I disappear on Fridays
I’ve always had a dream: to create stuff that is useful or fun. Computers help me doing that. Thus, since 2013 I work 4 days per week (or less). How did it happen?
The Passion
One might ask, “so where’s the passion for a dream you’re talking about”? It sounds like you love to work more but work less?
Quite the contrary. There are 2 sectors that define this need:
- the mechanics of developing solutions
- the passion and understanding the roots of it
I’ll describe why I work 32 hours per week and how beneficial it is to everyone, and not just me.
The Ideas
There is one particlar dimension where I have figured out myself a long time ago. It is “where the ideas come from”. It’s about all ideas. Not just design, product thinking or planning, but also as low level as coding!
Ready for the trick to be spoiled? I won’t tell you. Turns out I don’t know. Well, OK, I know the workaround. As much I’ve learned over the last decade it’s a “higher mind” more than the brain. I was intrigued by it more and more, because at the beginning I’ve noticed I kinda know how to make it work for programing but not anything else. But I wanted to develop it for both my day-to-day work and life in general.
The Intuition
Literature describes the distiction between two ways of thinking when we work, plan or simply thrive. For example, Daniel Kahnemann in the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” describes the 2 Systems:
- System 1: This is fast, automatic, and intuitive. It works quickly and effortlessly—almost like ideas “just come” to you. It is uncontrollable flow of ideas that can be “invited” to co-work but we cannot make it work on-demand.
- System 2: This is slow, deliberate, and analytical. It involves step‐by‐step reasoning and careful control, much like the deep and sequential, which, while precise, is less creative.
There are other terms like Lateral (or “Rich”) vs Vertical (or “Deep”) thinking, e.g. in Edward de Bono’s “Lateral Thinking”.
With time, I figured it’s a combination of 2 main factors that allow to bring the Rich thinking into action:
- the passion itself
- controlling the inner controller who just cannot wait for the results
Once those are balanced out, it all comes.
In a step by step form, this is the way it works for me:
- Define the problem
- Feed your brain and your ego (yes, the spiritualism comes in) with the information you need to analyze the problem
- Let it go. Do something else, think of something else or stop even thinking (meditation). A walk in the park might be more fruitful than anything else for most.
- Let it come but don’t wait for it. Trust it to be right on time. You can just start working on something else.
As I am observing, the 4th step is a common break point. Ego wants to think it’s creative which is a pure blocker. We tend to be scared of context-switching as well. In my opinion this effect is only dangerous when we’re still doing the step 1 or 2 for one task.
An even more interesting observation is that I am a little bit “chaotic” when compared to some. I jump between tasks a lot. That’s why I like to work in 2 weeks “sprints” (fragile Agile), having a set of pre-defined tasks. I can give myself the room to solve all the problems without being stuck at one thing for a long time.
The Passion vs the (inner) World
As much as we’d all love to do things that people pay us for, not feeling like working, it’s not all so pink all the time. Even when we manage to achieve this state, it’s not going to last forever the same. Often something turns out to be an experience on a different layer of personality. Less and less connected to the matter of work and passion, and more attached to ourselves as eternal beings. We can be happy, and soon the next challenge comes in. And we become a little bit down because the pink turned gray.
Fulfillment, this is the other factor of why I work less for employers. If I can’t have it out there, I will make it inside. Thus, I work on my own stuff. I make it “bigger”. I don’t just code, but plan, organize, design, “hire” people (in my mind usually), learn less related stuff like marketing, and think of different kinds of resources that I usually don’t have to think about in my day-to-day work as a software engineer.
It’s why I got into the industry in the first place. Inspired by the Lion King game (DOS/Windows), 13 years old (2003) human being discovered the idea that it is actually achievable to make something move on screen. Boom, trying PHP, C++, and so on. Turned out I wanted to create things as a whole, not just make the little lion react to the key press event. And here I am, writing this 22 years later, knowing it’s all more philosophical than technical as most seem to think.
The System That Works (as of yet)
The conclusion? Just remember what you like doing. Do you actually like pure coding? Or is it problem solving? Designing stuff? Playing with ideas no one has ever done (watch out for the ego)? Replicating pieces of techs that are usually only done by the “FANG” companies? Being simply “the best”? Discover what is it really that brings you the joy, but remember to not confuse it with coffee.
The final result? I don’t feel like I’m doing less for employers. Actually, AFAIK most of them have been pretty happy about how much I provide, which is way more than just code (which I’ve been talking about in the previous post). Fridays are fruitless anyway. Everyone slows down, thinking about the weekend, not starting anything serious until the next week (Friday releases anyone?). And in offices? Just think of all the chitchats, pats on the back, commute… Oh, by the way, I work remotely since 2015 (yes, 10 years as of the time of writing). Of course, meeting in person is very useful but needs a very specific set of people and at least somewhat specific agenda. Otherwise, it’s just hoping it’s “gonna be somehow”.
Less time on commute, less time being frustrated about lazy Fridays, more time for deep thinking while doing sports or other happy activities. Thus, I disappear on Fridays. And come back the next week with more juice.