jerome-jhan hour ago
When I started working, more than 25 years ago, we had one team meeting per week (1 hour), very few other meetings. Cellphones were getting mainstream and people had these funny ringtones, but since communications were expensive, phones were not ringing often. The office phone was ringing even more seldomly. We had no ticketing system. Managers just trusted you for doing your work. When going to someone else desk we would start with "may I disturb you?", and the answer may have been "give me five minutes". We had like 2-3 emails a day. It turns out someone had the radio in the office. That was in Belgium and the radio was in Flemish. This was not a big deal since I do not understand Flemish. Despite being rather cramped, I remember this office as quiet. It was not a large open-space though.
I cannot remember the turning point. Of course "agile" did a lot of damage, then ticketing systems, the illusion that developers are swap-able, and now constant notification stream.
Frierenan hour ago
> When I started working, more than 25 years ago, we had one team meeting per week (1 hour), very few other meetings.
When I worked 25 years ago, I had the same experience. But software was way simpler than today. The scale and complexity of current software requires a level of organization and communication that was not needed with simpler needs.
Most software run on a PC with probably no internet connection. Updating the software required to send discs by mail. Everything was slower, and probably more robust. Maybe banking was closer to what we have now, but it was still slower and there were way less transactions.
In contrast, my last 3 jobs required backend services available 24/7 to serve millions of users worldwide. We had many data providers, and we provided services to dozens of big corporations. We had teams dedicated to just integrate to all the partners, wallets, data providers, etc.
Increased complexity requires more communication and more meetings, and more time dedicated to synch all that development. If anyone wants old-style ways of working, with more time coding and less meetings I would recommend to go to small companies with limited reach. Their problems are going to be easier managed by a few developers that can focus on creating new things instead of getting up to date with all the complexity that a big corporation requires.
everdrivean hour ago
>but since communications were expensive, phones were not ringing often.
This is a very important point, and it's crucial for people to understand that merely making something more available can have an outsized effect.
jsight33 minutes ago
TBH, I think covid and the push towards Zoom and others had a similar outsized effect. It made synchronous meetings nearly "free" for many more people.
SoftTalkeran hour ago
Pretty similar to my first couple of jobs. We didn’t even have email. To document when something was done, we printed a diff and wrote a memo, which went into a file (i.e. a folder in a drawer) for that project.
kelseyfrog14 minutes ago
If you're suffering from interruptions like this and not practicing some form of Dzogchen or Mahamudra, you're really doing yourself a disservice. Being able to alternate between awareness and non-awareness is a staple of these forms of meditation, and like all skills can be learned over time.
CollinEMac7 minutes ago
This is my first time ever even seeing these words. Any recommendations on how to get started?
mistersquid12 minutes ago
I found it odd that breaks (e.g. lunch) were not part of the mix.
dav_Ozan hour ago
While at some point in the optimization game Goodhart’s Law will also apply here, before that happens I thoroughly enjoyed the insights from reading it and will try implementing some version of it to gauge my productivity before jumping to another metric always aware of the abyss, the ultimate procrastination: being unproductive by trying too hard to optimize productivity.
Unproductivity is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my unproductivity. I will let it pass through me. When it is gone, only action will remain.
Jump!
cancanan hour ago
Definitely agree with your assessment. That’s the feeling I wanted to convey at the end. The goal is to make people aware it’s not their fault but they have some things they can try to make things better for them.
cancanan hour ago
I am the author of this piece. It was something I put together as a curiosity and wanted to play with Astro. Hope you all enjoyed it!
captainkrtekan hour ago
This is excellent and aligns with my own experience.
During my day I try to minimize interruptions by batching them. I will largely ignore Slack, and as notifications come in I glance and determine quickly if it really is urgent or if it can wait. If it can wait, I will punt all of those messages to a "remind me later" of a few hours, and get back to my task. I think this keeps my "recovery time" small as I'm not looking too close at these messages. It's not perfect, but definitely helps over pausing my "real work" to fully dive into each notification or ask.
OnionBlender31 minutes ago
What is Astro? What did you use to make those graphs?
cancan20 minutes ago
Astro is a JS framework for building websites. It’s dynamic enough for my needs but generates static sites.
I’ve built a custom visualization tool for the graphics.
CGMthrowawayan hour ago
I really like the reframe of controlling notifications/interruptions to minimizing "surprises". Because inside surprises fit not only notifications, but taskswitching, shifting todo lists, head/body movement and even music choices. The effect on the brain is similar for all cases.
deepsun2 hours ago
I remember Jeff Bezos said that something like promoting more communication/collaboration is wrong.
And managers should focus on making people working independently.
dblohm72 hours ago
I'd love to see the original source for that one! Kind of ironic given RTO+bullpen approach we're seeing now.
sfn422 hours ago
I would say both are good, but collaboration should happen naturally. You cant force it. If I want help I'll ask for help, if I want to brainstorm I'll ask a colleague to brainstorm.
Most of the time I just want people to leave me alone so I can get stuff done.
Noe2097an hour ago
Another take on the matter is: interruptions are inevitable, so reducing the "recovery penalty" is key, and can be learned.
That's something that you learn to do when you have a kid: suddenly, your periods of 4 hours of focus free time (for coding, exploring tech, whatever) during the weekend just _disappear_. You only get max 30 minutes of free time in a day; this is extremely frustrating initially; there is no boss to complain to, no meetings to blame, no solution but to deal with it. Progressively, you learn to switch tasks much more efficiently, by making regular check points, so that you can get interrupted any time and get back to deep work _quickly_.
cancan33 minutes ago
Yeah this is something I want to learn more about for sure and is the weakest part of this piece. What have you found that works for you? Or is just that knowing that you’ll get interrupted will force better discipline?
sethammons6 minutes ago
this is part of the promise of the Pomodoro Technique. Named after a tomato shaped kitchen timer, the idea is to work for 25 minutes and then stop for 5 and step away from what you were doing, rinse and repeat. Being able to pick back up becomes important.
behnamohan hour ago
that's too many words to just say "try to manage your time better".
Mountain_Skies39 minutes ago
How many people have control over how their time is managed at the office?