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Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#31

Post by k__ »

marvin wrote: post #27

I'm going to say something that might be wildly unpopular among ambitious people: If you have a full-time job, you are by far not a passive consumer. You presumably contribute >40 hours every week of creatively demanding, high-quality labor to society. For most people, the premise of this question is wrong. Procrastination, when you don't obviously have a lot of available time and effort, is a symptom that most of yo…

So true.

I'm blogging one a week about dev stuff and it takes 2-4 hours depending on the topic.

I met a few devs with family and children, and they were blown away by my commitment.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#32

Post by bbcbasic »

marvin wrote: post #27

I'm going to say something that might be wildly unpopular among ambitious people: If you have a full-time job, you are by far not a passive consumer. You presumably contribute >40 hours every week of creatively demanding, high-quality labor to society. For most people, the premise of this question is wrong. Procrastination, when you don't obviously have a lot of available time and effort, is a symptom that most of yo…

I agree. That's why at the start of the year my side project was learning advanced Haskell topics. And now I've said f'it I'm not enjoying that and I'm setting up a Shopify store instead. Polar opposite side project!

No coding aka brain burning required and I get to create something super quick with minimal brain power and potentially profit which if I do could buy me more time to spend in it.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#33

Post by rwieruch »

I followed two rules to shift from a consumer to a producer:

1. have a fixed amount of time to read HN, Reddit, Twitter, Email

2. have a release schedule

The first rule helps me to keep the consuming time to a minimum. Only once in the morning, after lunch and after work I check the recent (!) updates on all necessary platforms. It can be hard in the beginning, but at some point it becomes a habit.

The second rule helps me to stick to producing. I blog about web development and self-growth and therefore I have a backlog of ideas to write about. Once a week I post an article.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#34

Post by rythie »

To me, you need come up a schedule a stick to it no matter what. For example when I wanted to do more photography, I started a 365 project [1] to a take a photo everyday and publish it. The first couple of weeks were hard, but after a while I restructured my days, workflow & equipment to suit it.

I'd say, if you want to do YouTube, you should at least do the 1 per week thing. If you are short on time, you can do Q&A/livestream episodes. I'm sure you'd be are aware of Casey Neistat [2], who has said multiple times he wished he'd done daily vlogging sooner.

[1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardcunningham/albums/72157... [2] https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#35

Post by monk_e_boy »

marvin wrote: post #27

I'm going to say something that might be wildly unpopular among ambitious people: If you have a full-time job, you are by far not a passive consumer. You presumably contribute >40 hours every week of creatively demanding, high-quality labor to society. For most people, the premise of this question is wrong. Procrastination, when you don't obviously have a lot of available time and effort, is a symptom that most of yo…

I wrote an released some open source software in my spare time. I just stopped watching 2 hours of TV a night and coded then. I would got to the pub 2 hours later than my mates, I would miss popular TV shows (X-factor or whatever) but it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it.

But I do think there are people who just feel the need to make things, they just get on and do it.

People who question how makers find the time.... hm, it's like I question how people have the time to watch endless Netflix shows. Where do you fit that time in? Oh, you aren't making a hydrofoil in your back room? OK, that's currently what's taking up a lot of my spare time.

I think humans were designed to enjoy making things. As soon as you start using your hands and brain and try to make something that no one else has -- enjoyment happens.

The other day I had the option of buying some rope on eBay and getting free splicing. Wow. Challenge accepted! I purchased the more expensive non-spliced rope and spent a week learning all about splicing. It's amazing how many new places around my house a bit of spliced rope came in handy.

Don't get me started on how many hours of YouTube videos I watched on rope making. I spent many a happy hour at a friends garden making string and rope out of nettles. He thought I was a bit nutty, but he used the string to tie up his beans. His kid used some of it to make a den.

I'm getting distracted. Everyone enjoys making (kids love lego) you just have to accept that you are re-inventing the wheel and not to worry about it. You won't get famous. You'll just enjoy life more.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#36

Post by kungtotte »

k__ wrote: post #31
marvin wrote: post #27

I'm going to say something that might be wildly unpopular among ambitious people: If you have a full-time job, you are by far not a passive consumer. You presumably contribute >40 hours every week of creatively demanding, high-quality labor to society. For most people, the premise of this question is wrong. Procrastination, when you don't obviously have a lot of available time and effort, is a symptom that most of yo…

So true. I'm blogging one a week about dev stuff and it takes 2-4 hours depending on the topic. I met a few devs with family and children, and they were blown away by my commitment.

Yeah, some weeks between work, family time, and other commitments I'd be lucky to get 2-4 hours of free time all to myself.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#37

Post by hk__2 »

Profragile wrote: post #29
rmetzler wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Delete the smartphone app now. Thank me later.

I did that last year to avoid bullshit generated and perpetuated by people I know. This year, I decided to delete the reddit app to get away from bullshit generated and perpetuated by people I don't know. I still consume some bullshit, but I'm getting there.

reddit is an awesome source of information if you subscribe to the good subreddits (i.e. not crowded ones like /r/pics or /r/worldnews). I’ve learnt a lot from /r/photography and got very good feedback when I posted some projects on /r/python or /r/clojure.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#39

Post by petra »

paublyrne wrote: post #28

I would ask if you think uploading videos to youtube that you feel obliged to produce for the sake of being 'productive', is really contributing to society. We have a glut of online content. For every tweet that illuminates, there are 9 that constitute meaningless chatter, background noise that serves only to obfuscate the good stuff. The freedom that the internet has given people to communicate is a wonderful and em…

So true.

And even if he wants to contribute in a field he's good at, like programming - creating your own project is often just an exercise in vanity, when you could do a lot more good, behind the scenes, as part of a larger group working on something more of value.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#40

Post by marvin »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #35
marvin wrote: post #27

I'm going to say something that might be wildly unpopular among ambitious people: If you have a full-time job, you are by far not a passive consumer. You presumably contribute >40 hours every week of creatively demanding, high-quality labor to society. For most people, the premise of this question is wrong. Procrastination, when you don't obviously have a lot of available time and effort, is a symptom that most of yo…

I wrote an released some open source software in my spare time. I just stopped watching 2 hours of TV a night and coded then. I would got to the pub 2 hours later than my mates, I would miss popular TV shows (X-factor or whatever) but it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. But I do think there are people who just feel the need to make things, they just get on and do it. People who question how makers find the time....…

There is definitely something here; some pursuits feel like they come naturally (i.e. feel like they replenish rather than cost energy) while others are more of a chore that require a deliberate application of energy to perform. Perhaps some creative people have certain interests that are just so engaging they could spend most of their waking hours doing them, but that these activities are very specific.

My feeling has always been that the time component isn't the deciding factor. Of course you spend a significant number of hours every week doing non-work-related activities, but although the number of hours spent is identical, watching an enjoyable Netflix show isn't nearly as demanding as building a hydrofoil in your garage. At least that's the case for most people; maybe you are one of the few for whom building boats is a great passion and naturally spend your effort doing that.

I've always found that there are only a few weeks a year that I'll naturally be able to spend doing demanding creative labor outside of work. And at those times it'll be pretty specific, e.g. some programming project that for some reason seems unusually interesting. Apart from that, I can certainly turn off my other natural energy-replenishing interests for a while (reading, computer games, movies, conversations with friends, biking/working out), but it is not sustainable and will lead to burnout and depression if I ignore my body's signals and don't stop in time.

Eventually I've found that it's healthier to just acknowledge and be proud of my significant contributions in my full time-job, and consider this a human limitation. I don't think it's healthy or constructive to feel guilty about not being as energetic and capable as (a small number of famous) other people.

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