
Tips on how to work smarter from Ricardo Semler - naish
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/946-tips-on-how-to-work-smarter-from-ricardo-semler
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gruseom
I know it's nitpicking, but I've seen this in a few places lately, and it bugs
me...

 _This wouldn't have surprised Mark Twain, who once apologized for writing a
long letter because he didn't have time to write a short one._

... because as everyone knows, or should, this particularly excellent
witticism was Pascal's:

 _I have only made this letter long because I have not had time to make it
shorter._ \-- Lettres provinciales, Dec. 14, 1656

It's also attributed to Cicero (but I've googled for a source and can't find
it) and Augustine (but what he said was a little different).

Edit: as long as a couple people are interested- more here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=163425>

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notauser
FTA: We simply do not believe our employees have an interest in coming in
late, leaving early, and doing as little as possible for as much money as
their union can wheedle out of us.

This one (and delegating in general) is really, really hard. It has taken me a
lot of practice to learn to trust people to turn up with what they should
have. Constantly checking up on people is a good way to stop them feeling like
their work is their own.

You do, along the way, get burned a few times - but when stuff is late or
wrong I have had good results from doing the 5 why thing. If you don't get
what you need, keep asking why until you get to the root cause. Quite often
it's me (adding extra work, or being unclear about priority).

Much better to take a few minutes to get all the way to the real problem,
rather than just saying nothing or going off the deep end. You find out what
you need to fix (which might be the individual but probably isn't), the guys
on your team get constructive feedback with clear understanding of what they
need to do next time, and no one gets resentful.

~~~
naish
Micromanaging is not good for anyone...

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redorb
Good article; I work 6.5 hours a day - 4 hours of solid work. Im happy, my
employers happy ... what else matters?

(of course in the sense of startup; reverse that, 4 hours of sleep can be
expected)

