I know it's a joke but time is not (or should not be at least)a synonym for bandwidth in the corporate world. A p1 ticket takes more bandwidth than a p2 even if they take the same amount of time to complete.
I’m curious how they differ in your opinion. Can you elaborate?
For context, I’m a Product Manager and it wouldn’t occur to me that either takes more bandwidth. However, I do think “bandwidth” carries a connotation of priority. “I don’t have the time to work on that P1” would be a rather shocking statement to hear, since a P1 should, by definition, be the top priority. “I don’t have the bandwidth to work on that P1” says to me that there’s something equally or more important taking that person’s focus.
For context, I'm a senor dev at a large corporation, that works at a much slower pace than your typical continuous integration web app. If I was to translate "Do you have bandwidth for x" from corpo speak I would say "Are you able to work x to completion without the stakeholders noticing it not progressing" . That encompasses time, but it also needs to account for all the other resources needed to do that task and more intangible things like the latency expected in updates or the amount of mental capacity (some at my company call it "mind ram" which I think is a good metaphor).
Here's an example. If I have a p1 that takes 1 hour of my time a day before being blocked by other people (this is common in my industry, it's common for dozens of developers from various specialties to work on the same issue). Because it is high priority and involves many people the important thing is that I work on it immediately when the issue is with me. This is a ticket that takes a lot of bandwidth, but not a lot of time.
If I have been assigned this issue I can work 2 or 3 p2 tickets in addition to that without missing anything. However I wouldn't have the bandwidth to work on another p1, because if they both needed my attention at the same time, or have a meeting at the same time I wouldn't be able to appropriately meet the needs of both p1 tickets.
As another example, I need specialized hardware to test certain things. That HW is in short supply and those tests can sometimes run for days. If I have an issue that ties up that hardware, I don't have the BW for another issue that uses that HW. Although I have all the time in the world for other issues, I lack the BW for any issue that needs that HW.
"But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that's going to be Human and isn't yet, or used to be Human once and isn't now, or ought to be Human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet."
I call this feeling "The Holy Spirit" and no I'm not religious, hear me out.
So there's "The Father" which is you, in charge of everything.
Then there's "The Son" which is your Jesus, the bit of you that does shit mostly perfectly without any input from you. The scary example of this is when you drive to work and can't remember the drive at all. Jesus Take the wheel. Teach your Jesus right and you can trust he'll do things fine.
Then The Holy Spirit, which is that part of you that sees everything, before the filters are applied, and let's you know something is off. There's no obvious reason for it, but there's something off about this guy and we need to get away from him as soon as possible and never interact with them again.
The Jesus part is the important bit for most of us. Learning to play the guitar? Teach your Jesus. When you've practiced enough you can just trust that Jesus will hit the notes while you concentrate on singing along.
When I learned to Juggle I just taught my Jesus how to throw properly so it lands in the other hand.
At work I teach my Jesus how to do the manual labour, do the checks I need to do, and I can concentrate on ripping on my work colleagues.
I really miss having a reason to walk all day, like when I was in university. Now I work from home, and while I can walk around the block of whatever, it just isn't nearly the same.
The same for me. Although I could and would game in the dorm as much as I liked, I'd have pretty regular evening walks with friends over 2 hours with sitting for a bit on good places around the campus. On top of regular school stuff that'd amount to 4k-5k steps, these walks would add 5k-8k more on top, sometimes totalling 20k and not a single step or minute would be boring or hard to find motivation for.
Honestly, the idea of adding another hobby to my Jenga tower of hobbies is a bit scary, but you aren't wrong that it would get me out more. Might be worth a shot (pun intended).
Get a dog, if you can't then dedicate an hour or two to walking, make it an obligation.
I WFH and walk 5 to 10km a day... If you had the time to do it before and don't have more obligations than before then it's on you if you don't do it anymore...
Well, don't limit yourself to going around the block! We've got a 10lbs dog and he's unstoppable, he could walk around the city for hours if we let him. Pop some earphones in, listen to a podcast about something that interests you and go!
It's not like going around a lake, but that's something you can do on weekends :)
The things around me have all been stuff like "what material is the power pole made out of?" "What is the road surface on ____ street?" "What are the restrictions on parking here?" Etc. but there is an advanced mode you can use which unlocks harder questions that less people answer
I have a dog, and we walk around the block(s), but it's boring. When I can, I drive my dog down to the forest paths for a walk, but that's like, a whole event.
I found excuses for myself to walk and it's made a difference. YMMV depending on what's around you, but like my friend and I walk to a nearby coffee shop for our lunch dates, and I've got a decent walk to get to the gym, which impacts how my legs/back feel hugely.
Even just walking to a corner store to get a sparkling juice or whatever is nice.
I do have a few things within walking distance, but it's like, a gas station and a restaurant. I do walk to those when I need to, but I try not to go off I can help it, just to save money. (That's another frustration - that every reason to get out costs money.)
Sadly, there's a grocery store just outside "walking range" of my house. The last place I lived, I loved walking to the store every day for fresh groceries, but here it just isn't feasible.
Fortunately I should be moving soon, though, and this is all definitely going to be in mind when we choose a place.
I WFH a couple of days per week and living in a 15 minute walkable city is wonderful for walks compared to when I lived in the suburbs. But that's me and having an endless amount of actual stuff to walk to compared to an endless sea of cookie cutter houses and grass is my idea of heaven vs hell, in that order.
My product manager is doing the opposite - pushing us to replace "bandwidth" and "effort" with "time". We're now expected to provide an accurate hour estimate for all work items, projects, and bugs. Getting it done later or sooner is penalized on the metrics.
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