
How to Be a Rocket Ship: Be More Productive One Minute at a Time - edouard-harris
https://medium.com/@edouard_harris/how-to-be-a-rocket-ship-b348df5351c
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troutwine
Well, tell you what, that's not the metaphor I was hoping to see. Rocket
propulsion gets more efficient in flight because the rocket gets lighter as it
burns its fuel: same punch, less mass to move. What I _figured_ I'd see here
was the same notion applied to software work. Namely, building up small
efficiencies in an organization will have compounding effects. What are those?
Well, percentage point improvements to build systems, slow, careful work to
cut down on resource consumption in software systems, etc etc.

This was... different. Achieving maximal time efficiency -- "goofing off for 5
minutes every day adds up to 3 more full days of work per year" \-- is
sacrificing long-term sustainability for short-term, uh, presence, I guess?
It's certainly not that your work is better when you micro-manage your time,
even in the immediate term. The mind needs play time to make associations
between ideas, to keep up one's well-being. Three more full days of work a
year don't mean anything to anyone if to _get_ those three days you're left a
shambles.

In short, rockets don't work this way and neither should anyone else.

~~~
anitil
You first paragraph describes an article I really want to read!

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troutwine
Heh, I misunderstood you at first and spent five minutes searching for a good,
introductory article on propulsive efficiency equations.

~~~
koverda
Careful there, goofing off for 5 minutes every day adds up to 3 more full days
of work per year. That’s a big deal.

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pavel_lishin
> _Choosing to work instead of goofing off for 5 minutes every day adds up to
> 3 more full days of work per year. That’s a big deal._

You know what else rocket ships do? They burn out.

~~~
cryptozeus
Not if they are spacex :)...they come back and recover

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anotheryou
yea, you can do it if you keep just enough fuel to get back on the ground and
take a good break and some spa and refueling afterwards

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groby_b
More worship at the altar of optimally-filled-time which misses a larger point
- research _consistently_ shows that the "goof-off" time is where our brain
goes to work on the real hard problems.

Sure, if all your startup does is crank out CLs, optimize for that. But I'd
wager that unless you're solving bigger problems than "more code!", your
startup is not going anywhere. (Don't get me wrong, there is a phase when all
you want is more code, but it's a very short moment in the life cycle)

Oddly, Knuth comes to mind: _Programmers waste enormous amounts of time
thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their
programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative
impact when debugging and maintenance are considered_

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factsaresacred
> hack your hamster brain and trick it into working harder

If you need to 'hack' and trick yourself into being productive, try find
another line of work or just take a break.

I'm not knocking this approach - all of us are wired differently and this
method may squeeze another line of code out of an under-stimulated brain - but
there's something decidedly anti-'flow' about conditioning sips of coffee
around how often you save your code.

Instead something like the Pomodoro method, 5 minutes of play at the end of
every 25 minutes of work, might be more effective with less mental overhead:
don't trick the hamster. Cede 15% of each hour to him/her while the rest of
the time is work.

~~~
pmiri
We had a big revolution in management a couple decades ago when we realized we
couldn't just work people like robots. Why are going back full circle?!

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dropit_sphere
It's non-trivial to calibrate your work habits and psychology for maximum
_sustainable_ productivity for different tasks. "But but flow!" someone might
say. To which I'd respond: even flow has its weaknesses. Get flow-greedy for
writing software, and you'll find yourself working late, eating crap, and not
exercising.

And it's different for different work. The mentality you need to be a good
student is different than the one to be a good salesman, which is different
from that required to be a good husband, etc.

What I can say with confidence, though, is that it makes a notable difference.
A long time ago I read an article linked here that talked about "stacking
wins." Consistent success can deliver crazy rewards, because so many (more
than in the past, I feel) areas of our lives are subject to vicious/virtuous
cycles.

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pmiri
Doesn't anyone else shudder at how honestly they express productivity as a
simple brain chemistry hack? Is work supposed to be a Skinner Box?

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kstrauser
I'm a huge fan of the Pomodoro Technique. TL;DR I do _nothing_ but work - no
email, no Twitter, no Hacker News, nothing - for 25 minutes and then take a
mandatory 5 minute break. During that pause, I give myself complete permission
to do whatever I want as long as it's not the thing I'd just been working on.
Although it's probably not for everyone, it works brilliantly for me. There's
a lot of research showing that the unskippable break gives your brain a chance
to consolidate memories and your subconscious to pick away at new ideas while
you check your Coinbase account. I also don't feel any guilt at all about
taking breaks because I know they're good for me and that I've earned them.

The blog proposes the diametric opposite of Pomodoro, and I would probably be
able to sustain that slog for about two weeks before having a breakdown. I am
highly skeptical that anyone can work like that regularly while maintaining
high productivity.

~~~
hartator
I am doing pomodoros (30min increment) without timing my breaks works for me
as well and is easier to implement. So, I can do long break or no break
depending where I am.

~~~
kstrauser
Honestly, I do that a lot too. Five minutes is an ideal I try for, but it's
just as likely that I'll find something in Slack that I need to deal with
right away and it'll turn into 15-20 minutes.

~~~
hartator
Yes, I never found forcing break time being effective. However, forcing work
for a set amount of time is working for me marvelously.

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internetman55
Has anyone considered that maybe the human biology is actually smart enough to
figure out whether you should/shouldn't be focusing on something at a given
time and that there might be negative effects to trying to scam it into doing
what you (your boss) want (wants) all the time?

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orenht
I don't like the notion of "hacking my brain".

First, it can create long term unwanted needs, such as requiring you to treat
yourself for every little achievement. This could lead to a lot of things -
weight gain, guilt, or all kinds of addictions (coffee, games..)

Second, I think that improvement is achieved by slow and consistent practice.
"Hacks" are... well, hacks. They aren't supposed to be used over and over
again.

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vitro
“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day — unless you’re too
busy. Then you should sit for an hour.” -Zen proverb

~~~
thedudemabry
Let's not forget the most important thing that I personally resisted for over
a decade of my working life before legitimately giving it a try: allow
yourself the opportunity to get 8 hours of sleep per night. You won't always
get it, especially if you're a parent, on-call, or a thousand other reasons.
But I went from being a person who "only needs 5-6 hours of sleep" but was
always running out of time in the workday to someone actively seeking out new
challenges because my work (and personal) time were spent so much more
efficiently and pleasantly by default. Seriously, if I could go back in time
and slap my mid-twenties self for ignoring this, I would.

~~~
vitro
Also hundred times this when you have kids. Sleep is important. It is much
easier to get angry when you are tired. I sometimes wonder what good is there
in not going to sleep when you are tired. Sometimes I sleep after lunch for
twenty minutes. Sometimes even full cycle - one hour and half, but this is
rare. It makes a difference - you are more fresh and although it may seem like
a loss of time, it actually pays back quickly as you are not struggling with
tiredness during your whole afternoon.

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tzakrajs
To the moon with you then, worker bee.

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internetman55
Taking sips of coffee throughout the day is actually an awful idea, btw. You
should drink it with meals or at least drink the cup at once, otherwise you're
gonna be exposing your teeth continuously to an acidic beverage without giving
them time to remineralize.

~~~
vitro
Better separately. Coffee blocks digestion of nutrients.

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mythrwy
For some reason I get the most done when I decide to do nothing. It's like I
relax, get in the flow and can really work. On the other hand the faster I try
to run the further behind I get.

