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Comment by jimnotgym | Hacker News Reader

I have a theory, and this commentary kind of backs it up. You ave so much mental energy to give and so much physical energy to give.

So you can either work staff really hard to get a project out and then accept an unproductive time to follow, or you can accept a more average effort over a longer period.

Personally the hardest mix is 9-5 of regular work and then having to come up with inspirational ideas and solutions. This keeps me up all night and burns me out.

This 150% nonsense sounds like trying screw an extra bit of work out of your staff in terms of innovation, without giving them the space to think.

Good blog OP

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I also have a similar theory. I believe rewarding work (interesting projects of passion) encourages employees because it provides them with energy and unrewarding work (monotonous, boring tasks) discourages employees because it drains energy. Interestingly, one could also burn out on rewarding work because it eventually starts consuming energy due to the obsessiveness it fosters. That's when unrewarding work is welcomed.

The problem is that if you're not innovative you will never understand how to encourage it others until you change within. You will read books and attend seminars with the buzzword of the month and it'll all make sense in theory but the practice of it will allude you and you will fall into old habits. Companies that need to become more innovative have to start at the beginning and at the very top and make this a company-wide cultural shift rather than making it a few individuals delegated overtime responsibility.

I actually believe that the mental strain of making 'breakthrough' level ideas is so high that workers who demonstrate they have that capacity should get whatever time and space they need, after deadline day or whatever. If you can't afford to give it to them that then you can't afford those people.

Imagine Greg House MD bouncing his ball against the wall...that is what it takes to constantly make big breakthroughs. Once these people are in the zone you wont have to motivate them

There are great books about making innovation your default culture. I highly recommend reading "An Everyone Culture" which is about creating Deliberate Learning Organizations: https://blog.coderbyheart.com/an-everyone-culture

Books on management theory only work for people who already made the conscious shift and just want to refine their thinking imho

Well, everybody starts somewhere. And books greatly help (me) to get more input and some books (like An Everyone Culture) are so outstanding and unique, that it's worth reading them even if you are not in the position to change an organization.

Yes, and Kotter does not offer any incentive for the hierarchy to change. First, because they can keep controlling the network, and second, they can (in his idea) keep people more productive, if there is the negative example of the hierarchy that makes working for the network so desirable.

Yes! I see it the same way.

As I developer I can only work on side-projects, if my days were mostly not code related work. On days where I was left alone and could code for 5-10 hours there is no way I'll go home to code another stretch. But I'll happily work on some physical project, or read a book.

And that is a normal life; and one worthy of aspiring to. We have to strive for that balance every day. Otherwise people burn out, drop out from what they loved to do, etc.

It clashes with capitalism, but at some level you have to draw the line and ensure your mental robustness is intact, usually at the cost of saying no to overtimes, hackatons, work volunteerism, and the rest of the crap that is trying to keep you doing more of what you should be resting from in the first place.

Absolutely!

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