I feel like I spend way too much time in front of a screen coding, compared to the time I spend interacting with people. When I talk to other people about this, some say the exact opposite. Perhaps it would be useful to define a metric for this. This way, people can measure it and strive to achieve their desired balance between screen and human interaction. We could call it the human-to-screen (H2S) metric.
Let:
H: time spent interacting with humansS: time spent in front of a screen
The ratio can then be defined as:
R = H/S
Where:
- If R > 1, more time is spent interacting with humans than in front of a screen.
- If R = 1, equal time is spent on both activities.
- If R < 1, more time is spent in front of a screen than interacting with humans.
In my daily work, I estimate my H2S ratio to be roughly 0.25. Ideally, I'd prefer it to be around 2, or maybe even higher. Interestingly, when I discuss this with others, it seems the optimal H2S ratio varies among individuals.
What's your ideal human-to-screen ratio? Is it optimal for you, or do you wish for a higher or lower ratio?