[bostik]

> And yeah, 25-30 hours is probably a maximum, and it needs to be done in three-hour chunks at a minimum.

There's a fascinating corollary on "effective working time" research. I've seen the numbers multiple times in Finnish press, but have hard time even finding them now - and can't recall ever seeing these figures in English media.

According to work wellbeing research done (at least partially) in Finland, knowledge workers can achieve approximately 5.5h of effective work a day. Any hours much beyond that are mostly wasted due to the level of concentration required.

This number chimes well with your estimate: 25-30 hours of effective work per week. I'm quite confident these figures would come up again and again.

[clort]

I think there is a problem defining what is effective when talking about creative work.. I did some contract work a few years ago and while I worked from home and tried to be on task during working hours I was not always at the keyboard during that time. Sometimes I sat on the couch with my eyes closed, and I went for a walk on the beach regularly but I was always thinking about the way in which the code I was writing was developing, the shape of the algorithms and how best to interface to other modules. I even thought about that stuff out of hours (which was unbilled time, though I got a hefty bonus..).

When you take this concept of effective working time to the statistician who sees only the time you spent actually at the keyboard and tells the MBA that your effective time was 2-4 hours out of an 8 hour shift, and that MBA wants you to increase this effectiveness by getting it to 100% of the time that he is paying you.. then thats not going to work.

[bostik]

> Sometimes I sat on the couch with my eyes closed, and I went for a walk on the beach regularly but I was always thinking[...]

I worked from home for 7 years, and during the brief summers I took 1-2h biking breaks during the day when I was stuck and felt like my mind was grinding to a halt. Often enough I would get unstuck, or at least have lots of new ideas.

On the flipside, I also learned that one of the most valuable pieces of equipment in these circumstances is a lightweight dictating machine. Or a phone capable of recording on a keypress. The ideas would come and go, and if I didn't record them when they popped up, I would spend quite a lot of time trying to find them again.

Taking notes is underrated.

[mal808]

I do this with running from time to time. It's a great way to solve problems. Stuck on something for a few hours? go for a run! I'd usually have some sort of solution by the time I get back.

[muninn_]

This is why I want an MBA. I know and respect these things.