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Main idea: we should be tasked with less volume of work. And the author suggests that since less volume -> less stress -> higher efficacy, there won't actually

Main idea: we should be tasked with less volume of work. And the author suggests that since less volume -> less stress -> higher efficacy, there won't actually be a drop in net productivity. He's not necessarily wrong, however I can't help but think he's missing the meta we're all playing within: profit is the motive (not human flourishing). It's profitable to drastically overwork people, such that you cull the bottom 10% and get fresh blood in the revolving door. While that costs money as opposed to retaining, it makes more to push the other 90%. Several bosses have explicitly told me they intentionally set an unrealistically aggressive delivery date because of the phenomenon of people taking as much as time as they're given. So push hard, inevitably fall short, make some cuts at the very end, ship it, profit. This is the behavioral model which has produced so many successful businesses. Imagine "slow productivity" in a startup? They'd fail. Now imagine no startups.

NewEntryHN 5y ago
> Several bosses have explicitly told me they intentionally set an unrealistically aggressive delivery date because of the phenomenon of people taking as much as time as they're given. That's because even the "non-aggressive, realistic delivery dates" are actually an under-estimation of the amount of work. Practically all deadlines are too soon, and how much you allow to stress out employees parametrizes how much too soon.
- daniel-cussen 5y ago
  Hmm well certainly in education the deadlines are realistic. But it's because they've done the same task before.
  - quickthrower2 5y ago
    That's the key. In software if you want good estimates, get developers to build the same app again and again, throwing away the source code each time.
joe_the_user 5y ago
It's profitable to drastically overwork people, such that you cull the bottom 10% and get fresh blood in the revolving door. Indeed, supermarkets, hospitals, meat packing plants and other key parts of production have run on this. The covid crisis has meant that door has stopped being as willing to revolve. But still nothing has changed 'cause this society runs on profits and these places, using this strategy, wind-up being the key profit centers.
Wavelets 5y ago
> Several bosses have explicitly told me they intentionally set an unrealistically aggressive delivery date because of the phenomenon of people taking as much as time as they're given. Some people call this “phenomenon” planning against the deadline.
- n8cpdx 5y ago
  Shouldn’t you plan to get the job done as quickly as you can while meeting quality expectations? If I have 10 hours to make a car trip, but it only takes 5, I don’t drive at half the speed limit. Sure, there may be some extra bathroom and snack breaks, but probably not 5 hours worth. I see people underperforming due to low expectations quite often, possibly following the classic 80/20 rule. I think this “planning against the deadline” behavior is one of the difference-makers between a hungry startup that outperforms, and the legacy player that barely keeps up despite having 10x the staff.
  - mcbishop 5y ago
    So you're ultimately saying people should be given 5 hours for the car trip, even though giving them 10 would only result in a ~6-6.5 hour trip with healthy bladder relief?
    - n8cpdx 5y ago
      No, I’m saying if you have 10 hours to do something that can be done in 5, but is optimally done in 6.5, take 6.5 hours and use the remaining 3.5 to do something useful. Maybe you’ll go on a sightseeing tour at your destination; maybe you’ll resolve a customer-reported bug you didn’t think you had time for this release.
      - mcbishop 5y ago
        I see, thanks.
  - Wavelets 5y ago
    No, you should treat people like adults, set a deadline, and let them execute to that deadline. Many people balance multiple tasks, objectives, and goals and so taking 10 hours for a task that was assigned 10 hours is perfectly reasonable. If you keep planning 10 hour car rides and they continuously come in at 5 hours, you're bad at estimating.
dv_dt 5y ago
Lol no, then the estimators learn to pad their estimates in order to maintain some semblance of an orderly process and management just ends up managing having completely screwed up their scheduling measurements as a predictor of anything. So that practice leads to management in the dark about wether a project is actually at risk for completing on time. Edit: if you want trust and fast quality execution you can help the team develop best case, median, and worst case timelines.
- NAHWheatCracker 5y ago
  It's disgusting how people drive away from truth and it causes other people to have to make wild corrections to manage the lies. It snowballs into meaninglessness. I once gave a detailed estimate of a project I thought would take 2-6 months. I called out the major blockers, explained the highest variability parts of the project, and made suggestions about how we could reduce variability. Rather than address any of the points I made, the managers focused on nailing me down to a single estimate. Presumably they had to sell it as a quarter-long project. I sat in the office of the engineering manager, and explained that any single estimate would be a lie. He told me that it wasn't a lie, it's just my best guess. I said my best guess is 2-6 months. He asked for 3 months. I said he can use whatever he wants, but my estimate is the same. I think they ended up using 3 months. The ordeal complete drained my energy and the project went no where. My future estimates went through the roof and they eventually stopped asking. Now projects don't have any believable plans.
  - arius 5y ago
    In such case I would recommend to under promise and over deliver. Your estimate conveys that it's risky selling it as a 3 months project and risk free as 6 months. It's in your best interest to sell it as 6 months and have a chance to complete it in 3. You could bargain 5 months by taking few risk. Nonetheless a good manager should have understood your estimation range and act accordingly.
    - NAHWheatCracker 5y ago
      I think that's a good approach as well. I don't want to belabor the point, but I had been ignored on previous project estimations as well. Management was going to use whatever estimate they wanted. My focus was on the blockers and risks.
pm90 5y ago
Prioritizing profits (capital) over well-being is probably a very strong reason in favor of the labor movement. I am glad that Starbucks is unionizing: more unions for the service industry is desperately required.
morelish 5y ago
Read Henry Ford's autobiography. You'd think he'd agree with you. He'd want to overwork his employees to produce more cars. But, actually, he was much more of a perfectionist around all the things that go into producing things efficiently. And over-working employees certainly wasn't efficient, partly because turn over is high and also work place injuries go up. (For example, he introduce a 40 hour working week https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/01/24/henry-ford/ https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/01/24/henry-ford/.) There is certainly a culture of over-working employees in some businesses. But is it really a _universal_ rule of capitalism that overworking people is profitable? Look at Germany. Highly productive economy, very strong labour laws and no (/limited) culture of overworking. Have you not missed the 'meta' the article is talking about: that it's an Americanism to think that more hours == more product. "Image 'slow productivity' in a startup" - what? How long did it take the inventor of bluetooth to invent bluetooth? How long did it take scientists to develop the internet? How long did it take the people to develop computers and electronics? People talk about "fast" productivity in start-ups because there's money involved and investors are greedy and no-one wants anything slowly. But, you know what, plenty of good products take 10 years to make or more. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/07/21/good-software-takes-ten-years-get-used-to-it/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/07/21/good-software-take... Successful businesses aren't merely defined by being profit maximising. It's fine to create a good business slowly that has a positive net impact on society. That's in some ways better than a business that abuses everyone to make a small circle rich. If you judge the success of a business merely by it's profitability, you're a fool. There's more to life than profit. "I can't help but think he's missing the meta we're all playing within: profit is the motive (not human flourishing)." No, we are not all playing within that 'meta'. We reject that. Playing purely for profit is often sick and deranged. Get a life. Experience something more meaningful than just profit. Reject those procrustean views. Yes, we all need to make enough to get by, and that means making some profit. But no, we don't have to define or constrain ourselves to being trapped in a pure-profit game. That's for the foolish.
- wnolens 5y ago
  Perhaps my tone was lost, but I was describing the typical American tech company, not what I think is right. I'm agree with your values, but I don't think the economy is setup to support those values. Looks like Henry Ford discovered that profit was affected by overworking. He was still maximizing that function, no? Sometimes that function includes making the worker happier, but sometimes it is inversely related. re: startups, my point was that they have near zero chance of succeeding against large incumbents by moving at a leisurely pace. Sure, great technologies can be invented slowly. But once great tech is given VC money, it's a race. That race has created such a lead between the US and every other country in the tech world.
haswell 5y ago
But at what cost? Don’t get me wrong. I fully believe that what you described here is the rationale used by most management types to make decisions. But the thing that gets lost is the overhead and time spent on the quality problems created by this model. I often wonder how much more profit could be realized if teams remained focused on delivering quality and predictable output instead of inevitably evolving into firefighters who can’t innovate because all of the past shortcuts and aggressive timelines have made that impossible. If I could summarize all of this, I would pose it as a simple question: Has anyone proven that the current model actually delivers better profits than the alternative? We hypothesize that it does, because money is being made, but rarely if ever take a step back to confirm that this is true. Not long ago, most employers also felt strongly that employees must be in an office to be productive.
- serverholic 5y ago
  It's not actually about profits. Each worker is trying to maximize their status while minimizing risk. I'd venture to guess most software teams could be replaced with a team of talented engineers 1/4th their size. However, that will never happen. Why? Shrinking your team psychologically signals to your boss that you're less important. Also, you want extra redundancy because that makes each team member more replaceable. You also don't want to accelerate development too much, otherwise you might end up with a pace that is unsustainable. This risks missed deadlines. It's better to keep engineers occupied with firefighting and rally the troops only if you need a burst of productivity. I'm not saying I support this but this is what I've figured out in my time as a software developer on a wide variety of teams.
  - NAHWheatCracker 5y ago
    It's wild to me that this is the case, but my observation is the same. So many people are employed just to keep team sizes up and prop up dead projects. I spent all 2021 working on a project with 10 other developers plus management. Another team was building a replacement at the same time. The existing project was a non-starter for technical and political reasons. The existing project didn't have many real deliverables. The majority of the work was refactoring that would only pay off if we had years of usage of the original product. Maybe it makes sense that it was better to throw literally millions of dollars at that project to keep the developers busy until the new project was ready to scale up.
mbrodersen 5y ago
It is expensive to constantly hire new employees and waiting for them to get up to speed. Having a stable group of expert employees who know the systems inside out, and know how to work well together, is a huge competitive advantage. Pushing employees beyond steady state is a clear sign of incompetent management.

NewEntryHN 5y ago

> Several bosses have explicitly told me they intentionally set an unrealistically aggressive delivery date because of the phenomenon of people taking as much as time as they're given. That's because even the "non-aggressive, realistic delivery dates" are actually an under-estimation of the amount of work. Practically all deadlines are too soon, and how much you allow to stress out employees parametrizes how much too soon.

daniel-cussen 5y ago
Hmm well certainly in education the deadlines are realistic. But it's because they've done the same task before.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  That's the key. In software if you want good estimates, get developers to build the same app again and again, throwing away the source code each time.

joe_the_user 5y ago

It's profitable to drastically overwork people, such that you cull the bottom 10% and get fresh blood in the revolving door. Indeed, supermarkets, hospitals, meat packing plants and other key parts of production have run on this. The covid crisis has meant that door has stopped being as willing to revolve. But still nothing has changed 'cause this society runs on profits and these places, using this strategy, wind-up being the key profit centers.

Wavelets 5y ago

n8cpdx 5y ago
Shouldn’t you plan to get the job done as quickly as you can while meeting quality expectations? If I have 10 hours to make a car trip, but it only takes 5, I don’t drive at half the speed limit. Sure, there may be some extra bathroom and snack breaks, but probably not 5 hours worth. I see people underperforming due to low expectations quite often, possibly following the classic 80/20 rule. I think this “planning against the deadline” behavior is one of the difference-makers between a hungry startup that outperforms, and the legacy player that barely keeps up despite having 10x the staff.
- mcbishop 5y ago
  So you're ultimately saying people should be given 5 hours for the car trip, even though giving them 10 would only result in a ~6-6.5 hour trip with healthy bladder relief?
  - n8cpdx 5y ago
    No, I’m saying if you have 10 hours to do something that can be done in 5, but is optimally done in 6.5, take 6.5 hours and use the remaining 3.5 to do something useful. Maybe you’ll go on a sightseeing tour at your destination; maybe you’ll resolve a customer-reported bug you didn’t think you had time for this release.
    - mcbishop 5y ago
      I see, thanks.
- Wavelets 5y ago
  No, you should treat people like adults, set a deadline, and let them execute to that deadline. Many people balance multiple tasks, objectives, and goals and so taking 10 hours for a task that was assigned 10 hours is perfectly reasonable. If you keep planning 10 hour car rides and they continuously come in at 5 hours, you're bad at estimating.

dv_dt 5y ago

Lol no, then the estimators learn to pad their estimates in order to maintain some semblance of an orderly process and management just ends up managing having completely screwed up their scheduling measurements as a predictor of anything. So that practice leads to management in the dark about wether a project is actually at risk for completing on time. Edit: if you want trust and fast quality execution you can help the team develop best case, median, and worst case timelines.

NAHWheatCracker 5y ago
It's disgusting how people drive away from truth and it causes other people to have to make wild corrections to manage the lies. It snowballs into meaninglessness. I once gave a detailed estimate of a project I thought would take 2-6 months. I called out the major blockers, explained the highest variability parts of the project, and made suggestions about how we could reduce variability. Rather than address any of the points I made, the managers focused on nailing me down to a single estimate. Presumably they had to sell it as a quarter-long project. I sat in the office of the engineering manager, and explained that any single estimate would be a lie. He told me that it wasn't a lie, it's just my best guess. I said my best guess is 2-6 months. He asked for 3 months. I said he can use whatever he wants, but my estimate is the same. I think they ended up using 3 months. The ordeal complete drained my energy and the project went no where. My future estimates went through the roof and they eventually stopped asking. Now projects don't have any believable plans.
- arius 5y ago
  In such case I would recommend to under promise and over deliver. Your estimate conveys that it's risky selling it as a 3 months project and risk free as 6 months. It's in your best interest to sell it as 6 months and have a chance to complete it in 3. You could bargain 5 months by taking few risk. Nonetheless a good manager should have understood your estimation range and act accordingly.
  - NAHWheatCracker 5y ago
    I think that's a good approach as well. I don't want to belabor the point, but I had been ignored on previous project estimations as well. Management was going to use whatever estimate they wanted. My focus was on the blockers and risks.

pm90 5y ago

Prioritizing profits (capital) over well-being is probably a very strong reason in favor of the labor movement. I am glad that Starbucks is unionizing: more unions for the service industry is desperately required.

morelish 5y ago

Read Henry Ford's autobiography. You'd think he'd agree with you. He'd want to overwork his employees to produce more cars. But, actually, he was much more of a perfectionist around all the things that go into producing things efficiently. And over-working employees certainly wasn't efficient, partly because turn over is high and also work place injuries go up. (For example, he introduce a 40 hour working week https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/01/24/henry-ford/ https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/01/24/henry-ford/.) There is certainly a culture of over-working employees in some businesses. But is it really a _universal_ rule of capitalism that overworking people is profitable? Look at Germany. Highly productive economy, very strong labour laws and no (/limited) culture of overworking. Have you not missed the 'meta' the article is talking about: that it's an Americanism to think that more hours == more product. "Image 'slow productivity' in a startup" - what? How long did it take the inventor of bluetooth to invent bluetooth? How long did it take scientists to develop the internet? How long did it take the people to develop computers and electronics? People talk about "fast" productivity in start-ups because there's money involved and investors are greedy and no-one wants anything slowly. But, you know what, plenty of good products take 10 years to make or more. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/07/21/good-software-takes-ten-years-get-used-to-it/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/07/21/good-software-take... Successful businesses aren't merely defined by being profit maximising. It's fine to create a good business slowly that has a positive net impact on society. That's in some ways better than a business that abuses everyone to make a small circle rich. If you judge the success of a business merely by it's profitability, you're a fool. There's more to life than profit. "I can't help but think he's missing the meta we're all playing within: profit is the motive (not human flourishing)." No, we are not all playing within that 'meta'. We reject that. Playing purely for profit is often sick and deranged. Get a life. Experience something more meaningful than just profit. Reject those procrustean views. Yes, we all need to make enough to get by, and that means making some profit. But no, we don't have to define or constrain ourselves to being trapped in a pure-profit game. That's for the foolish.

wnolens 5y ago
Perhaps my tone was lost, but I was describing the typical American tech company, not what I think is right. I'm agree with your values, but I don't think the economy is setup to support those values. Looks like Henry Ford discovered that profit was affected by overworking. He was still maximizing that function, no? Sometimes that function includes making the worker happier, but sometimes it is inversely related. re: startups, my point was that they have near zero chance of succeeding against large incumbents by moving at a leisurely pace. Sure, great technologies can be invented slowly. But once great tech is given VC money, it's a race. That race has created such a lead between the US and every other country in the tech world.

haswell 5y ago

But at what cost? Don’t get me wrong. I fully believe that what you described here is the rationale used by most management types to make decisions. But the thing that gets lost is the overhead and time spent on the quality problems created by this model. I often wonder how much more profit could be realized if teams remained focused on delivering quality and predictable output instead of inevitably evolving into firefighters who can’t innovate because all of the past shortcuts and aggressive timelines have made that impossible. If I could summarize all of this, I would pose it as a simple question: Has anyone proven that the current model actually delivers better profits than the alternative? We hypothesize that it does, because money is being made, but rarely if ever take a step back to confirm that this is true. Not long ago, most employers also felt strongly that employees must be in an office to be productive.

serverholic 5y ago
It's not actually about profits. Each worker is trying to maximize their status while minimizing risk. I'd venture to guess most software teams could be replaced with a team of talented engineers 1/4th their size. However, that will never happen. Why? Shrinking your team psychologically signals to your boss that you're less important. Also, you want extra redundancy because that makes each team member more replaceable. You also don't want to accelerate development too much, otherwise you might end up with a pace that is unsustainable. This risks missed deadlines. It's better to keep engineers occupied with firefighting and rally the troops only if you need a burst of productivity. I'm not saying I support this but this is what I've figured out in my time as a software developer on a wide variety of teams.
- NAHWheatCracker 5y ago
  It's wild to me that this is the case, but my observation is the same. So many people are employed just to keep team sizes up and prop up dead projects. I spent all 2021 working on a project with 10 other developers plus management. Another team was building a replacement at the same time. The existing project was a non-starter for technical and political reasons. The existing project didn't have many real deliverables. The majority of the work was refactoring that would only pay off if we had years of usage of the original product. Maybe it makes sense that it was better to throw literally millions of dollars at that project to keep the developers busy until the new project was ready to scale up.

mbrodersen 5y ago

It is expensive to constantly hire new employees and waiting for them to get up to speed. Having a stable group of expert employees who know the systems inside out, and know how to work well together, is a huge competitive advantage. Pushing employees beyond steady state is a clear sign of incompetent management.