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Comment by abainbridge | Hacker News Reader

So if I time-slice the 8 productive hours of my day into 10 minute slots, can I write 48 books in 499 days?

Of course not.

I've tried working on pet projects for 10 minutes before going to work each day. The problem I find is that while I might only do active work on the task for ten minutes, my brain is thinking about it for much longer.

Spending those ten minutes in the morning reduces my ability to do my day job because I've used up a significant fraction of my day's useful thinking budget. I find I can only sustain these pet projects when my day job is in a boring/easy phase. (This might have something to do with getting older - I'm 42, or it might be because my job isn't boring/easy much these days).

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> Spending those ten minutes in the morning reduces my ability to do my day job because I've used up a significant fraction of my day's useful thinking budget.

Like the term “useful thinking budget” - will steal that if I may. To me that type of thinking is usually deep and involves much lateral thought than logical. It’s usually where I establish “focus” on something I’m working on and usually where creative breakthroughs happen on things blocking me.

But it only happens when I’m alone, relaxed and undistracted which is usually the shower in the morning. Going for walks also helps. Also it seems to require feedback “did this idea work in practice?” which creates positive reinforement that my ideas are worth having. Just endless producing ideas without testing them is undermining - used to do that in my early 20’s

No, if you read what he wrote, he said during the time he isn’t writing he would be constantly working and think about it in his mind. So practically, he works on it like a few hours a day. The writing just takes ten minutes, the design takes the rest.

So, something like: "Think really hard, then execute really quick."

I wouldn't say that it felt like I was thinking really hard in times I wasn't writing. It's a bit like the technique of putting down a crossword for a little while when you get stuck - you might not be thinking much about the puzzle, but somehow you're turning it over in your head.

FWIW, I do agree with the original comment at the top of this thread that this technique couldn't yield 48 books in 2 years - there's only so much headspace available, and this technique is one that taps into that headspace effectively for long-term projects, but it's not magic.

In the book Psycho-cybernetics, auther talks about delegating the details to subconscious mind before sleep and downloading the processed material tomorrow morning. I read the book and dismissed the idea but maybe it some value. I shall try it again.

One problem with this that I have is I lack the self control to limit to merely think before sleep. The other problem I have is these thoughts actively prevent me from sleeping by making me feel the need to work right then. My solution is to prevent myself from thinking about work while trying to fall asleep but if I happen to get a good idea I'll put enough into a note or on paper to jog my memory when I can flesh it out the next day or whenever.

What do you do? (asking for research purposes)

That was a legit question. I'm quite interested in why you find your job not boring/easy compared to when you were younger.

Is it because of the technology you work on, or is it the age factor?

I've not programmed long enough to actually feel this effect.

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