IT/Software career thread: Invert binary trees for dollars.

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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Is there data supporting this? I feel after ~8 hours, my productivity wanes, even for problems I genuinely want to continue working.
I don't really find this to be true, I think it just depends on motivation. I've met some super dork committed tech guys who are lazy as fuck and produce shit. I've met guys who don't touch a computer once they leave work who totally shred it while on the job, and work hard as necessary. I don't even know if I'd see a trend between laziness and technical aptitude. The desire to work hard and do well at work is an attitude that doesn't correlate with interests, I think.
It's just my experience that dudes who don't have technical hobbies aren't going to be the dudes who dig deep and really tear into challenging technical issues. Like I said there's nothing wrong with guys who went to CS in college because that was popular and they make a solid effort every day. And yeah, I've never a lot of nerds who phone it in then go play anime or whatever instead of producing stuff.


As for duration of effective work, it depends on the project. I saw this article:
Sweden Experiments With A 6-Hour Workday In Hopes Itll Improve Employee Productivity

and while I didn't read any of the research and am not a professional in that field, I'll take anyone on after working for 10 hours straight. Shit, after 6 hours I'm just getting my second wind. After 14 hours I start getting loopy and start making mistakes.

Oh and as far as music,Power Metal Radio - Listen to Unknown, Free on Pandora Internet Radiosums my programming music up. No idea if that url works but it's power metal.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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I think it depends entirely on how interested you are in what you're working on. Give me a mundane and tedious project? I want to quit after 4 hours. Give me something interesting and new? I'll work 15 hours a day for a week straight and enjoy every second of it. In fact I won't even notice the time.

I'm sure everyone here has experienced that "phenomenon". Time flies when you're having fun isn't a saying for nothing. Not to mention that we're posting on a forum notorious for almost everyone here poopsocking in video games at one point or another and never wanting to go to bed.
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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I think it depends entirely on how interested you are in what you're working on. Give me a mundane and tedious project? I want to quit after 4 hours. Give me something interesting and new? I'll work 15 hours a day for a week straight and enjoy every second of it. In fact I won't even notice the time.

I'm sure everyone here has experienced that "phenomenon". Time flies when you're having fun isn't a saying for nothing. Not to mention that we're posting on a forum notorious for almost everyone here poopsocking in video games at one point or another and never wanting to go to bed.
That's true, but the key driver behind my opinion is that the dude who enjoys spending his free time configuring his Gentoo distribution and recompiling his kernel to support his music visualization tool is going to find a bunch of stuff interesting that the guy who plays lacrosse probably won't.

We've all seen guys come in, be excited about technology and whatever, then when they're given real work they call it tedious and lose interest. We've also seen guys get a huge hard on for stuff any rational person would consider tedious.
 

Voyce

Shit Lord Supreme
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I don't really find this to be true, I think it just depends on motivation. I've met some super dork committed tech guys who are lazy as fuck and produce shit. I've met guys who don't touch a computer once they leave work who totally shred it while on the job, and work hard as necessary. I don't even know if I'd see a trend between laziness and technical aptitude. The desire to work hard and do well at work is an attitude that doesn't correlate with interests, I think.
I agree, I tend to think people that have more than one passion, tend to have a stronger drive, and more complete skill sets, whether it be technical or interpersonal.


Disclaimer: I'm biased on this; the number one hobby of someone in our profession is probably video games, and I'm almost completely burnt out with them, so my hobbies are generally more varied, and tend to be outside/ out of the house, more often than inside. Although I'm really passionate about Computer Programming, so I do spend a large amount of time outside of work, trying to improve my skills, because I really enjoy what I do; far more than what I used to do, for a living.
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
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It's just my experience that dudes who don't have technical hobbies aren't going to be the dudes who dig deep and really tear into challenging technical issues. Like I said there's nothing wrong with guys who went to CS in college because that was popular and they make a solid effort every day. And yeah, I've never a lot of nerds who phone it in then go play anime or whatever instead of producing stuff.


As for duration of effective work, it depends on the project. I saw this article:
Sweden Experiments With A 6-Hour Workday In Hopes Itll Improve Employee Productivity

and while I didn't read any of the research and am not a professional in that field, I'll take anyone on after working for 10 hours straight. Shit, after 6 hours I'm just getting my second wind. After 14 hours I start getting loopy and start making mistakes.

Oh and as far as music,Power Metal Radio - Listen to Unknown, Free on Pandora Internet Radiosums my programming music up. No idea if that url works but it's power metal.
Ain't nothing wrong with some blind guardian, rhapsody, stratovarius, or hammerfall
 

Vinen

God is dead
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I agree, I tend to think people that have more than one passion, tend to have a stronger drive, and more complete skill sets, whether it be technical or interpersonal.


Disclaimer: I'm biased on this; the number one hobby of someone in our profession is probably video games, and I'm almost completely burnt out with them, so my hobbies are generally more varied, and tend to be outside/ out of the house, more often than inside. Although I'm really passionate about Computer Programming, so I do spend a large amount of time outside of work, trying to improve my skills, because I really enjoy what I do; far more than what I used to do, for a living.
The only benefit I've seen of people who have technical hobbies is that they tend to be slightly more up to date.

My personal hobby is just reading, a shit load, of technical journals.

This can be two-edged as you can have a junior-mid who doesn't understand the technologies they have been learning about and insist that they are the best method to go. It can be pretty obnoxious.
 

Deathwing

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Never did a Hentai convention! Just met up with the owner of a Hentai site man. (Is there Hentai conventions? If so, POINT ME TO THEM!).

All I do now is drink, read and play LoL while at home.
There has to be. Fucking furries get together, why wouldn't animated masturbatory material enthusiasts?
 

Lendarios

Trump's Staff
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It went well. i think. Or i could have gotten owned and not knowing it.. i need a third party opinion.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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My third party opinion is there is no way an argument with hodj ended that fast. Were you guys arguing quantum mechanics and somehow broke the space time continuum?
 

Lendarios

Trump's Staff
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It was something simple. The difference between a positive claim and a negative claim, and how the burden of proof is different for both, but he hojded down, so I ended treating him like Alex Trebec, more focus on the form, and not the content.