4 ms·

Yes, people should be more like lawyers. Bill for that time you spent in the shower thinking about your clients case. That reads sarcastic, but in today’s work

by ianai 6y ago

Yes, people should be more like lawyers. Bill for that time you spent in the shower thinking about your clients case. That reads sarcastic, but in today’s workplace you really need to know the legal framework you’re working within or you’ll probably be fleeced or worse. How lawyers charge actually is instructive.

me_me_me 6y ago
I am running out of fingers to count how many times i concluded/fixed a design or a problem while showering.
- jjk166 6y ago
  But can I write off my shower as a home office tax deduction?
  - jksmith 6y ago
    I wrote a whole sqlite wrapper while in my hot tub carrel. I call that time "meditubbing." I read a story somewhere a thousand years ago about Gustave Flaubert's work habits. As I recall, at a dinner party: Woman: "Was your day fruitful?" Flaubert: "Yes, very." Woman: "How many words did you write?" Flaubert: "None."
    - kthejoker2 6y ago
      You can find the same passage and line of thinking in every great author's memoir: small, consistent, disciplined, focused effort and writing, no matter what the result; buoyed by long bouts of thinking, living, experiencing, observing - to find the "peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet", as Flannery O'Connor put it. > “The time we have alone, the time we have in walking, the time we have in riding a bicycle, is the most important time for a writer. Escaping from the typewriter is part of the creative process. You have to give the subconscious time to think. Real thinking always occurs at the subconscious level.” - Ray Bradbury > "When the manuscript had lain in a pigeon hole two years I took it out one day and read the last chapter that I had written. It was then that I made the great discovery that when the tank runs dry you've only to leave it alone and it will fill up again in time, while you are asleep -- also while you are at work on other things and are quite unaware that this unconscious and profitable cerebration is going on." - Mark Twain > ‘I didn’t stir out yesterday, but sat and thought all day; not writing a line; not so much as the cross of a t or the dot of an i. I imaged forth a good deal of Barnaby by keeping my mind steadily upon him; and am happy to say I have gone to work this morning in good twig, strong hope and cheerful spirits. Last night I was unutterably and impossible-to-form-an-idea-of-ably miserable.’ - Charles Dickens
torstenvl 6y ago
Billing time is the absolute worst thing about types of legal practice you're talking about, and absolutely nobody should adopt anything about that system. Economic pressures eventually force granularity of a tenth of an hour. There are no circumstances under which I would ever willingly return to anxiety over whether a bathroom break might take longer than three minutes.
- darkerside 6y ago
  Lawyers don't live in anxiety of that. They accept that is part of work and find ways to bill for it.
  - tiahura 6y ago
    Try billing 2000 hours a year in .1 increments. It’s not so much the bathroom breaks that lead to anxiety, it’s things like: kids’ soccer games, doctor’s appointments, and anniversaries.
    - jjk166 6y ago
      You don't need to anticipate how long those things will take, you bill after the fact. Yeah if you don't keep good records of your schedule and just try to guess what you were doing at 2:39 last tuesday it might be stressful, but that's a problem with the record keeping, not the billing.
    - darkerside 6y ago
      This is a much better argument than bathroom breaks. I do think it still comes down to an ability to self manage, which is going to vary widely by individual.
  - username90 6y ago
    Lawyer job is to argue, they don't live in anxiety over it since they know they can handle any argument that can occur.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
robjan 6y ago
I was once forced to do that by a client and the result was having to bill additional time for logging and investigating what everyone on the team was doing. It probably added an additional 10% to the billed hours for engagement management.
Demonsult 6y ago
I had a lawyers suggest I drive him to court. This turned out to be a trick so he could "justify" billing me for the commute time. It was like Uber, except the driver pays the passenger $500.
jksmith 6y ago
A buddy of mine just leaned out that whole issue and just charges by the day.

by ianai 6y ago

me_me_me 6y ago

I am running out of fingers to count how many times i concluded/fixed a design or a problem while showering.

jjk166 6y ago
But can I write off my shower as a home office tax deduction?
- jksmith 6y ago
  I wrote a whole sqlite wrapper while in my hot tub carrel. I call that time "meditubbing." I read a story somewhere a thousand years ago about Gustave Flaubert's work habits. As I recall, at a dinner party: Woman: "Was your day fruitful?" Flaubert: "Yes, very." Woman: "How many words did you write?" Flaubert: "None."
  - kthejoker2 6y ago
    You can find the same passage and line of thinking in every great author's memoir: small, consistent, disciplined, focused effort and writing, no matter what the result; buoyed by long bouts of thinking, living, experiencing, observing - to find the "peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet", as Flannery O'Connor put it. > “The time we have alone, the time we have in walking, the time we have in riding a bicycle, is the most important time for a writer. Escaping from the typewriter is part of the creative process. You have to give the subconscious time to think. Real thinking always occurs at the subconscious level.” - Ray Bradbury > "When the manuscript had lain in a pigeon hole two years I took it out one day and read the last chapter that I had written. It was then that I made the great discovery that when the tank runs dry you've only to leave it alone and it will fill up again in time, while you are asleep -- also while you are at work on other things and are quite unaware that this unconscious and profitable cerebration is going on." - Mark Twain > ‘I didn’t stir out yesterday, but sat and thought all day; not writing a line; not so much as the cross of a t or the dot of an i. I imaged forth a good deal of Barnaby by keeping my mind steadily upon him; and am happy to say I have gone to work this morning in good twig, strong hope and cheerful spirits. Last night I was unutterably and impossible-to-form-an-idea-of-ably miserable.’ - Charles Dickens

torstenvl 6y ago

Billing time is the absolute worst thing about types of legal practice you're talking about, and absolutely nobody should adopt anything about that system. Economic pressures eventually force granularity of a tenth of an hour. There are no circumstances under which I would ever willingly return to anxiety over whether a bathroom break might take longer than three minutes.

darkerside 6y ago
Lawyers don't live in anxiety of that. They accept that is part of work and find ways to bill for it.
- tiahura 6y ago
  Try billing 2000 hours a year in .1 increments. It’s not so much the bathroom breaks that lead to anxiety, it’s things like: kids’ soccer games, doctor’s appointments, and anniversaries.
  - jjk166 6y ago
    You don't need to anticipate how long those things will take, you bill after the fact. Yeah if you don't keep good records of your schedule and just try to guess what you were doing at 2:39 last tuesday it might be stressful, but that's a problem with the record keeping, not the billing.
  - darkerside 6y ago
    This is a much better argument than bathroom breaks. I do think it still comes down to an ability to self manage, which is going to vary widely by individual.
- username90 6y ago
  Lawyer job is to argue, they don't live in anxiety over it since they know they can handle any argument that can occur.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

robjan 6y ago

I was once forced to do that by a client and the result was having to bill additional time for logging and investigating what everyone on the team was doing. It probably added an additional 10% to the billed hours for engagement management.

Demonsult 6y ago

I had a lawyers suggest I drive him to court. This turned out to be a trick so he could "justify" billing me for the commute time. It was like Uber, except the driver pays the passenger $500.

jksmith 6y ago

A buddy of mine just leaned out that whole issue and just charges by the day.