I happened to read about a blog by Brad Bollenbach at http://30sleeps.com/blog/2007/12/16/busy-vs-productive/
Its an interesting perspective. Here’s a breakdown on his perspective.
|
Busy |
Productive |
| Rolls their own | Uses someone else’s |
| Makes it “elegant” and “extensible” | Makes it work |
| Responds to your email within a few minutes | Responds to your email within a few days |
| Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. | Ready. Fire. Aim. |
| Makes the boss happy | Makes the client happy |
| Seeks consensus | Encourages creative self-expression |
| Writes a detailed specification | Implements a prototype |
| Looks like they’re busy | Looks like they’re slacking off |
| Finishes it this evening | Finishes it tomorrow |
| What else can we add? | What else can we remove? |
| How should we fix this? | Do we need to fix this? |
| Sees the toolchain as a competitive advantage | Sees the user-kickassness as a competitive advantage |
| Let’s get everyone’s feedback on this | DO IT |
I really like each and every point he makes. It is so common for us to overcomplicate things whether its at work or at home. At work, while working as an architect, I find it always so seductive to build the “perfect” system. In my earlier years, I would happily pull all nighters just to make the bloody thing work beautifully. Years later, I now realize I can get the same effect by just focusing a few short hours on the task at hand to get it functional. The ironic thing is that spending more time doesn’t necessarily mean that I come up with a better system then if I were to fix myself to a limited amount of time.
The article is usefull for me. I’ll be coming back to your blog.