Someone asked on reddit a couple of weeks back why, when they sit with a coding problem for 4 hours at work the solution suddenly comes to them in 5 minutes the next day.
I think your colleague's 30 hour week might be allowing time for him to think about his work without being at a desk doing his work. In other words, when he isn't being forced to make a show of presence he is working through solutions and processes in his mind.
I work where we fill out time sheets every day detailing what we worked on hour by hour (in part and in fairness also for billing reasons). It is counterproductive as I constantly stress about every minute I use on a task and worry I am taking too long. The results I see are those of programmers trying to please project managers and billing accounts, not good products that are optimized. Nobody seems to have time make something good.
The 30 hour guy probably isn't much smarter than the rest of us, he might just have the freedom to create with a relaxed mind. Stress apparently blocks creativity.
I work where we fill out time sheets every day detailing what we worked on hour by hour (in part and in fairness also for billing reasons). It is counterproductive as I constantly stress about every minute I use on a task and worry I am taking too long. The results I see are those of programmers trying to please project managers and billing accounts, not good products that are optimized. Nobody seems to have time make something good.
The 30 hour guy probably isn't much smarter than the rest of us, he might just have the freedom to create with a relaxed mind. Stress apparently blocks creativity.