Work is not your friend
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2024
- Follow me on Mastodon: hachyderm.io/@fasterthanlime
Support me on Patreon or GitHub: fasterthanli.me/donate
Not killing yourself with work: an essay.
Contents:
00:00 Intro
00:25 The nature of software development
01:33 Creative work
03:28 The slippery slope
05:10 Freedom vs control
06:12 Human resources
07:48 Paid time off
08:48 Self-applied pressure
09:21 The culture around software
11:00 Reclaiming your life
13:18 What's in it for companies? (for managers)
14:37 Think of your colleagues
15:23 Outro
With thanks to everyone in the industry who has shared their experience with me, and to the good and bad managers I've had the chance to meet over the years. Y'all have certainly made me think about stuff.
RIP David Graeber, you were a real one. 
Наука
Excellent video, Amos. The section about "Reclaiming your life" hit a nerve with me. I've been an engineer for almost 8 years and this realization came when suddenly, this hobby of mine that I turned into a profession, started to make me feel ill. I no longer was excited about programming to solve problems; I'd use up all my energy for work, and have no willpower left to do the open-source stuff that really excited me in the past. This was no way to live -- how could I let work soil my favorite hobby? Anyway, to make a story short, I didn't quit my job but I *drastically* reduced the amount of mental bandwidth I dedicated to work. Kinda dishonest, but I started working less hours than I was actually being paid for; I would just use those hours more wisely and efficiently before tuning out.
> working less hours than I was actually being paid for
Like Amos said, good problems live rent free in our heads. If your mind is still working on the problem, _you_ are still working. Our job is not typing, it's solving problems.
Took me far too long to realize that, but covid definitely helped. Taking a walk during work hours is often the best use of your time both for you and for the company.
I'm fully convinced that most of us aren't actually coding 8 hours a day, I know I don't and most people I've worked with haven't either. I go get my groceries, or go to the doctors, or go for a walk, or cook lunch in the middle of the day, plus I browse youtube and reddit a bit, and still log most of these things as work time, which I can do because fortunately my computer is not monitored in any way. I think I average out to about 4 hours of work a day (including the few, usually short meetings I have), anything over 6 is exceptionally productive. And I've never had any complaints about my performance, quite the opposite in fact. Turns out we're not factory workers at an assembly line and what actually matters is the output, not the amount of time taken.
I'm a manager, I agree with everything in this video. I've always seen myself as a buffer, or a wall even, between management and my team, as well as a nanny for my team.
My job is to protect them, force them to not overwork themselves, not let the pressure of director's layer get to them, and generally find solutions for their problems.
My existence is only justified because CEOs and CTOs are, on the whole, pieces of shit humans. If they weren't, I almost wouldn't be needed, my teams function completely fine without me.
After 40 years of software development I have to say, “Nailed it!”
Thank you so much for this video. I really needed to hear a lot of this.
"self applied pressure" is kind of a panopticon thing 🤔
Great summary. That whole point about don't Install work tools on your private devices. Hits the nail on the head.
But you also need to consider, that not everyone is your enemy.
You need to keep an eye open for certain signs. My best tip. When you are told during a Job-Interview "We don't have a hierarchy", "We have a flat hierarchy" or "We are all a big family here". RUN.
Especially, if you hear the last one.
It is most likely, that these are the kinds of people, that will guilt trip you with stuff like.
"Think of all projects we have to postpone now", "You have to see it our way too. That is time we are now missing", when you are sick.
The crassest example of that was "Look how self-sacrificing all the others are!" in an Eye to eye meeting after my boss was unsatisfied with my lack of unpaid overtime.
That stuff is gaslighting 101. Trying to tell you, that you alone are the problem, when in fact nobody chooses to get sick on purpose, and having a good grasp on work-life balance is not a bad thing.
It's awesome that you're sharing all of these ideas here. As someone super early in my career I've definitely not seen or experienced most of these but as you said it's a good idea to keep the on the side of my brain and have the alarms ring when and if this happens.
Great video essay. I really love this format.
This is gold. Thank you!
What you said caused me to remember my struggles when I was starting a software development career and worked for a moderately large company. I felt like no one knew my pain. I thank you for this video
This is THE video! Thank man!
I wholeheartedly agree with everything in this video. I've heard people complain that they don't like home office because there aren't boundaries between work and personal life. My brother in Christ, turn off the computer and walk away, and for god's sake PLEASE disable Slack/email/whatever work notifications you may have on your phone. I thought this is very basic stuff but apparently a lot of my colleagues don't bother taking 2 minutes to find where to mute their work related apps.
14:52 - This is very true, and the part about setting unrealistic standards you will be comparing yourself with in the future is very accurate. I will chase you for the rest of your life, it still does to me and its probably the source of guilt I feel when I'm not on top of everything. From time to time I find I'm scolding myself; "you used to be on top of the game, what is going on?" The reality is that my own life is going on, not just someone elses objectives.
Yeah that about sums it up! Thanks for this!
Really good video and advice.
I learned (I hope) this in a hard way.
I'm surprised you don't have a few millions subscribers! 😁
You've got deep understanding of the problem.
Yes. Nice video. It contains some very insightful information. Thanks Amos.
Man, Thanks so much
Great thoughts, thx for the video! :)
a very good talk, thanks Amos
This video should definitely be more popular!
hell, I will watch this every day
Very well said
Thank you. Million times.
OK, "Work is not your friend" convinced me. +1 sub. Wow, the shout-out to David Graeber (RIP) is even more recommending
Awesome, finally a technical person who has sensible views outside of tech
Thank you.
I don't know from how much time I am following you on twitter, but your C song video recommended to me and then I read your channel and it sounded familiar, good to see you on youtube, the things you have explained are with very much clarity, thanks for that
Hey, thanks for the kind words! Now you know I'm a real human boy and not some kind of article writing robot. Unless I am a robot who hired a human to shoot videos. I guess we'll never know.
@@fasterthanlime are you the same person who wrote some article on france or some prime minister Instagram photo shows critical detail, but yes the tweet and video person sounds very different
THANK.
YOU.
I need a walk to process this now.
Very well written
Hello there, I subscribed to your rss feed and i might try rust after reading your blogs, they are really high quality. I got my first job as a software engineer last year and while it paid really well, i was completely overworked and just after 4 months i got herniated lower spine. I resigned without having a offer in hand cuz health was my priority and i was physically and mentally hurt. I am thinking of going back to working as a software engineer but the toxic culture surrounding most of the software industry haunts me.
I adjusted my sitting position after reading this, hope you are healthier now and find work that respects you
This was just❤
thank you dude
Stay safe
Great reminder!
I turned off Slack notifications on my phone and rarely checked it.
I only fast respond to urgent requests (e.g. website is down).
I think the real solution is to quit our job and become a creator.
It's ironic that doing as little work and charging as much money as possible is the ideal business model.
Correct, especially not these , “workers” or “union” types.
Do you consider your RUclips channel and blog to be work? Do you set boundaries for that as well? Or is it a hobby and therefore has a free pass?
Between work software and hobby software, I sometimes have a have a hard time fitting in other hobbies
What if I make money off of an open source project? What problems might come with that? (Besides the obvious one of figuring out how to make money)
how about physical health... like your goddam heartbeat? you think you need for anything...
Is being white and male really that good from an HR perspective? I mean, don't they have diversity quotas to fill?
Obviously not. That point was odd and out of place
This is wrong advice, especially in the IT field. Work hard and become invaluable and you'll always have a job and great resume. Do the opposite of what this guy says.
Have fun burning out and then still being fired. Have you seen the recent layoffs at all?
Working hard doesn't make you good at something. Work smart, not hard.
Some decent ideas with a few nuggets of really terrible advice thrown in.
Here’s a different POV.
There are three kinds of employees. Under-performers, those who meet requirements, and over-performers.
The first get fired. The second are easily replaced, and the third are valuable.
If you are just 5% more productive than the next person, like interest, over time, it has a compounding effect on your value as a professional.
So sure, take breaks, but strategically overdeliver, balancing that investment between your employer, and valuable skills easily transferable to your personal development and competing employers.
Do some interviews every quarter to stay sharp and get a sense of what your skills are worth.
But please don’t just meet the requirements. That’s the worst advice ever.
Extremely cringe take. Imagine being such a frail individual that you bend over and purposely play the corporate game to "put yourself at an advantage" is basically accepting all the bs and being part of the "problem". Just do wtf you want and if it's a mismatch between yourself and the company move on.