y agoLet me sum up how I saw it go... -you can get more done if you avoid addictive black holes for attention --if they don't want you playing around they should pay you more than the salary you agreed to work for ---yup, still getting paid the same. company is getting theirs, go get yours (I think this reply was actually sarcastic) ----how do you live with yourself -----if you have integrity you're dumb ------most people actually work for money, you'll probably get found out eventually otherwise -------you won't get found out if you embed yourself in a big enough company where you can hide, rinse and repeat It sounds less like an argument to pace one's self, and more like cynical entitlement.
- dang 6y agoOf course, but it could be the other way around: doing your best work as a consequence of self-respect, not the cause.
- jamespollack 6y agoWhat are you on about? Here's the post I replied to below, it said nothing about self-respect. You're the one who brought that up and still haven't explained how compensation factors into your "best work" / "self-respect" chain. Please, do share. ------------- > Congratulations, you are now 3-10x developer. Congratulations. You are still getting paid the same. Boosts in productivity need to come with boosts in pay, otherwise the logical thing to do is to scale back your effort to a point where the amount you get done matches the amount you get paid for. ------------ To which I said, "exactly! if you're taking home the same salary whether you're creating massive value for the company, why bother?" --------------------- So, if someone generates 10x more value than the person next to them, you think they should both be paid the same (while the company reaps the immense profits) and that nobody should complain about the situation because of their "self-respect"? Wild.
- dang 6y agoI was replying to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23034090 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23034090, which was a comment by someone else. On HN, please omit rude swipes like "What are you on about?", "Please, do share," and "So if someone X, you think they should Y, and nobody should complain because 'Z'? Wild." Even if you're talking to a mod, you still need to follow the rules. I also need to, and you and anyone else are welcome to point it out when I slip. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jamespollack 6y agothat's not what happened. if you click the link you included, your "self-respect?" comment isn't on that thread at all. because it was a reply to my comment. you're intentionally misrepresenting what happened. let me point out how you "slipped" and took a "rude swipe" - you don't play by your own rules. i made a post, you replied to me just saying "self-respect?" implying that i had none. how can you just drop insulting comments like that on people who are just participating in conversation? two words, no explanation, just plain rude. Isn't your "self-respect?" comment in bad-faith, given your own rules? "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith." "Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." From the New Yorker profile of you: "They treat their community like an encounter group or Esalen workshop; often, they correspond with individual Hacker News readers over e-mail, coaching and encouraging them in long, heartfelt exchanges." Is that just BS? What was encouraging or heartfelt about your response to me?
- dwaltrip 6y agoShockingly, some people feel good when they do great work and have a positive impact. Often times it even results in other beneficial outcomes in their life.
- jamespollack 6y agoFrom an HN admin this is pretty off-putting. If I work for a company and I'm earning them millions of dollars, you're saying that I don't deserve to be compensated proportionally, I should just give them my time and effort because of "self-respect"? This explains why you always silence my replies on the Who's Hiring posts. If you truly think that people should work for 'self-respect', no wonder you hate it when I ask that companies post about their hiring requirements: length of process, type of interviews, projects and whether they're paid, etc. Obviously you think we should all do those things for free because of our "self-respect". You must be rich AF already to have that kind of attitude.
- jamespollack 6y agoedit: he did not delete my comment, it was below the fold. sorry. my question is still the same though. yup, dang already deleted my comment on Who's Hiring. what's your issue with engineers being able to compare processes between companies?
- dang 6y agoI did not delete your comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23045720 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23045720). I'll try to come back and reply to your posts in this thread later.
- jamespollack 6y agothat's on me, looks like it was below the fold and is still there for now. but you're likely about to send it to the bottom for being off-topic, like you did last month. i've posted the same thing for 3 or so months in a row and there haven't been any changes. it's not even like you have to do anything other than say, "Please include some of this info".
- dang 6y agoThat's part of the problem. It's not ok to keep repeating the same comment on HN. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20copy%20paste%20signal%20noise&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... My issue is not "with engineers being able to compare processes between companies", it's with you (or any user) hijacking the job board with meta opinions about how the job board should be organized. Meta discussion all too easily takes over a thread and is particularly off topic in Who Is Hiring, which is a specialized context and not the usual open discussion. There's plenty of opportunity for freewheeling discussion elsewhere on the site. Lots of people have strong opinions about how the hiring threads should work, because people have strong feelings about hiring in general. The job board itself is not a good place to argue about those; it's off topic, adds noise and makes it less useful for its purpose. If one user is allowed to do it, many others will certainly follow, so this isn't just about one comment. I explained to you last month under what circumstances we'd consider making the kind of changes you're asking for; I also explained why that sort of meta comment is off topic and not allowed in the thread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22755576 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22755576). To show up the next month and do the same thing again starts to not be cool; please don't do that any more.
- Gibbon1 6y agoRespect is a two way street.
- cutemonster 6y agoI'd think in Dang's case he makes ok much money, and likes the company and coworkers
- discreteevent 6y agoProgramming is a marathon, not a sprint. That will catch up on you some day. Plus, personally, it just makes life hell. The day passes faster when you get into it and those things prevent me from getting into it (not true of everyone from what I've observed)
- war1025 6y agoI agree completely with everything you said. The point I was trying (perhaps poorly) to make is also along the lines of "marathon, not a sprint". Yes, do your job. But find the healthy balance where you aren't killing yourself for results that aren't appreciated. Work at a pace that you can sustain for years on end. That goes both ways. Don't overwork yourself to the point of burnout. But also don't underwork yourself to the point that you are unemployable should circumstances change.
- nomel 6y agoI’ve never heard of a company that will offer to pay you more if you promise to be more productive in the future. What industry are you in? All of my raises and promotions came from results that exceeded expectations.
- war1025 6y agoThere is a balance though. The company I work for is stable, but money is always tight. That means raises are few and far between. Other factors balance that out and make it a reasonable place for me to work, but being aware of the fact that "exceeds expectations" does not lead to more money is important and I'm sure not unique to my situation. I'm happy to go above and beyond, but I'm also aware that it's unlikely to be rewarded and take that into account in my decisions.
- cvlasdkv 6y agoswitching jobs is a promise of productivity. giving an individual company more productivity for free is bullshit -- get your comp adjusted as frequently as possible.
- imron 6y ago> Congratulations. You are still getting paid the same. After the first week, yes. Whether you are still being paid the same after a year depends on you and your negotiation skills.
- war1025 6y agoIt's a trade off. You can work harder and make more. Or you can be equally productive, work less, and make the same. In a world that complains about not having enough time, it's an option that many people seem too timid to take.
- srajabi 6y agoI've thought about this as well. If you have flow for ~6 hrs a day with ~2 hrs a day of buffer time for meetings, lunch, coffee...etc. You'd be in the top third of software developers. Anecdotal for sure but I'd love to see a study on this.
- Aeolun 6y agoOr you scale back work by 50% and now earn 100% more per worked hour!