[HN Gopher] The Frustration with Productivity Culture
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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
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