[HN Gopher] The Frustration with Productivity Culture ___________________________________________________________________ The Frustration with Productivity Culture Author : x43b Score : 52 points Date : 2021-09-14 20:13 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com) | throwaway_2009 wrote: | "Sick system" effect as far as I've seen is far more prevalent at | low-paid, low-status workplaces. | | The more you stand up for your time, both within a specific job | and via choice of employer, the less stressful your life will be. | | In my experience, this extends to, well, everything. Put up with | bullshit relationships and they'll consume you. Entertain rogue | family members' nonsense and they'll push until you can no | longer. | | You can respect yourself and be kind at the same time. Charity | begins at home and all that. | mikkergp wrote: | Maybe I'm workaholic, but do people like friction in their work? | I mean, we should certainly push back against anyone that thinks | that we should increase productivity through sheer force of will | (or hours, or sacrificing mind and body). But I've always found | the meta-work to be the most interesting part of the work. | Especially if it means I can spend more time in a state of | productive flow. | mcbishop wrote: | Is the article essentially arguing that work should be made | easier for knowledge workers -- so they aren't as stressed out? I | assume it'd fall on these knowledge workers to build the better | systems that would simplify their day-to-day work. | theonlybutlet wrote: | Definitely room for improving processes, think there is large | scope for productivity increases just in our wider work culture. | Too many people trying to CYA (Cover Your A*), things like email | acknowledgments and people requesting things when they know the | answer is no, but solely so they can prove they actioned | something or tried to go the "extra mile". | jb1991 wrote: | Hi, productive person here. I'm also frustrated by my own | productivity, tbh... some days I wish I languished more, to take | in the moments as they come without any influence on my part to | their outcome. | nefitty wrote: | Take some of my languishing. I have plenty to spare at the | moment. | jh0486 wrote: | It's easy to have the wrong mindset around productivity. If an | individual thinks that doing more always leads to better results, | they're going to have a bad time. I use productivity as a tool to | have __more__ personal time and reduce stress. I really think | about what I'm doing and what impact it has on my day. | | From what I've seen, working in large corporate environments, is | that people make their own productivity prisons doing things that | no one asked for or working late hours on something no one is | waiting for. Individuals create the stress for themselves by | trying to standout or impress others. | | If someone doesn't care about career progression, which I'm | assuming is most of the anti-productivity crowd, they can get | along just fine at almost any company doing only the minimum | requirements of a role, have a fair work/life balance, and live a | normal life. | | If someone takes a mid six figure comp package from a major tech | company, they should expect to work hard going into that role. | Those jobs aren't for everyone. There are plenty of less | stressful work environments in technology that will pay someone a | decent salary and will be much less demanding. | uselesscynicism wrote: | > There are plenty of less stressful work environments in | technology that will pay someone a decent salary and will be | much less demanding. | | There are?! Could you list some examples? I would take a pay | cut for fewer responsibilities if I could stay in tech and if | it didn't pay like thirty grand, which is what you will make in | support. | | How do I transition from a high stress high pay software | engineer to a medium pay low stress other kind of technology | worker like you have described??? | PragmaticPulp wrote: | The word "productivity" is joining the ranks of "agile", | "hustle", "performance improvement program", and other phrases | that are too triggering for honest discussion. Everyone arrives | to the conversation with different ideas of what the word | actually means, as well as a lot of accumulated baggage from | negative past experiences. | | The author of this article started with good intentions to help | people optimize their lives to find more free, personal time. The | readers arrived having already made up their minds that any | productivity-related writings were bad. At that point, there's | not much that can be done other than to switch to a different | word or phrase with fewer connotations. | | I think what most people really want is reduced cognitive | overhead. Most productivity writing starts with good intentions, | but most productivity systems ultimately require additional | effort to implement. Good systems can have a net reduction in | workload, but many of these complicated productivity systems are | really just feel-good rituals that appeal to people who enjoy | being organized. | q_andrew wrote: | The line about asking individual knowledge workers to optimize | their own work hits me hard. I'm the only programmer in the | office I work at. My boss has started telling people that they | should take an hour every week to stop and think about how a | small process can be done better/faster. The problem is that the | longest and most important part of what they do isn't some manual | task, but a mental process (they are digital artists). I doubt | most people are going to intuitively solve the complexity of | their own brains through introspection (as some early | psychologists thought we could do). It's easier for me to | 'optimize' because I can manipulate how a physical computer | operates. It's hard for anyone to manipulate how their intuitive | functions work besides slowly gaining experience and mastery. | krisoft wrote: | I don't know what your digital artist coworkers produce, but | unless it is pure l'art pour l'art they can think about ways | how to streamline processes outside of their art. How do they | receive their "brief"? How is the work batched? Does it ever | happen that they are asked to produce something which then gets | thrown away and wasted for reasons the company could better | control? Are there any missunderstandings? If the artist see | themselves as simple "brief -> bitmap" converters then this is | of course beyond their pigeonhole, but if they are smart and | creative people, as I belive they are, they might already have | ideas how to improve things. And the boss basically encouraged | that those with ideas come forward, so he might believe the | same! | | Also this "the only way to improve is slowly gaining experience | and mastery" is not true. (I was paraphrasing your words) I | watch many videos of great artist sharing tips. Again I don't | know what medium they work in, but in 3d work one can improve a | lot by better organizing their asset library. In digital | painting work I have seen people use posable human models to | start sketching from. Ian Hubert shares great "lazy tutorials" | on how he learned to cheat and animate complex looking things | in super simple way. Just spending an hour a week reading up on | tricks from others can improve ones "craft". | | And what is the worst? You goof around an hour and can't think | of anything. You tell the boss that when he asks, what is he | going to do? Fire you for not trying hard enough? If he does, | he wanted to fire you anyway and was just fishing for an | excuse. | golemiprague wrote: | I have never felt a pressure to be more productive except from my | own judgement of myself. I know when I am being lazy... | jbkcc wrote: | https://archive.is/zaWTc ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-09-14 23:00 UTC)