Re: Refined XP Practice - 3 Day Week

Hi Kelly,
> To play the devil's advocate for a second... if it were proven that
> you could get more programming done in four hours than eight, then you
> would work four because it would improve your standard of living. It
> would just be hard to prove.
>   

Of course.  I think I would even be willing to experiment with various 
working arrangements more along the lines of what Gary Brown wrote.  As 
I understand it, though, Gary's arrangement involves having the 
employees actually at work and actively involved in team building (and 
available if a fire broke out).  I would probably have trouble 
experimenting with something as radically different (at least from the 
American perspective) as Simon's suggestion.
>>  Again, barring exceptional skill.  That changes everything.
>>     
>
> Again, I think that's foolishness, but to each his own. The detriment
> to the team dynamic of having one guy work half time would be very
> serious to overcome. If everyone worked twenty hours, then maybe it
> has a chance of working. But I don't have any comfort level there
> either. At least not yet. I'm open to watching an experiment though.
>   

Maybe, and the effect of hiring such a person on the team would have to 
be considered.  However, I would not, ipso facto, rule out Linus if I 
were an employer and he came a-ringing, even if he told me he could only 
work 20 hours a week.  Exceptional skill, IMHO, makes a lot of problems 
vanish, and if I had a small number of exceptional programmers, I 
suspect I'd be more than willing to engage in Simon's suggestion after 
all.  If they all wanted to work in private offices, do waterfall 
development, and sleep in till noon, that'd be fine with me.  If I had 
one exceptional programmer  that I catered to and a team of good 
full-time XP'ish programmers, I think I'd be willing to try to make that 
work too.  It's inconsistent, as Dave pointed out, but I certainly 
wouldn't call it foolishness. 
-Brandon Byars

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