[artsyca]

Totally analogous to every single self-styled agile software development environment I've ever worked in.

People pushing themselves to the breaking point when they could get better results by just stopping whatever they're doing and take the week off.

[devchix]

Last 10% of bug fixed, 90% of total effort. I'm with you. This COVID-19 thing has changed my perspective on work, (although I'm not so sure about my employer's.) We're split into A/B team, one week in, one week out. I really happy, probably the first time in my working life I've achieved the nominal "work/life balance". The office feels more productive, I'm more productive, fewer people making ad-hoc demands on my time. The project is more focused if you make allowance for some handoff gaps. I'm not completely destroyed on Friday evenings, and if I am, I have a week to recover. I look forward to my ON week Mondays, I have had a week to think about what I could/should do. Really, if this continues with some adjustment, I think it would be the perfect cadence.

[artsyca]

It's more than the 80/20 rule, it has to do with how people perceive the notion of work. It used to be we would let the computer do the work for us and we'd kick back and read mad magazine. Now it's the other way around and the tools are driving us instead.

And it's because in our rush to not get corporate like those people we despise, we've become even worse than them and our desire to fit in and gain acceptance and recognition have caused us to go all out like the fellow on the bike and we're just causing pile ups which would be better off if we cleared the road.

Everyone has several people on their team who would do well to just stay home and let the others do their thing.

[pritovido]

There is the related story of "Amundsen vs Scott" race to the South Pole.

Amundsen had studied human behavior and efficiency under stress. He knew a constant pace every day was way more efficient than doing epic effort. So he will restraint his people and not let them do more than a given distance each day, I think it was 30 miles or so.

This gave his team an edge against constant epic efforts on Scott part.

A week off is probably too long. What I do, because I can, is taking days off just when I consider I need it. This day or days off is a day you enjoy life and after them you feel plentiful and strong.

Much better than wasting the day being forced to work and generating very little work and burning yourself off.

I actually measure the actual time I do meaningful work so I know exactly how better it works.

[artsyca]

Exactly! There's always going to be that one guy trying to prove he's a 10x that'll trek out all on his own into the wilderness in the middle of the night and then a bunch of others who will follow because that's she start-up way