Work Less, Get More Done: Analytics For Maximizing Productivity

[archerships]

Original: craschworks - comments

Via kalzumeus

For three years now I’ve been running a small software business in my spare time. It has been a very educational experience, especially in showing me that many things we think we know about software, programming, business, and the like are wrong. This is a bit of a shock, especially for well-worn chestnuts which have intuitive appeal, which we have come to invest with moral significance, and (most importantly, because we all think we’re smart) we’ve believe so self-evidently true as to make investigation a waste of time.

For example: I have come to the conclusion, over the last three years, that working hard is overrated. This is an idea I have been kicking around for a while, but it was thrown into sharp relief by a blog post entitled The Only Alternative Is To Work Harder, by a gentleman named Paras Chapra over at Wingify. Paras and I have corresponded over email a few times, so I say as one analytics junkie to another: the notion that working longer hours is correlated to better business results is a pernicious social pathology.

Comments

[blueadept.livejournal.com]

"...programmers at most companies work on a schedule designed to maximize the productivity of illiterate 18th century water loom operators, so expecting rationality might be excessively optimistic."

That's inertia. Everyone else works those same hours, so most fun things to do are available when most people are off work, thus putting pressure to work those same hours.

I work 4 days a week right now, but Fridays and Saturdays I work till 10pm. I love working 4 days a week, but I'd rather work 5 days a week 8am-5pm and get my evenings and weekends off so I can do the same social things as my friends instead of having nothing to do on weekdays during the day.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Agreed, syncing with others is an important factor in the standard work schedule.

[capitalism-yeah.livejournal.com]

I have settled into a life of leisure, and have to admit that: yes. This life rules. Took a while for me to detox from the stress of overworking, but I'm finally starting to truly enjoy.