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Why are Adults so busy?

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Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#221

Post by pbhjpbhj »

yodsanklai wrote: post #27
jdimov10 wrote: post #13

The article doesn't really answer the question. It says adults are busy because they have too much stuff to do (duh..) But "why" is still a good question, and it remains unanswered. The answer is that, as we grow up, we tend to develop the belief that our well-being needs to be justified somehow. In other words, we start to believe that we are not by default worthy of living a good, joyful, care-free, abundant life..…

> It says adults are busy because they have too much stuff to do (duh..) But "why" is still a good question, The article says that adults work, commute, clean, cook, take care of their dependent and so on... they don't do that to justify their existence but because it has to be done, unless you're rich enough to find other people doing these things for you...

Not every adult needs to cook in order for all the people to be fed.

Shared homes, or shared meals, would reduce the need cook so often. And reduce resource usage.

We've moved to a social system where all adults are expected to work. This leaves less time for social cohesion, domestic management, childrearing, and such. We've lost a lot in no longer having half of all parents not encumbered by paid work.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#222

Post by pc86 »

Retric wrote: post #208
pc86 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's rarely that you actually need to respond to any text message immediately.

In theory you're right. However, the expectation is someone will respond with ~"Thx, in meeting" unlike a phone where you may just let it go to voicemail, there is no message failed to get though feedback. So, you get sent a text and people will generally assume you are ignoring them unless you respond.

I don't know anybody that assumes that unless you let it go for days. Texting is asynchronous just like email, for a reason.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#223

Post by 6DM »

Bills are a once a month thing, I rent so maybe it's different but my student loans should make up for that. In total? 15 minutes tops.

I dry clean my clothes myself, so yeah I agree clothes _can_ take up to 2 hrs. But picking out what to wear and polishing your shoes shouldn't count as an extra 10.5 hours a week.

Most people enjoy buying stuff, especially if it requires research because then they get psyched about it. Who doesn't like a new car? Other than that, it should be pretty rare to need to research for window cleaning products. You just buy what looks alright on the shelf and if it sucks don't buy it again.

The rest I'll agree with. Most people I see that "waste" their time are doing things like, marathoning Game of Thrones, drinking or celebrating something.

Here are some real wastes:

  - Going after companies to get your money back for either incorrectly or over charging you, or charging you for services not rendered. 
  - "Market forces" raising prices, causing you to move right freaking next door so your rent can stay the same, or even lower. 
  - How about those Dr. appointments that you scheduled, only so you can wait an extra hour to actually be seen. 
  - Warranty covered oil changes that take an hour or even two (last time it happened to me). 
  - Standing in a 40 minute long line at the store because despite having 30 register's, they only have 2 cashiers. There is self checkout but of course it's already full of people struggling to understand how the machine works, or they're just generally slow moving.
  - Holiday traffic/parking, where do all these vehicles come from? Even small towns get congested it's a real mystery to me.
  - Spontaneously waking up in the middle of the night for a few hours, then oversleeping the next morning. Also, you need to go to bed early now to make it up.
  - Paperwork for just about any government related activity. I just listed my SSN on three different pages why do I still have to fill this in again?
I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of...

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#224

Post by k-mcgrady »

patates wrote: post #201
pps43 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> from someone older, who was in the 80s There was the same amount of time, but it was allocated differently. There were phone calls. If somebody calls you on the phone, you stop doing what you're doing and talk to them. Apart from that, time was scheduled in larger chunks, with fever context switches. You watch a movie start to finish, not a bunch of 2 minute Youtube videos. You spend an evening printing photos in t…

What wouldn't I give to have such attention span! I can't even watch a movie these days (months? um, years?). Yesterday I alt-tabbed to chrome and opened HN while hearing the movie that I was in the middle of watching. Yes, I have a PC connected to my TV! What is wrong with me?! I want to be able to read a non-technical book fully and I can't and I'm very unhappy about this whole situation.

>> What wouldn't I give to have such attention span!

It's surprisingly easy when forced. I moved apartment a few years ago to a small seaside town (mostly retirees and a few locally run shops). We had an old CRT style TV with very few channels. For the first two weeks we had no internet. It was pretty interesting how our differently we would spend the day. My friend and I would take walks around town or the beach, go surfing for a few hours, cook instead of ordering takeout, and then spend the rest of the time hanging out in the living room. The TV was on but we were mostly just chatting. Switch to two weeks later when we got internet. We spent much more time in our rooms on our computers playing video games or watching Netflix. We would still surf a couple of times a week but besides that we would only hangout for an hour or two in the evening if there was a good movie on TV. As frustrating as it was at times not having internet access I would say I was much happier during those first 2 weeks and with so few options for things to do my attention span was automatically much better.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#225

Post by FilterSweep »

bnegreve wrote: post #47
amelius wrote: post #18

I'm wondering why, with all the technological progress, we don't have 8 hour work-weeks just yet :)

Yes, good question. I think this is because nowadays, work is mostly a way to skew wealth distribution in your favor. Therefore people that can work more, do work more. That contributes to make them wealthier. The others, are unemployed.

I believe your last two sentences hit the full truth.

The real answer, individual consultants, and self-run people aside, is that if you DONT work more (to employers standard), you become unemployed.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#226

Post by nmeofthestate »

pps43 wrote: post #185
thebigspacefuck wrote: post #152

I keep catching myself thinking or using the excuse I have no time, but I mostly spend my time on the internet or watching TV. Some nights I do the dishes or actually go for a walk, go grocery shopping, but mostly I'm just hanging on, making sure I'm ready for he next day. I'm freaking addicted to information and the internet, which leave me feeling frantic. I forgo sleeping for the internet and it brings me little p…

> from someone older, who was in the 80s There was the same amount of time, but it was allocated differently. There were phone calls. If somebody calls you on the phone, you stop doing what you're doing and talk to them. Apart from that, time was scheduled in larger chunks, with fever context switches. You watch a movie start to finish, not a bunch of 2 minute Youtube videos. You spend an evening printing photos in t…

I think a more representative answer is that people used to slump in front of the TV for long[er] periods whereas now people fiddle with their phones.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#227

Post by branchless »

grondilu wrote: post #126
branchless wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try explaining rent to kids. We have to pay to exist? We have to pay how much? And they are right! I don't have a problem doing nothing. I don't care what others think. But I have to work far more than necessary because of the labour skiming rentiers. They are living off my back. Edit: landlords of HN unite to downvote!

> We have to pay to exist? No. Existing is free. You have to pay in order to live in a dwelling you could not afford.

And we can't afford it because fiat money issuance by the banks is unconstrained and therefore trends towards saturation of all excess labour above basic needs such as food and clothing.

And the banks and the landlords mop it all up using the state to guard their property whilst the workers pay the taxes.

The system stinks.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#228

Post by dazmax »

thebigspacefuck wrote: post #152

I keep catching myself thinking or using the excuse I have no time, but I mostly spend my time on the internet or watching TV. Some nights I do the dishes or actually go for a walk, go grocery shopping, but mostly I'm just hanging on, making sure I'm ready for he next day. I'm freaking addicted to information and the internet, which leave me feeling frantic. I forgo sleeping for the internet and it brings me little p…

Reading the newspaper and magazines was basically the equivalent before the internet, I think. With the paper you'd eventually run out of stuff to read in a day, but if you had enough magazine subscriptions, you could find something marginally interesting.

I think one difference other than the never-ending aspect of the internet is that when you're reading a newspaper or book you get sleepy when you're supposed to, whereas if you're looking at a screen the blue light keeps you awake longer and all your chores take longer the next day because you have less energy.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#229

Post by gooseyard »

thebigspacefuck wrote: post #152

I keep catching myself thinking or using the excuse I have no time, but I mostly spend my time on the internet or watching TV. Some nights I do the dishes or actually go for a walk, go grocery shopping, but mostly I'm just hanging on, making sure I'm ready for he next day. I'm freaking addicted to information and the internet, which leave me feeling frantic. I forgo sleeping for the internet and it brings me little p…

You'd probably enjoy Clay Shirky's book "Cognitive Surplus", which really put into perspective for me what this apparent glut of time I had on my hands meant.

There's an excerpt at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/18670/gin-sitcoms-and-cogniti...

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#230

Post by dazc »

personlurking wrote: post #216
dazc wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, learning Spanish is tough and July/August is pretty hot, so much so I returned to the UK for 2 months.

I'm in Sevilla for several weeks and was told by locals to come in September rather than August, due to the heat letting up. So far, it's been 40-45C every single day (save for the past few), and that leaves me couped up in the apt. I'm missing Lisbon, where I usually live (over 300 days of sun yet it never really gets unbearably hot). I can't imagine being in Andalucia during the entire summer, though I hear Granada…

I'm in Alicante. It's been around 30-32C for the past two weeks which is hot enough to make me lethargic for most of the day. I couldn't bear 40-45C.
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