'After five years of six-hour work days, the company brass concluded that the "burden (or overhead) unit cost was reduced 25% . . . labor unit costs reduced 10% . . . accidents reduced 41% . . . the severity of accidents (days lost per incident) improved 51% . . . [and] 39% more people were working at Kellogg's than in 1929."'
If I can offer some unsolicited advice, I would recommend organizing things better. Have one page that you can refer people to that highlight your accomplishments and links to your github or Youtube videos that you want to highlight. Your blog or website doesn't offer this capability at first glance. Make it easy for someone to see what you've done. Remember that a potential employer may only have 30-60 seconds to take a look so make it count.
I'm in Japan now and Japan is still like this. Actually, a lot of SE Asia is like this - Korea, HK. When I talk to people about this they even admit it. They realise they are goofing off a lot of the day because they know they have to stay late so there is little incentive to be productive.
I believe that people can only work productively for a set amount per day and keeping people at work after that doesn't lead to any more work being done.
In general what you are saying is true, but its not the general public your must fear in the competition.
Its always the exceptional guy who is going to win the prize any day. And that is why people always run into exceptionally productive people and don't find it easy to compete with them. Multiply this with the drive and energy which keeps them productive over time and suddenly things get very difficult.
For most people 5 hours of productive work will see them by, but you should not expect that to be sufficient to be the best or to be sufficient enough to beat the best. For that you will have to do something extra.
No long hours are not necessary. The study written about in this thread - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2900301 - is about how the best violin players only practice for 4 hours per day but the good players actually practice more.
The link claims that one of the best violinists in the world would practice 7 hours a day. The complete opposite of what you are citing.
From the link:
>>Such dedication is also apparent in musicians. Maxim Vengerov, 34, is one of the world’s greatest violinists. He was born in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk and, after being given a miniature fiddle at the age of four, displayed outstanding aptitude.
His talent was matched by an immense work ethic. He practised seven hours a day, giving his first recital at the age of five and winning his first international prize at 15. Vengerov said: “My mother would get home at 8pm, cook dinner and then teach me the violin until four in the morning. As a four-year-old boy it was torture. But I became a violinist within two years.”
<<
Also, different professions probably have different definitions of long hours. Four hours practicing on the violin must be pretty exhausting since it is a physical exercise. Therefore you must also take that into account. Four hours playing the violin and four hours programming are not the same thing. Four hours for a violin player is already long hours. Four hours for a programmer sitting in front of a computer is nothing. Specially if you are debugging code, you could easily spend more than 24 hours debugging a problem, I doubt a violinist could do the same.
Another example is marathon runners. Running two hours everyday is already long hours. You cannot equate two hours running a marathon with two hours of programming right.
So my point still stands, you have to put in long hours. The definition of long hours changes by profession.
An easier way to see it is that you have to put in more hours than what your average peer puts in. Of course, you also have to do it smart.
-Edit
This is a tangent but I just thought of this and seems important enough to share. Even though the runner and the violinists are practicing they are not really being productive because they are not producing anything that the world can use. A programmer in the same amount of time is being productive because he is actually generating things that can be used by the world.
Interestingly I never found playing the cello exhausting - well, very occasionally if I had been playing a lot (several days running of a couple of hours practise, many hours rehearsing, couple of hours performing). On the other side, singing could be very tiring (though again, all-day sessions, always standing up).
Edison was famous for bragging that he only needed 2-3 hours sleep a night. Then when Tesla came to work with him he once remarked to a reporter "Yes, he only sleeps 2-3 hours a night but he naps for 5-6 hours during the day."
Edison Vs Tesla debates often end up going no where, this is because the debates take the nature of debate between two school of thoughts. One which believes that learning the body of knowledge and using proper academic approach to research is the right way to success(Tesla), other approach is to take a interesting problem without having no background and prior knowledge of what you are going into, but as you go deeper you begin learn and do things by experimenting on the way(Edison).
Edison approach takes time, a lot of work and thereby you need to find ways of being more productive. Both methods have their plus'es and minus'es.
But.. If you find some body very hardworking, going over the counter to put effort in his work to achieve something and he ends up being more successfully than everybody else. That shouldn't look surprising. And that precisely what happened with Edison and Tesla.
Although Edison lost the war of currents, but comparing their lives as a whole Edison ended up achieving far more than Tesla.
I don't see why it's worrisome. This is just one place I am asking for advice. I don't see why people on the Internet assume you will only be asking strangers. This is more of a way to get ideas. If someone says "taxi driver" I'm not going to go out and immediately become a taxi driver.
It's tough to think of jobs that don't require being in front of a computer nowadays. One time we were discussing the olden days of computers and it came up that I asked "What did people do for work before computers?" Then everyone went silent - "Yeah, how did people work before computers?" It's amazing how ubiquitous they have become in such a short time frame.
I've tried the standing desk before for a couple days but didn't really like it. I may try giving it another shot.
I've tried the standing desk before for a couple days but
didn't really like it. I may try giving it another shot.
Remember to alternate between sitting and standing. If you can't get a motorized standing desk, get a tall task chair to accompany a stationary standing desk.
OP here - my noprocast settings wouldn't have allowed me to post until tomorrow.
I have a little RSI but I have taken steps so that it doesn't bother me anymore (switching to Dvorak layout was probably the best move).
Actually, my health problems are with my skin. When I'm sitting at a computer, my skin seems to get itchy - maybe there isn't enough blood circulating or my posture is too stressful.
A couple other people mentioned standing desks. I tried a make-shift one for a couple days but didn't really like it. I might give it another try though.
My assumption is that you haven't consult any doctor yet for your problem. And if i am right, please go ahead and consult any good skin doctor and identify the root cause of your skin itching before thinking of switching the career.
I have been to doctors and a lot of them have told me "We don't know the cause" and "There is no cure for it". It leaves me a little disenfranchised at the medical system. But the keyword "good" skin doctor may be what I need to find. Thanks.
'After five years of six-hour work days, the company brass concluded that the "burden (or overhead) unit cost was reduced 25% . . . labor unit costs reduced 10% . . . accidents reduced 41% . . . the severity of accidents (days lost per incident) improved 51% . . . [and] 39% more people were working at Kellogg's than in 1929."'