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I think 5 hours of 100% engaged, mentally intense work is about all that can be expected from a person in a day. After 5-6 hours of mentally intense work, ther

I think 5 hours of 100% engaged, mentally intense work is about all that can be expected from a person in a day. After 5-6 hours of mentally intense work, there are diminishing returns. Therefore, I think about 6 hours/day are what should be expected from a developer, including 30-60 minutes of meetings/admin work. Though some companies might need another hour or two-- hopefully such extra time is not mentally intense and is more socially oriented work (such as meetings). "Youtube: How Hard Should You Work? - Jordan Peterson" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1_wjViDfnI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1_wjViDfnI

spurgu 5y ago
Huh, why were you flagged? I "vouched". Anyways that's interesting. I actually did a personal study during the course of 1-2 weeks a couple of years ago. I kept track of how long I felt like I could give my undivided focus to my work and found that the number was 5.5 hours on average. People will be different of course, but that's as long as I felt I'd feel good claiming to have given it 100%. Given that I had to work 8 hours in practice it felt like a bad strategy to give it 100% for 5.5 hours and then whatever (60%?) for the remaining 2.5, so instead I "diluted" that focus intensity throughout the day. You make a good point about the diminishing returns! It sounds reasonable to me that it would likely be better to do 1 hours the next day instead of continuing by creating a mess on the remaining 2.5. It's hard to measure, but from personal experience I'd say that it'd be worth more (given all externalities) to pay me for 100% focus over 5.5 hours compared to [whatever%] over 8.
- stopglobalism 5y ago
  HN is weird about flagging. I'm a bit skeptical about the folks who flag things on this platform-- they are biased and may even have an agenda. Fortunately looks like my original reply has been unflagged. That's fantastic about your personal research into the matter of length of time of sustained focus.

spurgu 5y ago

Huh, why were you flagged? I "vouched". Anyways that's interesting. I actually did a personal study during the course of 1-2 weeks a couple of years ago. I kept track of how long I felt like I could give my undivided focus to my work and found that the number was 5.5 hours on average. People will be different of course, but that's as long as I felt I'd feel good claiming to have given it 100%. Given that I had to work 8 hours in practice it felt like a bad strategy to give it 100% for 5.5 hours and then whatever (60%?) for the remaining 2.5, so instead I "diluted" that focus intensity throughout the day. You make a good point about the diminishing returns! It sounds reasonable to me that it would likely be better to do 1 hours the next day instead of continuing by creating a mess on the remaining 2.5. It's hard to measure, but from personal experience I'd say that it'd be worth more (given all externalities) to pay me for 100% focus over 5.5 hours compared to [whatever%] over 8.

stopglobalism 5y ago
HN is weird about flagging. I'm a bit skeptical about the folks who flag things on this platform-- they are biased and may even have an agenda. Fortunately looks like my original reply has been unflagged. That's fantastic about your personal research into the matter of length of time of sustained focus.