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How do you actually get any work done?

by ta2987 8y ago

nine_k 8y ago
Answering a question in person likely breaks your concentration for a few minutes. Having to wait for 5-10 minutes for an answer in Slack breaks the concentration of the person asking the question, _and_ your concentration because you still need to get distracted and answer the question. Async communication is great in many cases, likely most cases. Sync communication does have important uses, though.
- dvtrn 8y ago
  Answering a question in person likely breaks your concentration for a few minutes. I'm going to argue that their concentration is already broken because there's a problem, needing remediation and help from a colleague on to the point of bothering to ask in the first place. And if you're sitting three feet away from me, I'm sorry but I'd much rather just flip around, ask if you have a minute, answer the question, and drive closer to the desired team outcome. Change my mind.
  - nine_k 8y ago
    This is exactly what I'm saying. In the case of a quick question, in-person communication is more efficient for both sides. Doing the same thing async has a noticeably higher overhead.
    - silverbax88 8y ago
      There is almost no scenario where interrupting a developer in person is better than sending them an IM that they can respond to later. The only reason would be actual urgency (not the pretend emergencies that businesses claim, either).
      - dvtrn 8y ago
        As an individual, what you say your ratio is of "Sure I can help now" to "I'll help you later" when a colleague asks for help? Merely curious.
        mlthoughts2018 8y ago
        I think the point is that you should assume most engineers need large uninterrupted blocks most of the time most days. It’s not about a ratio of one to the other, it’s about needing 5-hour segments of time in which nobody asks you anything at all and you don’t have to say “sure I can help now” or “I’ll help you later” because you don’t need to say anything when you’re not interrupted. Saying “I’ll help you later” usually comes with 5-15 minutes of lost productivity while you try to get your concentration back for what you were just doing. Also, it’s often better to bundle questions together, usually at the end of the day, and document them like with an internal Q&A board, to reduce future needs to interrupt over that same question. But, to put some number on this, I’d say later in the afternoon, if I’m not busy for a deadline, I’ll jump up and help on all questions. Between 7 am and lunch, I will not help you unless it’s an absolute emergency. I simply can’t afford to if I am going to do my job. Between lunch and 4pm, say, it’s a crapshoot based on what I’m doing, but generally I would say I respond with “I’ll help you later” to 90% of interrupting questions. Interestingly, on my year end reviews one of the most consistent pieces of positive feedback I’ve gotten across several different employers, is that I am extremely helpful and generous with explaining things, and that my explanations are usually exceptionally clear and offer insight that quickly clears up confusion and leaves impressive documentation behind for people to reference later. It’s about communicating smart, not communicating constantly. I defer about 90% of the questions I’m asked, yet people look to me as “the guy who always answers everybody’s questions.”
  - outime 8y ago
    The other person then has to either interrupt everything to help you (so now you’re both distracted for a while) or say no (while maintaining a mental task queue to remember to get back to you later, which is mentally taxing). Overall, it feels a bit selfish to interrupt someone to get your trouble solved when there are more subtle ways of doing it.
    - dvtrn 8y ago
      Overall, it feels a bit selfish to interrupt someone to get your trouble solved when there are more subtle ways of doing it. I'm a bit confused by this. It is selfish, in the workplace to ask a colleague for help who sits an arm's length away? Be it via Slack or shoulder tap, you're breaking their concentration regardless. Whatever task they were doing, is now being stopped because of the ask for help. Maybe I'm looking at this from too high of a vantage point. Help me out here.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - outime 8y ago
        I’ll quote (and ignore the strawman): >It is selfish, in the workplace to ask a colleague for help who sits an arm's length away-Slack or shoulder tap, you're breaking their concentration regardless Not really, because you can disable notifications and check when you have free time. A physical interruption is abrupt and for sure will distract.
        dvtrn 8y ago
        I haven't removed a single point of order from my post, beyond to edit a grammatical error; and to what strawman are you pointing? I quoted a direct line from your post and explained why I disagreed with it. If this is how you're about to start discussing this, then I'll just bow out right now.
        outime 8y ago

How do you actually get any work done?

by ta2987 8y ago

How do you actually get any work done?

Answering a question in person likely breaks your concentration for a few minutes. Having to wait for 5-10 minutes for an answer in Slack breaks the concentration of the person asking the question, _and_ your concentration because you still need to get distracted and answer the question. Async communication is great in many cases, likely most cases. Sync communication does have important uses, though.

dvtrn 8y ago
Answering a question in person likely breaks your concentration for a few minutes. I'm going to argue that their concentration is already broken because there's a problem, needing remediation and help from a colleague on to the point of bothering to ask in the first place. And if you're sitting three feet away from me, I'm sorry but I'd much rather just flip around, ask if you have a minute, answer the question, and drive closer to the desired team outcome. Change my mind.
- nine_k 8y ago
  This is exactly what I'm saying. In the case of a quick question, in-person communication is more efficient for both sides. Doing the same thing async has a noticeably higher overhead.
  - silverbax88 8y ago
    There is almost no scenario where interrupting a developer in person is better than sending them an IM that they can respond to later. The only reason would be actual urgency (not the pretend emergencies that businesses claim, either).
    - dvtrn 8y ago
      As an individual, what you say your ratio is of "Sure I can help now" to "I'll help you later" when a colleague asks for help? Merely curious.
      - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
        I think the point is that you should assume most engineers need large uninterrupted blocks most of the time most days. It’s not about a ratio of one to the other, it’s about needing 5-hour segments of time in which nobody asks you anything at all and you don’t have to say “sure I can help now” or “I’ll help you later” because you don’t need to say anything when you’re not interrupted. Saying “I’ll help you later” usually comes with 5-15 minutes of lost productivity while you try to get your concentration back for what you were just doing. Also, it’s often better to bundle questions together, usually at the end of the day, and document them like with an internal Q&A board, to reduce future needs to interrupt over that same question. But, to put some number on this, I’d say later in the afternoon, if I’m not busy for a deadline, I’ll jump up and help on all questions. Between 7 am and lunch, I will not help you unless it’s an absolute emergency. I simply can’t afford to if I am going to do my job. Between lunch and 4pm, say, it’s a crapshoot based on what I’m doing, but generally I would say I respond with “I’ll help you later” to 90% of interrupting questions. Interestingly, on my year end reviews one of the most consistent pieces of positive feedback I’ve gotten across several different employers, is that I am extremely helpful and generous with explaining things, and that my explanations are usually exceptionally clear and offer insight that quickly clears up confusion and leaves impressive documentation behind for people to reference later. It’s about communicating smart, not communicating constantly. I defer about 90% of the questions I’m asked, yet people look to me as “the guy who always answers everybody’s questions.”
- outime 8y ago
  The other person then has to either interrupt everything to help you (so now you’re both distracted for a while) or say no (while maintaining a mental task queue to remember to get back to you later, which is mentally taxing). Overall, it feels a bit selfish to interrupt someone to get your trouble solved when there are more subtle ways of doing it.
  - dvtrn 8y ago
    Overall, it feels a bit selfish to interrupt someone to get your trouble solved when there are more subtle ways of doing it. I'm a bit confused by this. It is selfish, in the workplace to ask a colleague for help who sits an arm's length away? Be it via Slack or shoulder tap, you're breaking their concentration regardless. Whatever task they were doing, is now being stopped because of the ask for help. Maybe I'm looking at this from too high of a vantage point. Help me out here.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - outime 8y ago
      I’ll quote (and ignore the strawman): >It is selfish, in the workplace to ask a colleague for help who sits an arm's length away-Slack or shoulder tap, you're breaking their concentration regardless Not really, because you can disable notifications and check when you have free time. A physical interruption is abrupt and for sure will distract.
      - dvtrn 8y ago
        I haven't removed a single point of order from my post, beyond to edit a grammatical error; and to what strawman are you pointing? I quoted a direct line from your post and explained why I disagreed with it. If this is how you're about to start discussing this, then I'll just bow out right now.
        outime 8y ago