9 ms·

Here's the incident (and litmus test from my cofounder) that permanently changed my workaholic thinking: cofounder: Hey Ed, it's 6:30. Finish up. Let's go next

by edw519 15y ago

Here's the incident (and litmus test from my cofounder) that permanently changed my workaholic thinking: cofounder: Hey Ed, it's 6:30. Finish up. Let's go next door and get a beer. edw519: No, I have to finish <Task X>. cofounder: Do that later. Have a beer with me. edw519: No, I have to finish this now. cofounder: Have a beer with me, then do that tomorrow. edw519: No, this has to be finished tonight. cofounder: Then have a beer with me, and come back after the beer and finish it tonight. edw519: No, I have to finish it first. cofounder: If you have a beer with me and don't finish that, how will our Annual Report be different? edw519: What? cofounder: You heard me. If you have a beer with me and don't finish that tonight, how will our Annual Report be different? edw519: I don't understand. cofounder: Listen one more time and answer the fucking question! If you have a beer with me and don't finish that tonight, how will our Annual Report be different? edw519: It won't be. cofounder: Good. Then let's have that beer now. OK? edw519: OK.

jeffehobbs 15y ago
Who says "You heard me" in IM? This seems fake.
- polyfractal 15y ago
  They were probably talking in real life...since they are talking about getting beers... ? Unless you were making a joke which totally flew past me...
- mattdeboard 15y ago
  Who said it was IM?
  - RollAHardSix 15y ago
    edw519 sounds like a screen-name. I had the first impression of someone talking face-to-face but when you look at the way the speakers name's are presented it looks like it could be an IM conversation. Again, I didn't catch it at first, but once you look back I think you'll see how someone could believe it's IM.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- panacea 15y ago
  Many people have successfully abstracted away the difference between face to face conversation and the stunted (no body language etc.) interface over IM and tend to treat them in a similar way. Especially with people they communicate and interact with in an office environment. The IM 'text line' tends to not limit typical expressive communication as much as you would think (even without smileys). Anyway... begone "it's fake i can tell by the pixels". He may not have copied a literal transcript from his IM logs, but you get the fucking point.
- HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
  I find it interesting that you automatically assume the conversation took place over IM. My immediate mental image when reading it was of (an edw519 faceless blob) sitting in front of a screen and his (equally faceless blob cofounder) leaning in across the doorframe telling him to come get a beer. But that's just me; I'm old :-)
swah 15y ago
me1: Have a beer with me! me2: Okay! every night
mcdillon 15y ago
Damn it edw519, lets drink already! Seriously though, that is the mindset you have to take (there are exceptions) otherwise you'll gradually start to resent everything you've worked for.
- msquared 15y ago
  Keeping in mind that there are exceptions, yes, this is a good mindset. Obviously, there may be things that wind up affecting annual reports if they aren't completed "tonight." It's important to remember that those are the exception, though.
Produce 15y ago
Incidentally and completely off-topic, unless your mental associations are as loose as mine, but I was recently rather shocked to find out that alcohol is a neurotoxin (http://het.sagepub.com/content/26/3/251.abstract http://het.sagepub.com/content/26/3/251.abstract - just google for a mountain worth of references). This is plain scary.
- dsrguru 15y ago
  Alcohol is toxic to virtually every kind of tissue in your body. They say drinking enough to feel drunk is much worse for your long-term health than a moderate dose of recreational powder cocaine. But it feels good, it's legal in most countries so you don't have to risk contaminants on the black market, and lots of people pretend it's not even a drug, so Christian fundamentalists and old people won't even look down on you!
  - stray 15y ago
    Nice try, cocaine dealer.
    - ludwigz 15y ago
      just what I was thinking
  - Produce 15y ago
    That's not what's scary to me. What's scary is the number of people in my country's parliment who drink like fish and, more than that, the number of them who drink at lunch. Some of these studies plainly state that behavioral and decision making side effects have been observed. I hate to sound alarmist, but my country is being run by people with compromised cognitive ability and, I assume, personality. I wonder if there's a threshold at which the toxicity starts or if it's just an inherent quality of alcohol just as the high from huffing paint is an integral part of the brain damage that it causes. Pretending it's not a drug is certainly an interesting perspective considering that it's one of the harder drugs out there.
jongraehl 15y ago
So ... if you're not willing to stop <Task X> for a beer, you won't stop whatever <Task Y> occupies you in the future to write the Annual Report, either. Realizing the truth of this, you demonstrate your willingness to write the Annual Report by having a beer (my misconception; lasted 30 seconds).

by edw519 15y ago

jeffehobbs 15y ago

Who says "You heard me" in IM? This seems fake.

polyfractal 15y ago
They were probably talking in real life...since they are talking about getting beers... ? Unless you were making a joke which totally flew past me...
mattdeboard 15y ago
Who said it was IM?
- RollAHardSix 15y ago
  edw519 sounds like a screen-name. I had the first impression of someone talking face-to-face but when you look at the way the speakers name's are presented it looks like it could be an IM conversation. Again, I didn't catch it at first, but once you look back I think you'll see how someone could believe it's IM.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
panacea 15y ago
Many people have successfully abstracted away the difference between face to face conversation and the stunted (no body language etc.) interface over IM and tend to treat them in a similar way. Especially with people they communicate and interact with in an office environment. The IM 'text line' tends to not limit typical expressive communication as much as you would think (even without smileys). Anyway... begone "it's fake i can tell by the pixels". He may not have copied a literal transcript from his IM logs, but you get the fucking point.
HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
I find it interesting that you automatically assume the conversation took place over IM. My immediate mental image when reading it was of (an edw519 faceless blob) sitting in front of a screen and his (equally faceless blob cofounder) leaning in across the doorframe telling him to come get a beer. But that's just me; I'm old :-)

swah 15y ago

me1: Have a beer with me! me2: Okay! every night

mcdillon 15y ago

Damn it edw519, lets drink already! Seriously though, that is the mindset you have to take (there are exceptions) otherwise you'll gradually start to resent everything you've worked for.

msquared 15y ago
Keeping in mind that there are exceptions, yes, this is a good mindset. Obviously, there may be things that wind up affecting annual reports if they aren't completed "tonight." It's important to remember that those are the exception, though.

Produce 15y ago

Incidentally and completely off-topic, unless your mental associations are as loose as mine, but I was recently rather shocked to find out that alcohol is a neurotoxin (http://het.sagepub.com/content/26/3/251.abstract http://het.sagepub.com/content/26/3/251.abstract - just google for a mountain worth of references). This is plain scary.

dsrguru 15y ago
Alcohol is toxic to virtually every kind of tissue in your body. They say drinking enough to feel drunk is much worse for your long-term health than a moderate dose of recreational powder cocaine. But it feels good, it's legal in most countries so you don't have to risk contaminants on the black market, and lots of people pretend it's not even a drug, so Christian fundamentalists and old people won't even look down on you!
- stray 15y ago
  Nice try, cocaine dealer.
  - ludwigz 15y ago
    just what I was thinking
- Produce 15y ago
  That's not what's scary to me. What's scary is the number of people in my country's parliment who drink like fish and, more than that, the number of them who drink at lunch. Some of these studies plainly state that behavioral and decision making side effects have been observed. I hate to sound alarmist, but my country is being run by people with compromised cognitive ability and, I assume, personality. I wonder if there's a threshold at which the toxicity starts or if it's just an inherent quality of alcohol just as the high from huffing paint is an integral part of the brain damage that it causes. Pretending it's not a drug is certainly an interesting perspective considering that it's one of the harder drugs out there.

jongraehl 15y ago

So ... if you're not willing to stop <Task X> for a beer, you won't stop whatever <Task Y> occupies you in the future to write the Annual Report, either. Realizing the truth of this, you demonstrate your willingness to write the Annual Report by having a beer (my misconception; lasted 30 seconds).