"Busy is not a strategy. It's not a reward. It's a symptom of something broken."

Mamuna and Lola on the tech-culture trap of confusing the appearance of productivity with the actual thing — back-to-back meetings, fast Slack replies, the perpetual "I'm so busy" status update. Why the highest performers have the emptiest calendars, why Lola's "time optimist" brain keeps misjudging how long things take, and why Mamuna refuses to let an LLM write the V1 of anything important.

Plus: the 250-person hellscape Mamuna survived, the deep-work block that has to be 90 minutes minimum, and what happens when you brick a device — and then your husband.

Chapters:

00:00 — Cold open + a pop culture reference goes wrong

02:15 — The real topic: time management hurts my heart

03:43 — "Busy is not a flex"

04:30 — "I'm a time optimist"

06:00 — The 250-person hellscape

08:24 — Deep work needs 90 minutes minimum

10:36 — "There's no right answer. There's no done."

13:42 — Bricking the device, then bricking the husband

16:30 — Reject multitasking

18:36 — AI won't write your V1

21:38 — Simplify your life

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LostInTechPodcast/videos

Also on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lost-in-tech/id1738267185

Lost in Tech is Mamuna Oladipo and Lola Pearson — a combined 35 years in tech across North America and Europe, on the highs, the lows, and the WTFs of navigating the industry. Send your tech questions: [email protected].