Why engineers should work less and slow down for greater impact
A baker's-dozen of insight crammed into one ring.
Summary
The article argues that engineers should work fewer hours and at a slower pace, advocating for 80% utilization (spending 20% of the workday away from the computer). It contends that performance in tech is driven by outlier events and high-impact opportunities, not by grinding through more work. The author suggests that doing less can lead to better decision-making and more meaningful contributions.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledI like to aim to be running at 80% utilization by default: unless I have a high-pressure project going on, I spend 20% of my workday away from the computer.
Performance at tech companies is dominated by outlier events.
When I think about the most impactful changes I've made, many of them involved a surprisingly trivial amount of work.
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