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Comment by lordnacho | Hacker News Reader

One of the great things about working from home is that I often don't do anything. As in, I'm not even by my computer.

I'm still thinking about what to do, but I'm not implementing anything. I'm not typing stuff, I'm not waiting for a compile, I'm not outwardly moving the project forward.

But the project is moving forward.

Inside, I am considering the tradeoffs. I'm thinking about what the business needs, and what things will look like when I'm done.

Now and again, things come together and I write the code. It's a lot less frantic than 20 years ago when I started. I throw away fewer things, and there is less time wasted. Any bugs that I write tend to be superficial, easy cleared up. Back when I was younger, "bugs" would be architectural decisions that were made in the frenzy of an office, and would require a lot of work to fix.

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It's kind of maddening, after having the space to Just Think during the WFH days, to be back in the office and any time you stop typing for more than 30 seconds risk being interrupted by co-workers who think you're Not Busy.

I admire the heck out of the two coworkers I've had who were smart enough to stand up & go for a walk to think. Or to have a 1:1.

I didn't face a ton of unscheduled conflict for my time, and there were many rooms available at that job. But the change in perspective was amazing, just so much power to help me really consider things in new light.

It's funny because I grew up with Steve Roberts as my role model of role models, as the guy who showed me that being an adult could be fun & interesting, with his work-from-bike Winnebiko. And I was a seasoned coffee shop coder, which I found amazing with its change of scene & deliberateness. But seeing Adam have such a practice of getting up, grabbing a notebook (also a seasoned writing-things-down person; another key element of Hammock Driven Design), and going for a stroll (DC's Rock Creek Park was a bit over half a mile away) was amazing, really opened me up.

As other comments mention, Rich Hickey's Hammock Driven Design is excellent, amazing. Some deliberateness about figuring out what we are doing, letting the waking mind come up with problems and possibilities, and giving time and written down ideas for the passive/sleeping mind to cycle through options & combine them... Kind of like protein synthesis, a soup of amino acids/ideas and your mind as rna, blindly bumping elements together to see if they bond. https://youtu.be/f84n5oFoZBc

>One of the great things about working from home is that I often don't do anything. As in, I'm not even by my computer.

>I'm still thinking about what to do, but I'm not implementing anything. I'm not typing stuff, I'm not waiting for a compile, I'm not outwardly moving the project forward.

This is literally the nightmare scenario of middle managers and c-suite managers about wfh employees. You walking around visibly doing nothing and them paying you to do it! Somehow when you do the same thing near your cubicle or in your office you "look like" you're working so that is much better!

> One of the great things about working from home is that I often don't do anything. As in, I'm not even by my computer.

Couldn't agree more. I think one major advantage of working from home is that you can go for a walk whenever you feel like it without having to feel guilt or feel like you have to justify it to anyone. Not only is it amazing against stress and for health reasons, but it's also amazing to get another perspective with your thoughts left free to run.

Not to mention all the other productivity and efficiency ruining obligations in the office like having to feel you have to stay until certain time even though at that point it would be more efficient to do something else etc.

Rich Hickey calls this "hammock time".

This way, I like to work in the shower or during commute of a crowded bus staring outside. But the best ideas come in the can, office or home bathroom, does not matter. : )

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