The Eight Hour Burn (2013) | Hacker News Reader

The Eight Hour Burn (2013)

chadfowler.com

24 pointschadfowler13 comments

I personally can't even work 8 hours a day. And I mean really work. Even if including lunch and coffee breaks, that's still a lot. With meetings, answering to mails & other stuff, it might be doable.

I doubt that I get more than 4 productive hours most day (and I have almost no meeting to attend or mails to answer). I'm seriously curious about where I stand compared to the average of programmers. I'm guessing below average, but not that much; I'm also guessing nearly no one can code productively 8 whole hours.

Eight hours solid coding and typing, or eight hours using your brain?

Often one line of code can be written in 3 hours, after spending that time debugging, researching, learning.

Using your brain.

Lately I've been finding that if I perform specific tasks in a focused manner I can be highly productive for the best part of eight hours (say 7.5+ out of 8). By this I mean that if I need to code, I code. If I need to think before I implement something, I set my chair to the laziest position I can (away from screen/keyboard) and I zone out and think. If I need to discuss with another team member, I do this. The key, at least for me, and at least in the past couple of months, is to never try to focus on multiple things at once.

Two other factors that I can't discount with certainty: I've been reasonably enjoying my work lately, but this isn't particularly unusual (I do feel that there's probably some feedback effect from my increased effectiveness). And I don't have many distractions, maybe 4-5 per day. More might wreck my effectiveness.

> You can’t keep up the pace of a sprint and finish a marathon.

I used to think this too. In reality, distance runners can keep up what we'd consider a sprinting speed (10+ mph) for the duration of a marathon. Sprinting forces your body to run more efficiently.

As long as we're talking about professionals, Usain Bolt can sprint at 27 mph, well above 10 mph :).

I agree. As a runner, I tend to see that phrase as a bit trite also, but for different reasons. If we're comparing life to running, life usually seems more like HIIT... periods of running around at full sprint with periods of recovery - jogging and walking - laced in between. Of course the occasional period of puking / hanging over the fence on the side of the track because you're just plain exhausted.

But all-in-all it's making you stronger and more capable of handling the next interval (season of life).

They do that by going slow - building up a base for most of their season, and peaking for maybe once - or twice in a year - sometimes a career. The time they take for speed work is a small percentage of their total training time. What you're seeing is not someone sprinting for 26 miles, what you're seeing is someone comfortable running at that speed, for 26 miles, because they've slowly built up the engine to allow that.

A 100 meter sprint is done well over 20 mph these days. If anything, it's a prime example how halving your speed can reap rewards when it comes to Going The Distance (endurance) - which works better in the long run? So many metaphors.

You can't sprint forever, and you don't get fast, by trying to beat your best time, in each run. Even if your discipline is truly sprinting, you still don't train by going fast all the time. A 100 meter sprinter works on various components of what it takes to run fast, and puts it all together, come race day. An elite 800 meter runner could have a program of 100 mile weeks - a lot of those are Long Slow Days.

I was surprised not to see anything about the importance of breaks. I find I get more done in a day when I take a 10-20 minute break about every 90 minutes than if I try and "power through" it. In a 9-hour day with a 1-hour lunch, that means I'm taking 2 or 3 of these breaks (meaning my total time-at-desk working might be only 7 hours), but I'm feeling better and still getting good work done at the end of the day.

I also turn off as many notifications as I can get away with. Email? Check it 2 or 3 times a day. Phone? I turn the volume off or way down unless I'm expecting an important call/text.

I'm looking for a work environment right now that will let me maintain my 8 hour burn and not brand me as a slacker.

8 hours is legal, this is something our ancestors earned hard. Why are we even discussing this as if it was acceptable to work 8+ hours _for_someone_else_ unless you are really-really enjoying it? I say it's reasonable to ask for 6 hours giving the present day commute times.

What made you share this only now, chad? :)

Re-read it as a reminder to myself and thought it would be good for people to read on Sunday before starting the work week. :)

ah, good stuff! :)

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