Curious how companies measure developers productivity in the era of vide engineering... Token usage? Lines of code? Features shipped? Bug fixed? Code health? Maybe we should use amount of code read or PRs reviewed? Or another metric that would correlate with the amount of person's accountability?
Any claim about "productivity is due to X" that doesn't define a timescale is either flawed or misleading. In fact all measures of anything need to be done across some meaningfully defined time scale to have any relevance.
Productivity is easy to define and measure when you have a an outcome you want to achieve. A goal if you will.
Productivity is impossible to define when you don’t know where you’re going.
A lot of companies and teams are finding out real fast they have zero clue where the fuck they’re trying to go or what they want to achieve. Just a bunch of people running in random directions before the funding runs out.
This rings very true as an industry. We are all extremely busy, producing billions of lines of code, and yet the software around us isn't really getting any better.
What we'd need instead is concerted simplification. But that ain't gonna happen.
I’ve been thinking about this more and more lately. What can I really do that matters?
Make money? It’s gone eventually. Be remembered? I’ll eventually be forgotten. Be REALLY remembered? I’ll be forgotten in a few thousand years. Become immortal? All entropy in the universe eventually dissipates.
What I can do though, is have a good time with the people I love.
I mean the headline is great! I can't tell you how many arguments I've had about "you can't execute your way out of a bad strategy" (which I claim the original "you can't exercise your way out of a bad diet" is a special case of)
> you can’t decide to kick the ball, nor score a goal, or much less win the game; you can only decide to move your leg.
If you couldn't control how you win the game, why the f is Messi Messi?
You can see what the field is doing. Where the other team is moving, pointing, gaps in the defense, where your team is currently, how to utilize your next move of run, pass, or kick. You do decide to kick the ball, score a goal and win a game by fighting with everything you have because the opposite is true. You can absolutely throw a game by actively sabotaging everything.
The spirit of what is written about Control is "don't worry about what you don't control, one being the result. Just worry about and do what you can" (which i agree with) but it's said so poorly.
My disdain towards this article... Why are we accepting cat posters on Hnews homepage?
Cute, but make up your own term instead of polluting the existing one.
> For instance, would you really want to speed up time spent with your loved ones?
First of, do you really think about productivity when doing the positive thing you imply here? But also, for some less pleasant activities with your loved ones - yes, of course you want to speed it up to have more time for something better!
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 37.0 ms ] threadNot doing something is much faster than doing it fast. Sit on your ideas, think them trough, dismiss early, or choose to move to implementations.
I think the author conflates productivity with meaningfulness.
Productivity is impossible to define when you don’t know where you’re going.
A lot of companies and teams are finding out real fast they have zero clue where the fuck they’re trying to go or what they want to achieve. Just a bunch of people running in random directions before the funding runs out.
Pick a direction. Then go fast.
What we'd need instead is concerted simplification. But that ain't gonna happen.
Make money? It’s gone eventually. Be remembered? I’ll eventually be forgotten. Be REALLY remembered? I’ll be forgotten in a few thousand years. Become immortal? All entropy in the universe eventually dissipates.
What I can do though, is have a good time with the people I love.
Productivity, prioritization, efficiency, control, purpose, happiness...
I'll just rant about one: Control.
> you can’t decide to kick the ball, nor score a goal, or much less win the game; you can only decide to move your leg.
If you couldn't control how you win the game, why the f is Messi Messi?
You can see what the field is doing. Where the other team is moving, pointing, gaps in the defense, where your team is currently, how to utilize your next move of run, pass, or kick. You do decide to kick the ball, score a goal and win a game by fighting with everything you have because the opposite is true. You can absolutely throw a game by actively sabotaging everything.
The spirit of what is written about Control is "don't worry about what you don't control, one being the result. Just worry about and do what you can" (which i agree with) but it's said so poorly.
My disdain towards this article... Why are we accepting cat posters on Hnews homepage?
> For instance, would you really want to speed up time spent with your loved ones?
First of, do you really think about productivity when doing the positive thing you imply here? But also, for some less pleasant activities with your loved ones - yes, of course you want to speed it up to have more time for something better!