13 ms·
Work less, get more done: Analytics for maximizing productivity (2009)
- hobofan 4y ago(2009)
- truth777 4y ago[dead]
- 1970-01-01 4y agoInteresting that the term 'meme' appears in this text, which didn't get much traction until 2010s https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=meme https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=m...
- kirubakaran 4y agoThe Selfish Gene was published in 1976 though
- fluidcruft 4y ago"meme" is an ancient term that predates the Internet. It was a well-established thing even back in high school English in '95 when we read and discussed Naked Lunch.
- swsieber 4y agoAnother data point is the "Adherents of the Repeated Meme" from Dr. Who in 2005. https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_End_of_the_World_(TV_story) https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_End_of_the_World_(TV_stor... And it is in line with the earlier, non-internet definition of "an element of a culture or system of behavior passed from one individual to another by imitation or other nongenetic means." (There's another definition related to funny things being repeated, as opposed to behavior).
- vocram 4y agoDespite this making a lot of sense, I’m afraid you can only apply it to your own business. No one paying you a fixed wage will ever agree that working less hours for them is better than working more.
- onion2k 4y agoNo one paying you a fixed wage will ever agree that working less hours for them is better than working more. When I was running startups a decade ago I would regularly ask devs not to work so many hours. Grind culture was a thing, and it made our code much worse. The effect of lack of sleep and a shitty work/life balance is abundantly obvious in a PR.
- jdthedisciple 4y ago> The effect of lack of sleep and a shitty work/life balance is abundantly obvious in a PR. It is high time more bosses understood this
- barbazoo 4y agoMany have and it's up to devs to some degree to pick the right job honestly. Obviously you won't work at FAANG but that's more than ok for many.
- e12e 4y agoFAANG prefer inferior quality code and more LOCs per week over better code?
- joenot443 4y agoAnecdotal, but as I’ve moved from a series A, to an established startup, to a unicorn, to FAANG, I’ve found myself shipping code at a lower velocity every step of the way. At my first job I was the second contributor to a project which didn’t do PRs. If it worked, just push it. My present process is a bit more involved!
- 4y ago
- gitfan86 4y ago1. Momentum and Urgency seem to matter a lot in productivity and procrastination. 2. Focusing on outcomes rather than working just to work leads to focusing on useful work. When you combine these things you can end up in a situation where. Person A worked 5 hours and 80% of their work was useful = 4 units Person B worked 50 hours and 10% of their work was useful = 5 units Which one is correct depends on the goal. Is the goal efficiency or useful output?
- datruth29 4y agoI guess the answer for that would be what did Person A spend the other 45 hours on, and is that extra unit Person 5 generated worth the additional 45 hours spent on it.
- onion2k 4y agoWhich one is correct depends on the goal. Which is correct depends on who's paying. If you're a startup you want lots of Person A. If you're a consultancy you want lots of Person B.
- Tilman_launch 4y agoUnproductive work can multiply, so your colleagues start wasting time, too. For example, if not carefully managed, initiatives that started for valid information, optimization or standardization efforts can turn into wasteful data collection busy work with little or no returns.
- bob1029 4y agoUrgency/mission is probably the biggest one for me, especially when elements of desperation and impossibility are involved. Working on easy or routine problems for 40 hours per week is torture to me. The ratio between my productivity extremes can be most conveniently described as "infinite". If you want to know the root cause of the 10x, 100x, whateverx developer, this is almost certainly it. Someone was likely inspired to work on a super hard thing and just kept going. They don't have some weird genetic defect or unfair educational advantage.
- miroljub 4y agoWhy? Would my salary be higher if I become more productive? No. My salary is fixed. I get my bonus even with a minimal effort. Will I work less if I become more productive? No. I still have to spend 8 hours par day at work. Will I get more work to do if I become more productive? Yes. As soon as I report something as finished, I get more work. And expectations grow. Being more productive doesn't benefit me, my coworkers, even my company or the society as a whole. It only leads to more stress and strain. Then why would I want to be more productive? I'm fine spending my 35-40 hours "working" and making "work" for me and my coworkers as comfortable as possible. And when I go home, I'm not tired, but refreshed and ready to go on with my life. EDIT: I'm saying this as actually one of the top performers at my company. It's politics and bullshitting that gets you more money and promotions, not hard work. But that's the game I refuse to play. Instead, I focus on doing the least amount of work I can get away with. Say "Wally" from Dilbert, but without being an asshole.
- MadSudaca 4y agoSo that in the situation that you get fired (possible based on the attitude you show here), no one else wants to hire you (unlikely I admit), and you have to work for yourself, you can get more done for each hour of your time, since your livelihood may depend on it. At the same time, honoring the fairly recent trend of increasing human productivity that has allowed us to have SIGNIFICANTLY better quality of life than our distant and not so distant ancestors.
- miroljub 4y ago> At the same time, honoring the fairly recent trend of increasing human productivity that has allowed us to have SIGNIFICANTLY better quality of life than our distant and not so distant ancestors. According to actual data, increased productivity since 1980 didn't result in increasing salaries [1], and since I work for salary, I don't care about increasing my productivity at work if it doesn't directly result in increased compensation. [1] https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/ https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
- 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- commandlinefan 4y ago> Work less, get more done "Or even better, work more and get even MORE done!" - your boss
- 972811 4y agoi do find it a little strange that he mentioned 4 hour workweek as hucksterism and then 2/3 of his points are some of the main tenets of the book (outsourcing and automation)
- cwp 4y agoHe also mentioned that it contained "an ounce of solid productivity gold". So if it communicates the same advice in a blog post instead of a book, well, that seems reasonable.
- momentmaker 4y agoThe problem with trying to measure productivity is that it measures only how well people can do the wrong jobs. Any job that can be measured for productivity probably should be eliminated from the list of jobs that people do. The task for each worker in the industrial age was to discover how to do his job better: that’s productivity. Frederick Taylor revolutionized industry by using his scientific method to optimize mechanical work. But in the network economy, where machines do most of the inhumane work of manufacturing, the question for each worker is not “How do I do this job right?” but “What is the right job to do?” Answering this question is, of course, extremely hard to do. It’s called an executive function. In the past, only the top 10% of the workforce was expected to make such decisions. Now, everyone, not just executives, must decide what is the right next thing to do.
- layer8 4y agoTldr: > Productivity Technique #1: Outsource. Aka “delegate”. > Productivity Technique #2: Automate Your Processes. > Productivity Technique #3: Eliminate Unproductive Uses of Time. Nothing unusual here, except maybe for the conclusion: > Worker Smarter, Not Harder. Then Go Home.
- danielovichdk 4y ago"Then again, programmers at most companies work on a schedule designed to maximize the productivity of illiterate 18th century water loom operators, so expecting rationality might be excessively optimistic." Brilliant
- hummus_bae 4y ago[dead]
- born_to_flirt 4y ago[dead]
- Kingofallking 4y ago[dead]
- OneTruePerson 4y ago[dead]
- BadGuy4U 4y ago[dead]
- SoExcited 4y ago[dead]
- DungeonDevil3 4y ago[dead]
- IzzaBigDeal8 4y ago[dead]
- SoHapppyy2 4y ago[dead]