4 ms·

Last summer, I finished a 3-month internship in Japan, and it was the most productive 3 months of my life. I'm currently a college student, so my work ethic is

Last summer, I finished a 3-month internship in Japan, and it was the most productive 3 months of my life. I'm currently a college student, so my work ethic is a little poor. Procrastination and "seeming busy" is standard fare for my day. It's far too easy for me to get distracted by checking Facebook, Twitter, or even tangential data sheets. Yet, despite my bad habits, the environment at my job forced me to get down and churn through code. Some of my officemates could fit the salaryman stereotype[1], but all of them posessed a capability for relentless focus. I initially tried to settle in by "shooting the breeze" and making smalltalk, but they seemed to prefer communicating through their work: some code, but more importantly, well-done demos. In the span of those 3 months, while I always brought headphones with me, I never ended up using them: the silence of the office carried a note of tension, the sound of concentration. Listening to this proved to make me more productive than I'd normally be, if I were listening to (even quiet) music. I came in expecting to be maybe 20% efficient, as the OP mentions: a few minutes here, a half hour there. At the end, it was nearer to 75-80%: instead of procrastinating, I set goals for myself to get things done, because that was really the best way to get through to my neighbors. While I don't think that this sort of pressure cooker environment is well-suited for all people, I think it speaks volumes to how positive peer pressure, in more ways than one, can force people to shape up. I'm not sure I would've survived for a 6 months or a year, but it very quickly eliminated my excuses. If everyone around you is working their best, it's hard not to get dragged along. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaryman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaryman

ky3 14y ago
I think it speaks volumes to how positive peer pressure, in more ways than one, can force people to shape up. So the key takeaway is the positive peer influence, not so much Japan and its whatever-ness. There's a certain dream about playing hard, working hard, and getting swept along with it. Smalltalk included.
- cyanoacry 14y ago
  This is definitely true, but I've been hard-pressed to find a similar environment in the States, even in labs and hackathons. There's an almost oppressive social pressure to getting the job done in Japan, because you _must_ work as hard as your boss, who is working as hard as their boss, etc. A lot of people fight back against the sort of no-frills culture I saw (Google perks, work-at-home attitudes, etc.), so it surprised me that it was so efficient. A part of me expected cubicles and quiet work environments to force an Office Space result.

ky3 14y ago

I think it speaks volumes to how positive peer pressure, in more ways than one, can force people to shape up. So the key takeaway is the positive peer influence, not so much Japan and its whatever-ness. There's a certain dream about playing hard, working hard, and getting swept along with it. Smalltalk included.

cyanoacry 14y ago
This is definitely true, but I've been hard-pressed to find a similar environment in the States, even in labs and hackathons. There's an almost oppressive social pressure to getting the job done in Japan, because you _must_ work as hard as your boss, who is working as hard as their boss, etc. A lot of people fight back against the sort of no-frills culture I saw (Google perks, work-at-home attitudes, etc.), so it surprised me that it was so efficient. A part of me expected cubicles and quiet work environments to force an Office Space result.