An Article Every Manager, VC and Angel Investor Should Read
Paul Graham's Maker's Schedule vs. Manager's Schedule explains why meeting-packed days kill developer output -- required reading for anyone who schedules devs.
Awhile back Paul Graham posted an artcile that every Manager, Venture Capitalist and Angel Investor should read.
It’s located here: http://paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
Having personally been a developer, manager and entrepenuer who has dealt with development managers, angel investors and private venture capitalists I can tell you, this post hits it out of the park. The makers schedule is exactly what this post describes it as. If software companies and departments recognized this more often, productivity would jump quite a bit.
Here’s an example of my day:
Arrive at Office & Start working: 7am
Stand up Meeting: 8:30-8:45
Meeting: 9:30-10:30
Lunch: 11:30-12:30
Meeting: 1:45-2:45
Go Home: 4pm.
My longest period to “get in the zone” was 1.5 hours at the beginning of the day. That is barely long enough to just really get into what I’m doing. This is why managers always wonder “why didnt you get anyting done yesterday? I got x, y and z done, you didnt get anything done.” Reason being: They’re on the managers schedule, I’m on the makers schedule.
