I've noticed people bullshitting at stand ups and I've done it myself at the one somewhat toxic place I worked at that mandated them. But never consistently ove

I've noticed people bullshitting at stand ups and I've done it myself at the one somewhat toxic place I worked at that mandated them. But never consistently over a longer stretch of time. I think occasionally this is normal, and as a (now) CTO I accept it, we're not macnines. That said, I had a similar feeling once, and then I actually started tracking my time, just for myself. Even reading HN I counted as "personal development". While I did spend about as little time coding as I thought I would, I was surprised how off my feeling about how much time I work was. I easily tracked 10 more hours per week than I thought I was doing. Not sure you're interested in trying that, but I can really recommend it. Made me a lot more conscious how I spend my time. 10 hours per week solving important problems beats 40 hours of stuff that leads nowhere. While it's hard to count, I also wouldn't discount all the thinking I, and probably others, do both consciously and unconsciously, that allow us to get several hours of work done in half an hour, already having found the right approach without touching the keyboard. Anyway, regardless of what hours you actually work - if the company you work for is happy with your results and you're happy with the pay, I would argue that's all that matters. Great for you if 5-10 hours per week is actually all it takes for you.