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Speed matters (2021)

(www.scattered-thoughts.net)
65 points mefengl | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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gopalv ◴[] No.43111807[source]
Impatience is one of those selfish virtues.

Most of everything in the article is about the speed at which a human moves.

This is not about the machine, but it is indirectly about it - if I hit a sub-optimal build step, I will spend time speeding it up because the difference between a 45s build and a 90s build is that I will start typing a comment on HN instead of seeing if it worked.

In the real world, usually faster is better, because the world we operate in keeps changing - the decisions you made have a shelf life and your execution speed limits how often you deliver what is right or what would have been great six months ago.

So, I do everything in my power so that I can do things faster.

Lastly, I only have a fixed number of hours left on the planet - going faster is better than going longer at a task, because my goal is not to work 8 hours & go home, it is to finish my work and get back to my life.

Oddly enough, sometimes going faster can look paradoxical. I work only about 6 hours a day, but they are placed in such a way that I am at maximum velocity & flow during those hours.

I cannot keep that up beyond a couple of hours, so I work 10 AM to 12, eat a long lunch & get back to work at 2. Work from 2 through 4, go chase kids from 4:30 to about 9:30 PM. Work another 2 hours from 9:30 to 11:30, to be in bed fast asleep before midnight.

This means the hours I work are the fastest times of my day, while about 3 days a week 9 AM to 10, I am at a coffee shop reading a book.

I might be finishing lunch & then playing pool from 1 to 2 PM, so it does look to a lot of people that I am moving in a leisurely speed at work, but the only speed that matters is when you actually sit down and start thinking/typing.

On the way, whatever tool or processes I use that are slow or repetitive gets improved or automated, because again I want to be done at 4:30 before my brain goes into "driving in traffic" readiness.

The "make sharp tools" is a side-effect, not the core process which drives productivity.

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dailykoder ◴[] No.43112465[source]
> my goal is not to work 8 hours & go home, it is to finish my work and get back to my life.

I am always wondering why people don't consider work as part of their lifes. It always has been. People always worked. Back in the day they went hunting all day to not die. Now we write code to not die. So what's the difference? Work and life have the same meaning to me

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1. Timwi ◴[] No.43113066[source]
It's because when you're working for an employer, you're doing what someone else wants. Living my life means doing what I want.
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2. I_dream_of_Geni ◴[] No.43119351[source]
Pretty much this...