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A bit over fifteen years ago, developer Joel Spolsky wrote:
It makes me think of those researchers who say that basically people can't control what they eat, so any attempt to diet is bound to be short term and they will always yoyo back to their natural weight. Maybe as a software developer I really can't control when I'm productive, and I just have to take the slow times with the fast times and hope that they average out to enough lines of code to make me employable.
What drives me crazy is that ever since my first job I've realized that as a developer, I usually average about two or three hours a day of productive coding. When I had a summer internship at Microsoft, a fellow intern told me he was actually only going into work from 12 to 5 every day. Five hours, minus lunch, and his team loved him because he still managed to get a lot more done than average. I've found the same thing to be true. I feel a little bit guilty when I see how hard everybody else seems to be working, and I get about two or three quality hours in a day, and still I've always been one of the most productive members of the team. That's probably why when Peopleware and XP insist on eliminating overtime and working strictly 40 hour weeks, they do so secure in the knowledge that this won't reduce a team's output.
But it's not the days when I "only" get two hours of work done that worry me. It's the days when I can't do anything.
The writer reckons the key to a productive day of writing software lies most in just getting started at the beginning of it. Do Soylentils have tried-and-true tricks to getting into the flow of writing code, or is it always catch-as-catch-can?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Thursday July 27 2017, @01:24PM (13 children)
Agree and extend your remarks with the false belief "Every employee is an extreme extrovert, right?"
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday July 27 2017, @02:07PM (11 children)
The boss and the receptionist is a extrovert so of course everybody else are like them! :-)
Many workplaces with qualified jobs should sometimes have the option to say "FUCK OFF!!", even to the boss ;-)
Can just imagine the new plan with "loan desks" and open landscape. You put on the nice new noise cancelling headphones and get in the zone just to be IRL knock-knock interrupted by some less intelligent life form..
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday July 27 2017, @10:01PM (10 children)
In my experience, when it comes to the BS social interaction crap you absolutely can do that, even to the boss's boss. I say no to the "Friday Frolicks" (they go outside and play games for a half hour every friday afternoon...I prefer to have that half hour of peace and quiet to actually get some work done); I say no to the release parties; I say no to the holiday parties; I say no to the random team lunches....fuck it all. The boss grabs me in the hallway and asks if I'm coming and I say "uh...nope" and walk away. If they want someone to come to parties they can hire a DJ or something...they hired me as a software engineer, and that's all they're gonna get.
Actually though, it's not the boss but my fellow teammembers' invitations that are the hardest to avoid. Last time I gave a flat-out no, the guy I have to sit beside and work with on a daily basis stopped talking to me for two days, so that made things pretty fuckin difficult...So usually I give some excuse and that satisfies 'em but once or twice a year they start giving me the "Oh, you're busy? No problem, we'll reschedule, just let me know when you're free" and at that point you're pretty much fucked, lol
The new plan with loan desks and open landscape would be you get nice new noise cancelling headphones, leave them on your desk with your laptop while you get lunch, and when you come back they're gone. I buy phone chargers literally by the dozen because of that shit (although the theft rate dropped significantly once I started buying the cheapest ones I could find...nobody wants a 500mA charger I guess!)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday July 27 2017, @10:08PM (4 children)
Thats... actually kinda nice. I'm just saying that my first impression of "Friday Frolicks" was the usual BS come out of a mgmt meeting at 3:30pm on the way to the golf course "Oh BTW here is a weeks worth of work to accomplish before 8am Monday, it's super important and best of luck I got a 4pm tee time"
Flex time companies are where its at... when its enough of a miracle to get everyone in core hours noon-3, they don't waste time BSing around.
Big company/remote/distributed is also nice. If the guy I sit next to stops talking to me, that doesn't matter because my closest coworker in terms of responsibility is 500 miles away and the data center where my server images reside isn't even in this state. And for awhile my bosses office was over 90 miles away from mine...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday July 27 2017, @10:16PM (2 children)
If all people that are really relevant for you are far away. Why are you not telecommuting?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday July 28 2017, @01:06PM (1 child)
Elderly micromanaging boomer executives, the bane of business productivity. Whats worse, having software development procedures and standards stop in 1985, or following every weekly magazine fad?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday July 30 2017, @07:24PM
At least boomer executives will go out of style (best-before) not too soon :-)
Unless you decide to make your own business.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday July 27 2017, @10:37PM
Yeah I do sometimes feel kinda bad about skipping those all the time, 'cause it's a decent enough idea I guess. Usually it's some kind of low-effort "sport" (the only one I ever went to was a "humans vs. zombies" type game, although basically slow motion 'cause nobody cared all that much...last week they did some kind of paper airplane contest...although sometimes it's just ice cream too) But it's an open plan office where I sit in a giant ten person cubicle, so when that thing empties out and the office goes quiet and I'm all alone and can focus and really dig into whatever I want with nobody breathing down my neck...that's often the best part of my whole week. Usually I try to use that time to expand my personal toolbox type scripts...although it's often right at the start of my shift so sometimes I'm just bracing myself when I see all hell about to break loose :)
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday July 27 2017, @10:25PM (4 children)
Interesting parties have a surplus of attractive females, good music, good food and intelligent crowd. Otherwise it's a waste of attention. So if the "Friday Frolicks" (what is that?), holiday parties, team lunches etc don't contain that well F--- O-- ;)
Team members invitations are the same.
The tricky shit is regular breaks and lunches where giving a shit is seen as anti-social despite that 95% is rubbish information exchange but you are kind of obliged to listen in.
Try replacing them with an identical looking that self destructs, beep at 100 dB or have cow dung inside. Whatever make the thief suffer.
Charger.. well who says it must output 5V.. 50V is "faster". :->
Same, use your own. Replace it with identical one, go for lunch, listen for screams..
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday July 27 2017, @11:53PM (3 children)
Yeah I considered such approaches...my thoughts were more along the lines of break the case apart so when they try to pull it out, the prongs stay in the wall...or add some conductive something between the prongs and leave it on the desk, when they plug it in it goes boom...but I figure it's probably not the best idea to be leaving booby traps laying around if I want to keep my job. Especially ones that may burn down the office :)
Oh god. Don't even get me started on lunch. My problem around here is I much prefer to eat alone in the office cafeteria (open plan office, I treasure my alone time), but apparently that confuses the fuck out of people so you get everything from the boss coming over "Why are you eating all by yourself? Where's your team?" to the people who will just show up and sit with you without saying a word. And I'm just sitting there going "Fuck, I don't even remember this guy's name, why is he sitting here, now I've gotta pretend to be interested or come up with a polite way to tell him to fuck off..."
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Friday July 28 2017, @12:42AM (1 child)
Read something. Preferably on paper. That helps keep people away.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday July 28 2017, @01:51AM
Yeah I don't really use paper much, but I'm always reading something on my phone in those situations and it doesn't help.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday July 30 2017, @03:28PM
I think this is where you got to establish some new habits. Ignoring people even if they are nearby in IRL. Your presence doesn't equals the right to engage with you.
"Why are you eating all by yourself?" - I got rabies. Questions? (I think my co-workers are retards and wish to have some off time from the zoo)
"Where's your team?" - No comment.
No comment.
No comment.
*silence*
*silence*
;-)
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday July 27 2017, @04:26PM
Agree and extend with "Make critical decisions based on which buzzwords non-technical people have heard recently."
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.