On Thu, 21 Jun 2001, Jeffrey Miller wrote:
> "Adam C. Lipscomb" wrote:
>
> > They make software to sell. If they have no software
> > to sell, they make no money. If they make no money, they can't pay the
> > programmers, and the programmers have to sell their Playstations to survive.
> > Thus, while I don't really enjoy all aspects of corporate life, I'm
> > comfortable with the trade off. I'm willing to forgo surfing the web in
> > exchange for a paycheck, which gives me food, shelter and comic books.
>
> You don't seem to have a good grasp on what is involved in programming
> - it's often a matter of inspiration; its not, for the majority of
> programmers I know and work with, something that you turn on at 9am
> and off at 5pm.
What can be very helpful for the productivity of some programmers, at
least, is to be able to telecommute, and to have a certain degree of
flexibility of work hours in that telecommuting arrangement. So if
inspiration hits at midnight, the work system is right down the hall, and
you can work out the problem and code it up right then while it's fresh in
your mind, and your spouse isn't worried about whether you'll be awake
enough to drive home safely when you're done.
Meetings can be teleconferenced. You need a certain amount of face time
with co-workers, but that can also be arranged. (The only sucky part of
that is when your office is a good thousand miles from your home and you
have to be there awhile to make the trip worthwile, leaving your spouse
partner-less for that week or so. At least, that's the part that's really
sucky for the spouse.)
I think there was a Dilbert cartoon about productivity in engineering --
he'd work out stuff in his head in the shower, and that didn't count as
"work", but being in the ridiculously boring meeting that didn't help any
project *did* count as "work". Or something to that effect.
Julia
