3 ms·

A bit OT, but how does 4x10 work for developers? I feel like realistically no one can write code for 8 hours a day anyway, so what does a 10 hour day look like?

A bit OT, but how does 4x10 work for developers? I feel like realistically no one can write code for 8 hours a day anyway, so what does a 10 hour day look like? More meetings? More browsing Hacker News? More hanging around on Slack in case someone pings you so you can pretend you're "at work"? Or maybe I'm just way too cynical and people actually got more done in a 10 hour day than they would in an 8 hour day?

eyelidlessness 5y ago
Historically I’ve been a workaholic, though I’m gratefully recovered (probably for life at this point, I’m very tired and very persistently burned out). Saying that for context, to say this: regardless of any individual’s baseline productivity, the only reasons 8x5 vs 4x10 will make any difference are - they have strong feelings about it either way: they’ll perform according to their wishes regardless. - they have demanding commitments to non-work concerns: they’ll perform better with the schedule that fits their other concerns. - they have free time they’d prefer to spend working: they’ll overperform regardless, at least until they burn out.
CoastalCoder 5y ago
I'm curious as well. On a really good day, I can get about 6 hours of solid focused work before my brain gets too tired.
MattGaiser 5y ago
I would much prefer it actually and in practice many days I do. I will also work a lot at night. The reason I prefer it is that I can just focus on that one thing and keep the context in my head. Even very degraded, I seemingly can get a lot of work done simply by having lots of focus time rather than being interrupted every hour or so.
ianleeclark 5y ago
> A bit OT, but how does 4x10 work for developers? I feel like realistically no one can write code for 8 hours a day anyway, so what does a 10 hour day look like? I've been doing it for nearly 4 years, and it works great for me. The third day of rest is worth its weight in gold, and, on the very rare occasion I do a normal 5x8, I always feel much more drained when I come back. From a work perspective, I can do 10 hour days of coding without too much of a hassle, but I have a lot of things that pull me away from it: lunch, drink breaks, standup, 1-2 hours a day for meetings (sometimes more, usually lower-bounded), writing documentation, doing code reviews, responding to queries on slack, doing some git archaeology, etc. There's a lot more to the job than just writing code.
- swader999 5y ago
  A lot of people working 5x8 are actually in the "office" or online for more than eight hours a day.

eyelidlessness 5y ago

Historically I’ve been a workaholic, though I’m gratefully recovered (probably for life at this point, I’m very tired and very persistently burned out). Saying that for context, to say this: regardless of any individual’s baseline productivity, the only reasons 8x5 vs 4x10 will make any difference are - they have strong feelings about it either way: they’ll perform according to their wishes regardless. - they have demanding commitments to non-work concerns: they’ll perform better with the schedule that fits their other concerns. - they have free time they’d prefer to spend working: they’ll overperform regardless, at least until they burn out.

CoastalCoder 5y ago

I'm curious as well. On a really good day, I can get about 6 hours of solid focused work before my brain gets too tired.

MattGaiser 5y ago

I would much prefer it actually and in practice many days I do. I will also work a lot at night. The reason I prefer it is that I can just focus on that one thing and keep the context in my head. Even very degraded, I seemingly can get a lot of work done simply by having lots of focus time rather than being interrupted every hour or so.

ianleeclark 5y ago

> A bit OT, but how does 4x10 work for developers? I feel like realistically no one can write code for 8 hours a day anyway, so what does a 10 hour day look like? I've been doing it for nearly 4 years, and it works great for me. The third day of rest is worth its weight in gold, and, on the very rare occasion I do a normal 5x8, I always feel much more drained when I come back. From a work perspective, I can do 10 hour days of coding without too much of a hassle, but I have a lot of things that pull me away from it: lunch, drink breaks, standup, 1-2 hours a day for meetings (sometimes more, usually lower-bounded), writing documentation, doing code reviews, responding to queries on slack, doing some git archaeology, etc. There's a lot more to the job than just writing code.

swader999 5y ago
A lot of people working 5x8 are actually in the "office" or online for more than eight hours a day.