[game_edu] Qol, "crunch" and Education

[Shannon Jaeger]

Hi all,


> IMO there's nothing at all wrong with signing up to work incredibly long

> hard hours (for a while) if you know what you're doing and why.  "Slow and

> steady" does not always win the race, sorry.  But it's when that effort

> becomes just how you do things on a normal basis that productivity,

> morale, and QoL problems quickly flood in.


IMO it depends on the cost and how it affects the other parts of your
life and the support system you have at home.  It also depends a great
deal on your personal values and how you define yourself.  If you
define yourself only by the achievements made at work, or if you
define yourself by the whole you.

Some of us have a partner that can take on more of the obligations at
home when needed, some of us don't.  Is it fair then that the person
who isn't able to do the long, hard hours is judged as inadequate in
this situation.  Is it ok if the long, hard hours become the norm
becomes everyone else is doing.

A middle mgmt friend felt he had to work right up to the bitter end
until x-mas because that's what all the other managers were doing.
It didn't matter if he was needed at home or not, he didn't want to
be seen as doing less of a job as everyone else.

However, at the end of the day I believe that software development is
a creative process.  When the creative process is working the code
flies and you tend to work longer hours.  When they aren't, you need
to get away from the machine for a while.

Estimating time, you get good at it if you make it a part of your
working habits.  For every bit of software you write, estimate the
time, and record how much it really takes.

It's when you are learning something new that your estimates tend to
be really off because you truly have no clue what the work you are
about to embark on will take, and how much learning is involved.

That's my few cents worth.

Shannon