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You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

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Re: You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

#21

Post by ChuckMcM »

nostromo wrote: post #10

You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. > But days gone by are days gone by. What can you do from here – from today – to commit fewer errors? Because the truth is you don’t have plenty of time. These motivational posts tend to sound kind of sad and hollow to me. I love to lift weights myself, but if someone told me that a day spent with friends or family and not in the…

   > Does anyone really think that when they're an old man
   > looking back, they're going to wish they had spent 
   > more time in the gym to deadlift 800 instead of 
   > "just" 700? Or will they wish they had spent more 
   > time enjoying life and taking it a bit easier?
It's a trade-off. I look back at some of the things I did when "taking it a bit easier" and reget it today. College was pretty easy for me so I often took time off to spend a few days at the beach (I was in LA after all). Later I found that I had missed out on some opportunities to work with some of the faculty at school on interesting projects because I didn't hang around.

Do I ever look back at time spent with my kids and wish I did less of that? No. Do I ever look back at time spent on the beach doing nothing but hanging out and wish I did less of that? Yes.

It isn't so much spending all my time on my job or on getting more money or some superficial goal, its about spending my time in ways that later I'll be happy I spent it that way. I wasted a lot of it before I figured that out.

Re: You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

#22

Post by [deleted] »

trentmb wrote: post #9
wrong_variable wrote: post #3

When it comes to sticking to gym I really like Terry Crew's advice. If in your head you try to think of the "120Kg" deadlift you need to do, it might be hard to motivate yourself given that it might remind you of the pain involved. A easier technique is to think "I am going to go to gym and browse HN on the sofa", 50% of the battle is to get yourself to the gym and once you are there its much easier to do the 120Kg d…

I got a pull up bar and some gymnast rings. It's amazing how much of a mental hurdle going to the gym was. Now, I literally walk in my door, tear off my shirt, drop trow and get to work.

[deleted]

Re: You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

#23

Post by Retra »

csallen wrote: post #12
nostromo wrote: post #10

You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. > But days gone by are days gone by. What can you do from here – from today – to commit fewer errors? Because the truth is you don’t have plenty of time. These motivational posts tend to sound kind of sad and hollow to me. I love to lift weights myself, but if someone told me that a day spent with friends or family and not in the…

What's the point in spending your entire life just so you can look back in your final months and be pleased? I can't think of a reason why your happiness at the end of your life is any more important than your happiness in the middle of your life. Rather, a life well-spent is one in which the sum total of your happiness over time was at a max. That means factoring in what's important to you now , even if it won't mat…

> Rather, a life well-spent is one in which the sum total of your happiness over time was at a max.

That's a bit too selfish for me. I'd rather spend my life making more than one person happy.

Re: You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

#24

Post by blhack »

nostromo wrote: post #10

You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. > But days gone by are days gone by. What can you do from here – from today – to commit fewer errors? Because the truth is you don’t have plenty of time. These motivational posts tend to sound kind of sad and hollow to me. I love to lift weights myself, but if someone told me that a day spent with friends or family and not in the…

>You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life.

Man, I don't even know how to respond to this. "Just enjoy life"?

Working is how I enjoy life. My freetime is spent building art projects, or teaching workshops, or working on sidecode stuff, or just...working. Building stuff, putting stuff together, improving stuff.

If I look back on the vacations I've taken where I do "nothing", I come back extremely unhappy and antsy. When I look back at vacations where I did something useful, for instance: organizing all the tools in my late-grandfathers old workshop, it makes me feel happy and fullfilled.

So maybe to each their own. People who want to "just enjoy life" should do so. People who want to work should do so too.

Re: You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

#25

Post by throwaway_xx9 »

nostromo wrote: post #10

You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. > But days gone by are days gone by. What can you do from here – from today – to commit fewer errors? Because the truth is you don’t have plenty of time. These motivational posts tend to sound kind of sad and hollow to me. I love to lift weights myself, but if someone told me that a day spent with friends or family and not in the…

> Does anyone really think that when they're an old man looking back, they're going to wish they had spent more time in the gym to deadlift 800 instead of "just" 700?

Actually, yes.

There's a video of Ronnie "Officer Steroids" Coleman in a hospital bed saying, "I wish had done 800x4 instead of just 800x2."

Re: You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

#26

Post by Waterluvian »

blhack wrote: post #24
nostromo wrote: post #10

You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. > But days gone by are days gone by. What can you do from here – from today – to commit fewer errors? Because the truth is you don’t have plenty of time. These motivational posts tend to sound kind of sad and hollow to me. I love to lift weights myself, but if someone told me that a day spent with friends or family and not in the…

>You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. Man, I don't even know how to respond to this. "Just enjoy life"? Working is how I enjoy life. My freetime is spent building art projects, or teaching workshops, or working on sidecode stuff, or just...working. Building stuff, putting stuff together, improving stuff. If I look back on the vacations I've taken where I do "nothing"…

To each their own. I always try to step away from software engineering because I feel I'm supposed to take a break. But am hour into a video game and I don't feel challenged or creative. So I go right back to what I love.

I suspect I'm the kind of person who will never truly retire.

Re: You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

#27

Post by nostromo »

blhack wrote: post #24
nostromo wrote: post #10

You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. > But days gone by are days gone by. What can you do from here – from today – to commit fewer errors? Because the truth is you don’t have plenty of time. These motivational posts tend to sound kind of sad and hollow to me. I love to lift weights myself, but if someone told me that a day spent with friends or family and not in the…

>You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. Man, I don't even know how to respond to this. "Just enjoy life"? Working is how I enjoy life. My freetime is spent building art projects, or teaching workshops, or working on sidecode stuff, or just...working. Building stuff, putting stuff together, improving stuff. If I look back on the vacations I've taken where I do "nothing"…

If you enjoy doing those things, then do them.

I'm saying don't do them out of a fear of your impending death. Do them because you love to do them.

Re: You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

#28

Post by cottonseed »

csallen wrote: post #12
nostromo wrote: post #10

You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. > But days gone by are days gone by. What can you do from here – from today – to commit fewer errors? Because the truth is you don’t have plenty of time. These motivational posts tend to sound kind of sad and hollow to me. I love to lift weights myself, but if someone told me that a day spent with friends or family and not in the…

What's the point in spending your entire life just so you can look back in your final months and be pleased? I can't think of a reason why your happiness at the end of your life is any more important than your happiness in the middle of your life. Rather, a life well-spent is one in which the sum total of your happiness over time was at a max. That means factoring in what's important to you now , even if it won't mat…

Yeah! Fuck future me! http://www.pidjin.net/2013/10/24/future-me/

Re: You Don’t Have “Plenty of Time”

#29

Post by blhack »

nostromo wrote: post #27
blhack wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You know, once in a while, you should take a break from objectives and just enjoy life. Man, I don't even know how to respond to this. "Just enjoy life"? Working is how I enjoy life. My freetime is spent building art projects, or teaching workshops, or working on sidecode stuff, or just...working. Building stuff, putting stuff together, improving stuff. If I look back on the vacations I've taken where I do "nothing"…

If you enjoy doing those things, then do them. I'm saying don't do them out of a fear of your impending death. Do them because you love to do them.

>I'm saying don't do them out of a fear of your impending death. Do them because you love to do them.

What does this even mean? The scarcity of life, and therefore the imperative to do things now instead of later is because of death.

I absolutely do things because of the fear of impending death. I am going to die someday, and when I die, I won't have any more opportunities to build things with my niece, or work on an art project with my girlfriend.

A day I spent sitting around instead of spending time with somebody I love is a day that is, in my opinion, wasted, and I think that it is ridiculous of you to imply that there is something wrong with this.

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