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Could the university you work for provide you with a second machine whilst the first machine runs experiments?

• JimboOmega 14y ago
  Even if so, as the article notes, if you switch to some other, yet still "productive" task, you are still task switching and losing a lot of momentum on the original task. Also there will always be distractions; daydreaming if nothing else. At a previous employer my main work machine was not connected to the Internet (a nightmare for other reasons, like if I was on the Internet-enabled machine, may as well check email...). But even then, when waiting for a test that would take several minutes, I'd find myself reading a print newspaper. These forced delays kill productivity for me like nothing else. Losing the task at hand every couple of minutes to retest or really slows down output.
  • randomsearch 14y ago
    I agree with you, that the delays are a pain. Recently, though, I've stop listening to most of the "productivity advice" and warnings about multitasking, splitting your time into chunks, and the myriad of other approaches. The best bit of advice I have heard is just to get on with it, work hard, and stop procrastinating about it. Too much meta is not good.
• randomsearch 14y ago
  > Could the university you work for provide you with a second machine whilst the first machine runs experiments? Sure. They do, in fact. And I use clusters for large experimentation. However, a great rule of thumb as a researcher is to try to limit yourself to using a single laptop for your work and experiments. One advantage: your development machine and experimental machine are then identical, and they both travel with you. Academics travel a lot.