Jason Fried: Why work doesn't happen at work

[alee228]

Jason Fried gives an interesting talk about why work doesn't happen at work.

The basic premise of the talk is that work is a place full of distractions. Since it is difficult to get long stretches of uninterrupted time at work, it is difficult to get any quality work done there.

At least two interesting ideas emerge from this observation.

Work is like Sleep

Fried makes the analogy between work and sleep.

Work is like sleep because they are both stage based events. You sleep in stages or "phases" and in order to get to the deep stages of sleep you have to go through the earlier stages. If you are interrupted then you don't pick up where you left off, you have to go back and start from the beginning.

If you are trying to sleep and you get interrupted all night, you wont sleep well. If you are trying to work and you get interrupted all day, you wont work well.

M&Ms Kill Work

M&Ms are the real reason that things don't get done at work. Managers and meetings are both things that are designed to interrupt you, and often at a time when you are trying to get important work done.

[Guest]

Hahahaha,

I hate M&M's, especially the former unless they are really good quality. It's rare to find a good one in each batch you find in a workplace

Good points

[Guest]

I'm really enjoying all these handpicked TED talks, keep them coming!

[alee228]

Wil,

Thanks for the encouragement!

Feel free to share any good videos that you stumble across and which you think would suit the forum.