I came by this link on Facebook: http://www.caterina.net/archive/001196.html
And I don't fully agree. Ir's easy to do it better the second time around, once you've already done it and you know the ropes. But making it work for the first time requires an incredible amount of work and dedication. Those frustrated and stressed hours in the office staring at a problem might not be well spent, but without giving it all your waking hours you can't give it all your sleeping hours as well. Of course someone who already learned the mistakes by building up and selling a startup can do it the second time around AND get home for dinner. Because there will be someone else pulling long hours this time around. Someone else will immerse himself in the problem. Also, against all rational-sounding BS from people who never did it, I beleive in the extreme usefulness of late nights. Not every night. Maybe once a week. But on a late night with a release to deliver you are forced into a pattern you might not be forced into otherwise. You have to prioritize, decide, go for the lowest hanging fruit, make the necessary compromises, hack a little - all in all, you have to switch to 'product finishing mode'.
You also need the atmosphere of it every now and then. Again, not every day. But having less interruptions, a bit less noise and fewer people around can help to enter the flow. You and your work can become one and good stuff happens.
Btw, I think mixing Mozart and Crick and Edison with a SW company for analogy is really weird. Why not throw Napoleon in there as well...
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I think you are mixing up overtime with being in the flow.
VálaszTörlésHere's a small excerpt from the book "Peopleware - Productive Projects And Teams" (by Tom Demarco, Timothy Lister).
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Chapter 8
"YOU NEVER GET ANYTHING DONE AROUND HERE BETWEEN 9 AND 5"
Part of the floklore among development workers in all sectors of our economy is, "Overtime is a fact of life." This implies that the work can never get done in the amount of time worth allocating for it.
...
A disturbing possiblity is that overtime is not so much a means to increase the quantity of work time as to imporve its average quality. You hear evidence that this is true in such frequently repeated statements as these:
"I get my best work done in the early morning, before anybody else arrives."
"In one late evening, I can do two or three days' worth of work."
"The office is a zoo all day, but by about 6 p.m., things have quieted down and you can really accomplish something."
To be productive, people may come in early or stay late or even try to escape entirely, by staying home for a day to get a critical piece of work done. ...
Staying late or arriving early or staying at home to work in peace is a damning indictment of the office environment. The amazing thing is not that it's so often impossible to work in the workplace; the amazing thing is that everyone knows it and nobody ever does anything about it.
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I recommend reading this book along with other books on project and people management.
mrz
I don't think that Flickr lady was very far off actually. Of course, the difference between the online technology/community site of Flickr and developing software for hundreds of different hardware devices is night and day. If you're staying at work every night simply because you want other people to go home so you can get actual work done (as I found myself doing), it pretty much just turns the rest of the normal day into socializing hours (e.g. meetings). It is the people do stay late on purpose, such as you or I, who actually make the difference. The rest is filler (albeit essential filler, but that is another topic).
VálaszTörlésSame topic:
VálaszTörléshttp://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/hard-works-over-rated-it-could-even-be-detrimental