I'm not sure why there so many negative comments. I work from home for myself and I can say not having a boss to report to makes it easier to get bogged down in non productive tasks. When I used to go to an office and had a manager there was always that external pressure to get things done. I have to constantly remind myself to be productive and not spend time on time wasting websites so I can see how just knowing someone is watching would make you more productive. I remember a few years ago there was a website where you could be on a webcam with someone else while you both worked, sort of a productivity buddy type thing. Kudo's to the author for trying something new and sharing it with everyone. I think that's brave especially with all the keyboard critics in the world.
Most people would agree that having somebody keeping you accountable in the same room does tend to increase productivity in the short term. Long term, not being micromanaged has a positive mental impact.
Regardless, I think most people are rather reading between the lines, since there's some weirdness to hiring (from Craigslist) a "productivity manager" who watches you, does house chores and cooks for you. This is basically a servant with another title, and not acknowledging it makes it seem like the author is missing some common wisdom. There's other details like his assistant being caught watching porn, to which the author reacts in an.. even more awkward way than expected? It reads a lot like satire.
> Long term, not being micromanaged has a positive mental impact
that's kind of a royal luxury because the things that need to get done today don't care about that.
For me personally I found that the longer i live on this planet, the more I'm drowning in a million stupid bureaucratic things like startup taxes, dealing with tenants, dmv, financial paperwork, etc etc. Maybe good problems to have, but whatever, all this still requires lots of diligent work. Taxes don't care if you are in the mood to do them, you just need to get the hell up and do them on time, correctly, otherwise you don't even qualify as a functioning human. So if there is some person there who gently nudges me to stay on track with all the inevitable, snowballing stupid daily crap, I'd count that as a win and I don't care if they mock it as a "proxy mom" if it's actually productive.
> Long term, not being micromanaged has a positive mental impact.
This isn't micromanagement, except to the extent that they are preventing him from visiting time-sink websites (unclear to me why his website blocking tech didn't work for that). They aren't actually directing his work activities in any way, so not only are they not micromanaging him, they're not managing him at all - in fact, he is managing them. All they are doing is making sure he's "on the clock".
I weep for the future of a world where zoomers have entered the workforce during covid lockdowns and think that remote work is normal and working in an office, with a boss sitting behind you or whatever, is what "micromanagement" means. Newsflash - it ain't.
Yes, I also find the overall cold reception unfortunate.
I'm enthusiastic about the topic and appreciated TFA, and I felt like most the people ripping on it here were just a couple steps away from turning their (IMO) unconstructive criticisms to constructive ones.
And yes, as it has been pointed out: a lot of the parameters had him practically crossing over into hiring servants, and I felt like it deeply undermined some aspects of the experiment, although I guess the main goal was just to strictly see increased work output as a fun experiment.
I would have found the experiment more interesting if the warm bodies were hired a little more strictly for accountability purposes in helping the author stay on task not only for work but also with tending to the basic Maslow tasks, especially in the area of home-cooked meals (or just sticking with ordering out/delivery if that is what they usually do). I've only recently acquired the space and wherewithal to be able to do this for myself, and it is a HUGE timesink.
I have a hotmail account from the nineties and some emails just don't get delivered to it anymore. It's happened with several companies that I do business with. I've had to get them on the phone and change my email to a gmail account, but some you can't get them on the phone.
I still dine out alone at times because my family doesn't like some of the places I like to eat (spicy foods mostly) and I don't care what anyone thinks, it doesn't bother me.
I use privacy.com to create virtual debit cards for all online payments, especially recurring ones. I can set limts on monthly, annual or one time charges and cancel it myself at anytime. the other added benefit is that if you lose your debit card you only have to change the number with privacy.com you don't have to go to each vender and update to a new card number.
Works only in US, when u suggest something make sure if it works for the rest of the World. Or at-least please do mention about the limitation.
US =/= World.
I've been trying to think of ideas of how they could help themselves. The only thing I can think of is to use technology - camera's everywhere, body cams and tracking devices on vehicles and people. I know they aren't wealthy, but the town could put cameras on the streets like the do in London. I'm just brainstorming here... Such a sad situation they are in.
I've pondered on this and wonder if religion could be the answer. I say this as an atheist. But churches, typically already established well in these areas, could have the community structure combines with good social values and zeal/commitment, even fanaticism to see through what would likely be tough time initially to cleaning up areas.
Something along the lines of a Knights Templar where segment of a community devote themselves to the protection of people in the area. It might even give youth an alternative to avoid gangs as while jobs are scarce they can join a 'higher order' so have an alternative that provides purpose and a raise in self-status.
Note: I know nothing about these areas or problems really so approach this mental exercise from a position of ignorance and Hollywood.
To quote a speech I heard in college: "It frustrates me to no end that, as a species, the religious are more fit. Their communities are more structured, and have less crime and violence. Their families larger, more nuclear and more supportive of each other. Their members are more relaxed, and have more purpose to their lives.
Evolution would state that, eventually, only the religious will survive. If there is a God, He is laughing."
Nonetheless, I don't think that would help here - the society has passed critical mass of crime, the incentives are for everyone to be criminal, and religion itself would be subverted for its use.
Me, on the other hand, as a citizen of a very corrupt corrupt country in which the specter of communism still linger heavily, I wonder how many officials would either "malfunction" cameras when cartel members would be caught on video OR would actively help cartel members organize their kidnappings.
Jails and prisons are where American society throws people away. There aren't working video cameras, competent guards, effective suicide watches. That's not where Americans choose to place their attention
The argument that Jeffery Epstein was murdered hinges on jails and prisons to be something they are not
It’s 2020. Cheap, long lasting cameras are ubiquitous and easily available. A 40 year old CCTV camera in a subway station might be likely to not work, but I don’t see why that’s comparable to a camera for one of the highest profile prisoners in recent years. For $100, they could have even had 2 cameras for redundancy and no excuse.
Prisons are not much of a target for tech upgrades. Here’s a 2018 study from california on “what happens if we put surveillance cameras in the prison?” to give you an idea of the baseline. https://ucicorrections.seweb.uci.edu/files/2018/05/High-Dese...
Then someone needs to be held responsible for this. Somebody is in charge of all of that and should face the consequences of their failure to fulfill their duties.
Sure, it's a conspiracy of taxpayers to avoid the massive investment that would be required to bring all that technology back into working order - across public infrastructure everywhere throughout the country.
What percentage of BART cameras do you think work? Based on the number of high-profile incidents without footage, I'd guess <25%. I would not be surprised to learn the answer is 0%.
Consider yourself held responsible and allocate yourself the consequences you see fit.
No, you misunderstand. Somebody is in charge of that prison/jail. A person died under their watch. The equipment supposed to record how it happened malfunctioned right at that time. This should be unacceptable. The person directly responsible for the facility should bear at least some consequences for failure to do their duty. If they don't have enough funding to make sure that things like this don't happen then there should be an extensive paper trail of them asking for more funding for this. If not, then it sounds like it's not a problem they care about.
For me it's not a question of whether it's a conspiracy or not. For me it's a question about society. Not only can we not protect a very high profile individual from harm in a cell (self-inflicted or not), we can't even make sure that the cameras in the cell work. What chance do we have that prisons in general can protect prisoners from harm? And if we can't protect prisoners from harm then they'll do it themselves. That's how you get a gang culture. You also make sure that many criminals never even get a real chance at reforming, because they'll have to protect themselves in prison with the limited means at their disposal instead of learning to become a better person.
Yes, American prisons are as bad as this makes them look. Possibly worse. The UK refused to extradite one guy because they said there was too high a risk that he'd kill himself in prison here. Prison rape and assault are common - at least 20% of male prisoners report being assaulted, often by staff. And it's been like this for decades, all over the country, because a significant percentage of people really believe that prison is meant to be some kind of dystopic hellhole.
I have a real estate business and this is one of the sites I have used to post my real estate listings. It wasn't a large part of business, but I did get regular leads from the site. I mostly used craigslist, facebook and zillow, but this was a solid 4th place source of leads for me. I'm self employed and these sites are how I make my living. So not all of the users are posting sex ads. I don't like the title calling it a sex marketplace. It makes it sounds like this is the only thing on the website.
