63 ms·

I stopped overdelivering. It just meant they expected even more, and being a cog in a giant machine meant my contributions were averaged out by those who did t

by kowlo 5y ago

I stopped overdelivering. It just meant they expected even more, and being a cog in a giant machine meant my contributions were averaged out by those who did the bare minimum (or worse). It was easy once I became disillusioned with my area of work... I'm in some intermediate state right now.

noir_lord 5y ago
> I stopped overdelivering. If I could go back 20 years and talk to 20yo me this is one of the things I'd tell them. Any level of work you put in over the minimum just becomes the new minimum. Learning to say no and sticking to it would have dramatically improved my life (it did when I figured this out around 30). Career has gone from strength to strength ever since.
- kowlo 5y ago
  Learning to say _no_ can be difficult for some. I certainly figured it out too late to save myself from burnout. It's worse when line managers or colleagues can see this and take advantage of it. Boundaries are important...
  - noir_lord 5y ago
    In my case it led to a reputation for getting things done correctly on time. Because I'd only say yes if I actually thought it was possible - the thing I realised is that the push back on estimations is only at the start of a project, all they remember at the end is you said X, it took X.
qorrect 5y ago
This is a big one I still sort of struggle with.
JamilD 5y ago
I recently started doing this too. I tend to always push myself and try to deliver as much as I can, limited by time and energy — it was hard to get rid of this habit, so I tried to create things outside of work to "bound" that time/energy limit. I started with a challenge of reading and summarizing one ML/CS paper per day, which requires a reasonable enough amount of energy and time that I have to make sure to allocate outside of work. It was a catalyst to help me get back into "reclaiming" a portion of my time and mental energy, and I started getting back into side projects. Taking back my time has given me a lot more purpose and meaning, and brings me back to a sense of curiosity and optimism about technology that I haven't had in a while. It's amazing what feeling some ownership can do, and how much better I feel putting my time and effort into things outside of work. Note: initially I tried to "bound my work-related energy" with non-technical goals, like running and mountaineering. It worked to distract me, but I feel like I needed an intellectual bound as well as a physical one.
akudha 5y ago
Ever notice how people praise others? It is always hard-working, law abiding etc, with hard-working almost always the first in the list, as if that is the most important thing in a human's life. Somehow we have convinced ourselves that working as much as possible is the best use of our time. The saddest/ironic part of it is that most of that work is just meaningless drudgery anyway. Last year, the company I worked for laid off a few dozen people because of Covid. They simply turned off their logins one morning - no warning, not even a pretense of feeling bad. Some of those people had worked for the company for 10, 15 years. At least a handful of those were considered super important high performers. In the end, none of that mattered. It was all about profit and loss. I am not even bitter that they were laid off (it was a business after all), but it was the ugly and inhumane way it was done. All this to say, it is enough to do a good job for what we are paid for. Nothing more, unless you're working on something super important that would benefit mankind, like developing Covid vaccine. Otherwise it is just plain stupid to do more than what is expected.
muzani 5y ago
I feel like this is harmful as a person. This happens a lot in all my jobs. My resume is dotted with me leaving jobs, but it's mostly in response to this phenomenon. I love overdelivering, but it's always punished.
- runawaybottle 5y ago
  No good deed goes unpunished.

by kowlo 5y ago

noir_lord 5y ago

> I stopped overdelivering. If I could go back 20 years and talk to 20yo me this is one of the things I'd tell them. Any level of work you put in over the minimum just becomes the new minimum. Learning to say no and sticking to it would have dramatically improved my life (it did when I figured this out around 30). Career has gone from strength to strength ever since.

kowlo 5y ago
Learning to say _no_ can be difficult for some. I certainly figured it out too late to save myself from burnout. It's worse when line managers or colleagues can see this and take advantage of it. Boundaries are important...
- noir_lord 5y ago
  In my case it led to a reputation for getting things done correctly on time. Because I'd only say yes if I actually thought it was possible - the thing I realised is that the push back on estimations is only at the start of a project, all they remember at the end is you said X, it took X.

qorrect 5y ago

This is a big one I still sort of struggle with.

JamilD 5y ago

I recently started doing this too. I tend to always push myself and try to deliver as much as I can, limited by time and energy — it was hard to get rid of this habit, so I tried to create things outside of work to "bound" that time/energy limit. I started with a challenge of reading and summarizing one ML/CS paper per day, which requires a reasonable enough amount of energy and time that I have to make sure to allocate outside of work. It was a catalyst to help me get back into "reclaiming" a portion of my time and mental energy, and I started getting back into side projects. Taking back my time has given me a lot more purpose and meaning, and brings me back to a sense of curiosity and optimism about technology that I haven't had in a while. It's amazing what feeling some ownership can do, and how much better I feel putting my time and effort into things outside of work. Note: initially I tried to "bound my work-related energy" with non-technical goals, like running and mountaineering. It worked to distract me, but I feel like I needed an intellectual bound as well as a physical one.

akudha 5y ago

Ever notice how people praise others? It is always hard-working, law abiding etc, with hard-working almost always the first in the list, as if that is the most important thing in a human's life. Somehow we have convinced ourselves that working as much as possible is the best use of our time. The saddest/ironic part of it is that most of that work is just meaningless drudgery anyway. Last year, the company I worked for laid off a few dozen people because of Covid. They simply turned off their logins one morning - no warning, not even a pretense of feeling bad. Some of those people had worked for the company for 10, 15 years. At least a handful of those were considered super important high performers. In the end, none of that mattered. It was all about profit and loss. I am not even bitter that they were laid off (it was a business after all), but it was the ugly and inhumane way it was done. All this to say, it is enough to do a good job for what we are paid for. Nothing more, unless you're working on something super important that would benefit mankind, like developing Covid vaccine. Otherwise it is just plain stupid to do more than what is expected.

muzani 5y ago

I feel like this is harmful as a person. This happens a lot in all my jobs. My resume is dotted with me leaving jobs, but it's mostly in response to this phenomenon. I love overdelivering, but it's always punished.

runawaybottle 5y ago
No good deed goes unpunished.