Quantifying Work
So lately, I’ve started perusing the world of Hacker News as opposed to my usual haunting grounds on reddit.
What I’ve been reading has been more… polarized and declarative than what I’d been looking at previously.
There’s a certain degree of… easiness, that comes from reading something that just unequivocally proclaims that it is truth.
Maybe that’s what I’m looking for? Maybe that’s what I think is going to push people to the next level. At least for now. Maybe people need a point to start before they can learn where they’re wrong.
Regardless, let’s take a step back and refocus what this blog post originally was supposed to be about.
Quantifying work.
I recently said, “that I was going to milk it for all it was worth.”
I tried to recover from that, especially as there were people around me that I wanted to respect me, but I think that it’s a very… combative phrase.
What I said and what I intended were very different. But I think that’s an entirely different post.
From my perspective, I think what that phrase indicates is a lack of… gratitude.
Having a job bears weight.
We are paid because it is something difficult to do. If it was easy, then everyone would do it.
And I think that is what I want to capture. In this era, there is a lot of value that is placed on ambient work.
We exist in a new generation of a workplace. Our jobs demand that we are in the office for an extended amount of time, but the actual demands of what you are doing are much more nebulous.
In fact, I think this concept is still a little tenuous. To be frank, I’m still wrestling with it. Haha…
So here, allow me to lay down some simplistic examples:
Jake Smith is currently an Amazon Warehouse Associate for Prime Now. He’s paid 15/hour to be at the facility. Today, his manager has told him to be a picker. That means that he’s going to be given a list of items that he needs to pick with his fancy doodad and package them. After he delivers the set of items to the delivery driver, he’ll receive another list of items that needs to be assembled.
Jake finishes his shift four hours later. He’s now $40 richer at the cost of his time.
Jake Smith is currently a product manager at Amazon for the Prime Now feature set. He’s paid 100,000 a year or 48.07/hour. Today, his manager is off on a business trip to Croatia. That means that he’s going to be given a list of items that he needs to do with his fancy doodad. After he delivers the set of items to the engineering manager, he’ll receive another list of items that needs to be assembled.
Jake finishes his shift eight hours later. He’s now $384.01 richer.
It seems like they’re both very similar jobs. Yet, Jake-the-latter is paid dramatically more than Jake-the-former.
In any case, to cut a long-story short. here’s the main thrust of what I want to say.
I don’t think that all work should be judged the same way.
Here’s what I meant by milking something for what it was worth:
- I to make sure that I take advantage of the opportunities in that unique experience.
- I get a rare chance to work for a dynamic tech company with various benefits.
- I will not say no because I’m scared.
- I leverage any opportunity I can to travel.
- I learn from new cultures and earnestly tackle any opportunity with the viewpoint that I can learn.
I want to have a brain that is flush with the nutrients of other cultures.
An organized brain
I was telling one of my coworkers that someone had an unorganized brain.
I seriously had to take a step back and think about what I was saying there.
Was I simply just obfuscating my intent to call someone stupid? Where did that come from?
Did it originate from my readings of Less Wrong, Paul Graham and Michael Dearling? #thehorror
Honestly, what does an organized brain look like?
I think it starts off with an anecdote from one of our favorite fictional characters, Sherlock Holmes.
“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
Now, I do think that this is a very black and white thought. But it was interesting. I’ll need to think about it.
I also got called a kid a few days back and it really made me think. Not sure what. Still thinking on that.