Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on • Hacker News Board

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#11

Post by igravious » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:18 PM UTC

Mz wrote: post #8

Or use HN to "sharpen the axe": focus on reading stuff on HN that is actually useful to your goals. Voila! Guilt-free slacking.

That's how I convince myself that the many man-months I have sunk into HN are not in fact wasted but on balance a net positive. Humans are really good at rationalizing away counter-productive behaviour. :)

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#12

Post by apryldelancey » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:20 PM UTC

Perfect! Thank you for the reminder.

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#13

Post by OJFord » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:23 PM UTC

I was foolish to expect this to link me to a Medium piece or editorial, really..

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#14

Post by majc2 » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:23 PM UTC

toyg wrote: post #2

New Year Resolution: turn noprocrast on, with maxvisit 5 and minaway 240.

done :)

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#15

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:29 PM UTC

jacques_chester wrote: post #5

It occurs to me that the folk most likely to see this advice are those least likely to follow it.

[deleted]

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#16

Post by chimeracoder » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:30 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #6

I'm just here because my compile times are slow. 3 hours later… after 12 tweets, reading 6 articles, filing a GitHub issue, and watching a show on Netflix… what was I building?

> 3 hours later… after 12 tweets, reading 6 articles, filing a GitHub issue, and watching a show on Netflix… what was I building?

Judging from the compile times, Gentoo?

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#17

Post by gabalese » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:32 PM UTC

For me, reading HN is like reading the paper or reading books about subjects that matter to me: it's not time strictly spent on the job I have to do, but it's part of a healthy information diet. Crunching code without taking a look at what's currently happening and being discussed in your professional community is hardly a recipe for self improvement. (It's a thin red line between healthy consumption and abuse, I know, but our job often _requires_ that we keep an eye on what's going on outside our compiler.)

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#18

Post by SeanDav » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:38 PM UTC

But if I stop looking at HN, I won't get wonderful tips like: "Stop looking at HN..."

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#19

Post by 300bps » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:38 PM UTC

gabalese wrote: post #17

For me, reading HN is like reading the paper or reading books about subjects that matter to me: it's not time strictly spent on the job I have to do, but it's part of a healthy information diet. Crunching code without taking a look at what's currently happening and being discussed in your professional community is hardly a recipe for self improvement. (It's a thin red line between healthy consumption and abuse, I kno…

I agree. Reading HN is like taking a break to eat a chocolate chip granola bar. On the other hand, reading reddit is like hooking a syrup IV to your veins.

Re: Stop looking at HN and go work that thing you promised yourself you'd work on

#20

Post by joeyspn » Sat, Dec 19, 2015, 9:43 PM UTC

As a professional procrastinator I'll definitely follow your advice...

... tomorrow.