Interesting Links for 16-03-2012

[andrewducker]

• Working more than 40 hours per week will quickly make you less productive. Do not do it for more than a couple of weeks.
  (tags: work time sleep business )
• Guidance on how to fill out the equal marriage consultation for England/Wales/NI.
  (tags: lgbt marriage law uk )
• A fascinating look at the infighting going on at high levels in China
  (tags: china )
• New Star Wars Identities Portraits are Awesome!
  (tags: design poster star_wars )
• On making clothing locally
  (tags: etsy branding local localism manufacturing clothing )
• Livejournal releases actually new functionality!
  I have no idea why they didn't make LJ-Cuts work inline rather than adding a whole new tag which basically does what DW does with cuts.
  (tags: livejournal )
• You can now pay the TSA not to grope you! Does this count as blackmail?
  (tags: tsa security_theatre usa )
• Alan Garner to conclude Weirdstone of Brisingamen trilogy. (Oooooooh. Must re-read the original two!)
  (tags: AlanGarner books writing children Yay )
• White rice associated with higher levels of diabetes
  (tags: diabetes rice food diet )

Comments

[matgb]

Heh, DW is actually considering having a separate Spoiler tag that'd work similar to what LJ has done, it does display on entry pages as well, there's a lot of reasons to have them separate.

However, DW would make sure that a) it's obvious what's happened and that b) there's a 'close' option as well.

I really don't like the LJ implementation and the non obvious JS replacement it does, first time I saw one I clicked it and didn't see any change to the page, had to scroll and then it twigged what had happened. DWs might look a bit strange at times but at least it's obvious what's happened.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

I agree that working OT makes you tired and stupid, but not necessarily less productive. If you do the same thing all day, then yes. If you spend your days in unproductive meetings and your OT after hours doing actual work, then no. Wait - it's meetings that make you less productive!

[andrewducker]

If I spend 8 hours in meetings then the quality of any work I do after that is _definitely_ lower.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

The extra bits I do that turn my 35 hours week into a 40-45 hour week are the bits when I'm most productive, regrettably.

[andrewducker]

Sorry, yes. it may well be that the extra bits I do (like today, where I'm going in for 4 hours) are more productive than the bits I spend in meetings.

But they're still less productive than when I'm working a 40-hour week (or less).

[fearmeforiampink]

I'm in the office more than 40 hours a week. But that's firstly including my lunchtime (which I generally have on my own and somewhere quiet, reading or online looking at casual/personal stuff whilst I eat), and secondly including the general facebook/IRC/reading the news/fucking about online that I do. My hours in my contract are 35/week.

This mostly comes from the fact my employers know I care about improving (perhaps even unlocking) the democracy in the UK, therefore they don't have to worry about me bunking off; I come in at 10am (or sometimes 5-20 minutes later than that), eat porrige and beans on toast whilst reading the day's media monitoring whilst I let my brain spin up to speed, then start getting properly into things. And I leave around 5-5:30 if I missed/had a very short lunch and have things to do elsewhere, 6-6:30 most days.

[andrewducker]

You have sensible employers.

[fearmeforiampink]

I have employers who got half a year (albeit, 4 days a week, 1pm-6pm or thereabouts) of free work out of me, have known me for a year, and as mentioned, who are fighting for a cause I consider important.

Other stuff also helps; that I essentially consider getting more out of the (somewhat creaky at times) membership database that is my primary responsibility, to be an interesting challenge, and one where I can easily see the progress that I've made; that really aids in keeping me engaged.

The big one is the fact that I am doing this 'for the cause', as it does basically eliminate the issues that most employers have (or at least feel they have) with their employees working for the pay, not for the results.

If I won enough on the lottery to never need to work again, I'd carry on at Unlock Democracy, and I'd consider doing so in some more formalised form than the volunteering I did before, because being staff results in me having more input, and being able to much more 'own' projects and see them work.

[makyo.livejournal.com]

Guidance on how to fill out the equal marriage consultation for England/Wales/NI.
Thanks for this. I'd found questions 5 (option of religious same-sex marriage) and 8 (opposite-sex civil partnerships) ambiguously worded. In the end, I answered in the way that seemed to represent my opinions (yes to both) and added a clarificatory note in the "any other comments" box at the end.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Wow, I think the England & Wales consultation might be even worse put together than ours was! Most of the questions are directed at a tiny fraction of the population!

[dommy-nick.livejournal.com]

I always figure that meetings lasting longer than about half an hour are a waste of time. Be serious, how many of you contribute anything in a 3 hour meeting and spend half of it thinking of what you could be doing instead?

I hate meetings for this reason, and I think they're a large part of why working weeks are getting longer and longer. And why the hell can't we use teleconferencing facilities for meetings to save travelling 4-6 hours for a probably pointless meeting?

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Because some people believe face to face meetings are essential for real communication, and others secretly (or unconsciously) like the power they have to make other people travel for meetings, or feel important because they travel for meetings. SWaiting for a flight in an airport early in the morning is always hilarious when you hear managers and directors making phone calls where they are very clearly just doing it in order to let other people in the airport know how important they are because they are working while not at work, and to let people at the other end of the phone know that they are important because they're in an airport, travelling rather than sitting in the office!

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Research by the US military has shown that losing just one hour of sleep per night for a week will cause a level of cognitive degradation equivalent to a .10 blood alcohol level. Worse: most people who’ve fallen into this state typically have no idea of just how impaired they are.

This is both funny and sad considering that the military expects/demands that soldiers carry out their job without sleep. Don't worry, I'm sure they do just fine. Juuuuuuust fine.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Re: Sleep, I know that I'm not a safe driver when I'm very tired.

Re: lj-spoiler vs lj-cut: Note that a) lj-spoiler tags can't be reclosed, and b) lj-spoiler tags remain hidden even inside cuts, so it is a different functionality..