Every MS FTE whom I knew enough to have that kind of conversation with was stretched thin to the breaking point. Now half their team is gone, and the show must go on apparently. It does not seem viable to me, not even with AI.

She was telling me about one study in particular to try a new touch screen built behind the handbrake, pretty much at 5 o'clock behind the driver. I'm sure she's not the only one sharing usability reports about how dangerous touchscreens are while driving, but marketing needed to advertise one more screen than the competition... This was 5 years ago. Took them a while to pivot, but i guess better late than never.

All that to say, voters here do care about utilities, and the coop solution worked for about 25 years iirc but it can't work in today's "one solution fits all" regulatory context anymore, at least where i live. Things are far from that simple in practice.

Is the reputation warranted? Just a US thing? Or maybe the question is "since when did this change"? because in the mid 2000s in france at least, llm research was led by cognitive psychology professors who dabble in programming or had partnerships with a nearby technical university.

I'm a bit skeptical because i read a similar comment about answering calls immediately vs. letting it go to the answering machine already being such a divide.

Makes me feel old for thinking anyone offended by my taking hours if not days to respond to a non urgent text is welcome to go be someone else's friend.

For waking up, something not technological but working 99% of the time for me: pets (or kids) though you'd want other reasons as well to have those beyond waking you up early in the morning...

Most of my life I've had cats or dogs and their internal clock is amazingly on time. They are actually smart and try different things if you don't wake up at first, adapting to their owner. They include waking mechanisms such as sound, touch, light pain, emotional rewards and possibly guilt tripping/punishment to keep you accountable if you fail to wake up. Birds can work too but I wouldn't recommend keeping a rooster in your bedroom for an alarm unless you're blaring-alarms-levels of hard to wake up and don't have neighbours or a partner, these guys don't have an indoor voice.

Point is you're then forced to care for the pet, wether it wakes you to go out, get food or get cuddles and bob's your uncle: your chances of picking up your phone and doomscrolling first thing in the morning are much lowered.

I burn out at a 6 figures flexible job, while my friends burn out at minimum wage jobs where they have to report bathroom breaks by the minute. How can I complain about my burnout-inducing work conditions?

Employers have no incentive to do research that would force them to spend more on employee wellness. I worked on enough team health surveys to know leadership has no interest in collecting feedback about the big known complaints that they aren't interested in addressing. They only want to hear about the small unimportant things that could help morale to cope with the big issues (unless they are forced to investigate serious workplace injuries, unsustainable churn/absenteeism or productivity issues)

That said employers/HR publish a lot of blog spam about how burnout is really due to employe's lack of self care.

The definition of burnout is a professional ailment caused by work conditions (inappropriate workload, lack of recognition, lack of support). Whatever happens in everyday life is a different problem. You can struggle in life and not be burnt out by work and vice versa.

How much work it takes to protect the balance to avoid burnout can itself also contribute to burnout, say if you constantly have to fight getting overstaffed or repeatedly having to push back on being on call...

It is counter intuitive that doing more unpaid work helps cope with doing paid work, but the whole premise iirc is that it is work you are in control of and that helps battle the lack of meaning and agency at work.

Of course this assumes you're not already too burnt out to even think about a side project.