Life is Short • Hacker News Board

Re: Life is Short

#101

Post by omarish » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 1:54 AM UTC

Loved this article. It really reminded me of some of Seneca's writing, specifically _On the Shortness of Life_:

> Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing. So it is—the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it. Just as great and princely wealth is scattered in a moment when it comes into the hands of a bad owner, while wealth however limited, if it is entrusted to a good guardian, increases by use, so our life is amply long for him who orders it properly.

Re: Life is Short

#102

Post by irishcoffee » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 1:54 AM UTC

treebeard901 wrote: post #52

dclowd9901 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incidentally, one of the stickiest lessons I received from my Econ 101 prof was that if you ever have a choice to go out with a couple with kids or a couple without kids, you should opt for couples with kids, for they value their leisure time as though it was ground up rhino horn.

On the other hand, how long does it really take to build a new PC? Maybe an hour for research and ordering parts... another two hours at most to put it together. Seems like a small investment for something you're going to use a lot.

Do you have kids? Finding time to use said built PC is as precious (in the early days of children) as the time spent researching and building. I read somewhere that new parents lose 6 months of sleep in the first 18 months of having a child. Provided this estimate is wildly inaccurate, new parents are still trying to catch up 2-3 years later.

Re: Life is Short

#103

Post by erikpukinskis » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 1:55 AM UTC

vcarl wrote: post #36

anunumoose wrote: post #3

Mr Graham, I respect you and you've accomplished more that I will in my life, but I sincerely hope that this essay against "bullshit" and "arguing online" isn't you declaring that you'll be "bubbling" yourself after your last essay was met with wide disagreement. It's possible that sometimes, no matter how smart you are, your experiences have been limited in a way and you're missing a part of something everyone else…

I read some "rebuttals" to the previous essay, and while there were definitely some valid points brought up, a lot of them seemed to me to have misinterpreted a lot of what was said. PG tweeted about feeling like a lot of his side of the "debate" was pointing out that he hadn't said something. [1] [1]: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/688044252744527875

You can choose to spend your debate time defending the sanctity of the original point, or you can choose to follow the ideas that are brought to you. You can look for the kernel of intent, or you can try to swat people away for making logical fallacies.

Debate isn't always about winning. Sometimes it can just be a back and forth exploration of an interesting subject area. But you have to treat it that way.

Re: Life is Short

#104

Post by xlayn » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 1:56 AM UTC

I've thinking about the entry... and every once and then you think about it; and realize: it's about choice...

What will be the best use of your time?

When someone ask for the best flavor of linux, or program, or car; depending on the forum you may get the answer "that depends on you", and you may read a lot of different opinions on why people think their version is the best "for them".

With that comes a small problem: deciding the best use of your time, plan for the rest of your life may be incredibly complex.

An alternative B plan could be planning around: "What I don't want on my life"

-I don't want to be in the middle of traffic because is less time with my family...

-I want to spend less time on the internet to go the gym.../I want to stop being a gym rat to learn something on the internet

Re: Life is Short

#105

Post by wallflower » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 2:01 AM UTC

"You’re still young and healthy. Maybe that’s why you don’t understand what I am saying. Let me give you an example. Once you pass a certain age, life becomes nothing more than a process of continual loss. Things that are important to your life begin to slip out of your grasp, one after another, like a comb losing teeth. And the only things that come to take their place are worthless imitations. Your physical strength, your hopes, your dreams, your ideals, your convictions, all meaning, or, then again, the people you love: one by one, they fade away. Some announce their departure before they leave, while others just disappear all of a sudden without warning one day. And once you lose them you can never get them back. Your search for replacements never goes well. It’s all very painful—as painful as actually being cut with a knife. You will be turning thirty soon, Mr. Kawana, which means that, from now on, you will gradually enter that twilight portion of life—you will be getting older. You are probably beginning to grasp that painful sense that you are losing something, are you not?"

From 1Q84, Haruki Murakami

Re: Life is Short

#106

Post by geofft » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 2:04 AM UTC

anunumoose wrote: post #3

Mr Graham, I respect you and you've accomplished more that I will in my life, but I sincerely hope that this essay against "bullshit" and "arguing online" isn't you declaring that you'll be "bubbling" yourself after your last essay was met with wide disagreement. It's possible that sometimes, no matter how smart you are, your experiences have been limited in a way and you're missing a part of something everyone else…

Yeah, I'm curious why this essay was written. A week after having finished spending (evidently) quite a while writing two essays about economic inequality and your personal role in increasing society-wide inequality, why the sudden change to caring about spending time with your kids? And why the need to say this out loud?

This essay strongly feels like rationalizing to oneself an unwillingness to engage with reasoned criticism (of which there was quite a bit). If pg wants to spend time with his kids, good for him, that's certainly going to be more fulfilling than arguing online. But throwing arguments over the fence and then proclaiming the desire to spend time with your kids genuinely does not seem fulfilling.

Re: Life is Short

#107

Post by artursapek » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 2:05 AM UTC

seansoutpost wrote: post #51

Paul,you don't know me. But this could not have been more perfectly timed. Thank you, so much.

I'm somewhat active in the Bitcoin community. Are you the person who runs the bitcoin-friendly homeless shelter? Do you suffer from people writing bullshit about you, too? I imagine you might, in your position.

Re: Life is Short

#108

Post by decafa5c11 » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 2:07 AM UTC

numlocked wrote: post #67

And for a completely different perspective, we have Kurt Vonnegut: [Vonnegut tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope] “Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a…

Another different perspective, from Brian Chesky:

Repetition doesn’t create memories. New experiences do. Our perception of time is really driven by our perception of the unfamiliar, vivid and new. Of course, it turns out time slows down the most during life threatening experiences. [1] A safer way to slow down time is to travel. Travel is a new experience that can transport you out of your everyday routine to create memories with the ones you love.

https://medium.com/@bchesky/how-to-time-travel-b604096d5ed0#...

Re: Life is Short

#109

Post by beeboop » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 2:07 AM UTC

Absolutely my favorite post of his. Rings so true for me right now. Writing this comment is "bullshit" but it makes me feel better to express my satisfaction with reading this post. I need to connect with people more and spend fewer months and years of my life in isolation.

Re: Life is Short

#110

Post by wavefunction » Sun, Jan 17, 2016, 2:09 AM UTC

babuskov wrote: post #29

evgg wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your reasoning behind labeling building one's own PCs as bullshit, as opposed to buying Macs?

When time is scarce, you start to prioritize things that are really important to you. If your main life goal is to ship great software, then building your own PC is just taking away precious time. As DHH said in Twist interview: "If you're not working on your best idea right now, you're doing it wrong"

That's just someone saying something in an interview. (Yes I know who DHH is.) I bet he wastes plenty of time on pedestrian things in life but that doesn't make for a very quotable soundbite, does it?