There’s a study out there that says context switching costs fifteen minutes to get back into the task. The classic example: You are doing some deep thought work and have been nose-deep in code or spreadsheet formulas or editing for an hour. Your phone rings. Interrupted, when you settle back down to your deep work, …
When I was a young whippersnapper in the days before MMOs, I roleplayed on MUSHes, text-based multiplayer systems. They came with their own programming language and none of the fancy IDE support that beginning developers today take for granted. Here’s a small sample: [pemit(#20, %2)][ifelse(gte(setr(9, mul(6, u(#513/data-autotf_per[ifelse(gte(%2, 30), cent, old)]_[first(%0, |)]))), 1), [round(%q9, 0)] hours, …
What if Future You were Current You’s best friend? You would treat your future self like a separate person that you care about deeply and would go out of your way to make life easier for. This is the absolute best way to prevent myself from procrastinating. Instead of saying “I’ll do it in the …
Stop using story points and estimating purely based on complexity. Start using coffee points instead. Those working in an agile environment traditionally use story points to estimate the complexity of a task, which is then used to figure out roughly how many stories will fit in a sprint. Evangelists of this method say that estimating …
I had to get up at a time with a six in front of it this morning. I realize I am very lucky to be able to organize my time such that I can usually sleep until the seven hits, but I do not find this humane. At least this world has coffee in it. …
What’s the sweet spot for a self-evaluation? First, what’s your goal as an employee in a self-evaluation? Let’s separate out idealism from reality first off. Of course it would be nice if a self-evaluation were a chance for you to honestly reflect on your work for the past year, be proud of your achievements and …
Shutting up is a power move. Better: an empowering move. If you can get out of your own head for long enough to shut up and listen to the other person, amazing things happen. Version 1: The ramble. Agree to listen for ten minutes with a neutral expression and without responding or giving feedback, even …
It took a long time for me to realize my influence on my coworkers’ work atmosphere. In my scrum team’s retros, I began to notice that wherever my mood rating was, others’ would cluster around it. I had a great past two weeks? So did everyone else. I was in a pessimistic mood? I dragged …
It took two years of pandemic-induced reduced face-to-face contact before I experienced something extroverts apparently find completely ordinary: the feeling of being recharged after a social interaction. For the first time in my life, I understood how it might feel to be powered primarily by interaction with others. I found the experience of comprehending another …
I had to get over myself to do this project: I mentally picture stepping over myself, who is lying down in the way, waving her arms and objecting feebly, “But what if no one reads it? What if I run out of ideas after three weeks?” What would I say to anyone else asking me …