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Why are Adults so busy?

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Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#341

Post by sliverstorm »

sapphireblue wrote: post #245
anexprogrammer wrote: post #236

Well this is clearly written by someone without committments and children. Young adults used to be having children. With young kids around, the laundry and responsibility for dependents figures become hours daily, not weekly. When they're a bit older there's less cleaning but now you're running them around more and ensuring they meet their commitments. With more gadgets, chemicals and domestic appliances we've just i…

I also wonder how we manage to stay busy given that most home tasks (dishwashing, laundry, cleaning (roombas) and even cooking - see multicooker devices) are already automated, with "doing laundry" meaning merely loading and unloading the washing machine. I think you have a good point about idle time being gadgeted away. Also I think there is a tremendous potential in automation of physical labor (including remaining…

The rise of single-parent homes wipes out a lot of idle time despite the savings of automation.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#342

Post by makomk »

mtnygard wrote: post #294
Spoom wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wondered why someone didn't build a vertical washer-dryer combo, about the size of a fridge, where the clothes in the washer portion at the top simply drop into the dryer portion at the bottom (possibly assisted by a mechanical push) and start the dryer portion automatically. Bonus if you can then push the dry clothes out the side into a waiting basket, but not totally necessary. Perhaps stability is a fa…

Mainly because engineering machines that deal with water plus electronics plus moving parts, and making the whole shebang reliable is really hard.

Yeah, and adding hot air plus a load of flammable material to the mix doesn't make things any easier. Also, I don't think the optimal load sizes for standard-sized washers and driers match up terribly well.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#343

Post by Periodic »

tim333 wrote: post #191
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…

I was about in the 70s and 80s. Still the same number of hours in the day and internet was largely replaced by reading and TV. I don't know if it was better or worse. I think I prefer the internet. At least you can type stuff into it unlike books and TV.

I remember my grandparents trying to make sure they got all their evening chores done so they could sit down age watch Wheel of Fortune when it came on. They didn't have a lot of free time on weeknights, but it was because of how they chose to spend it.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#344

Post by johnward »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #84

I never realized how much free time I had until I started blowing my responsibilities off and watching TV series or playing video games. The point is, a lot of the things we do in our adult lives are bullshit errands that exist only because of habit, custom or societal expectations. I'm in progress of trying to get rid of as much of them as possible (and automate others), to reclaim some free time for actually produc…

Hell, a lot of the shit I do at work is BS to make it look like I am busy or that I care. We could go to a 4 day work week and probably not lose productivity.

A lot of the time in my 60 hour weeks is just sitting on meetings I don't even need to attend. Or flying to a client when we could have a phone call.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#345

Post by johnward »

mooreds wrote: post #232

Automate all the things! If you are spending an hour a week tracking bills, or even 1/2 hour, you aren't taking advantage of your bank. We set up auto bill pay whenever we can. I prefer to have it through my bank or my credit card rather than through the service provider doing EFT, because it's easier to shut off and it centralizes the view. That doesn't mean you can totally put this task on autopilot, just that auto…

I don't want autopay from my bank account. Automatically paying with a CC is ideal and then just making one payment to CC. Then you can dispute if you are billed the incorrect amount. I don't think my power bill, for example, will take credit. Plus is fluctuates from $400-$800 a month so I like to see how much it is before I pay.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#346

Post by nojvek »

sapphireblue wrote: post #245
anexprogrammer wrote: post #236

Well this is clearly written by someone without committments and children. Young adults used to be having children. With young kids around, the laundry and responsibility for dependents figures become hours daily, not weekly. When they're a bit older there's less cleaning but now you're running them around more and ensuring they meet their commitments. With more gadgets, chemicals and domestic appliances we've just i…

I also wonder how we manage to stay busy given that most home tasks (dishwashing, laundry, cleaning (roombas) and even cooking - see multicooker devices) are already automated, with "doing laundry" meaning merely loading and unloading the washing machine. I think you have a good point about idle time being gadgeted away. Also I think there is a tremendous potential in automation of physical labor (including remaining…

Interesting you mention that. I am currently obsessed with building a robot with great vision. I.e it sees things in 3D space rather than just pixels. This things can be queried like a Dom API.

I'm studying up on udacity about ML and CV. Reading papers and just exploring the domain.

I think the future is amazing.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#347

Post by sliverstorm »

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…

It's incredible how much time you can blow on the internet or TV, vs what you can do with it in the real world.

I went for a run last week, and got to marveling how I had run from my front door into the mountains & back, how gradually the time had passed, and how those two hours would have zwip vanished in a forgettable blink had I been online.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#348

Post by johnward »

chillingeffect wrote: post #114

An additional perspective: most of us don't leave and rejoin our jobs, so we have no downtime, long fluid moments of activity and rest. Also we forego most healthy time now for a massive payoff at retirement with diminished health. We fear this constantly. To fix it, we should become contractors or 4 day week workers.

I have some contractor friends and they say that they feel so much more respect. When there is overtime involved the client usually pushed it to their salaried staff because there is no cost to them. I went on vacation for a week and couldn't go a day without someone contacted me about some BS at work. There is no mental break at all anymore. I'm a enterprise consultant so any over time I work is basically free money for my employer.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#349

Post by makomk »

ktRolster wrote: post #253
theandrewbailey wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the feeling. In the last few months, I've wanted to play though some video games so I can "review" them on my blog... but there's not much point since I haven't gotten around to setting up my web server since I reformatted it last month with the new Ubuntu LTS and encrypted it. What have I been doing instead? Riding my bike around town. Hanging out with friends. Not bad, but I've also taken up watching Youtube…

Not bad, but I've also taken up watching Youtube for hours every night. The key is to not overwhelm yourself and to do something towards your goal. For example, don't try to set up the entire blog in one night, instead do a micro-portion, "oh, I better start downloading the webserver before I watch youtube." Or even, "oh, I better plug my server in and turn it on." The key is to do something every night, and cut it i…

I prefer to just get a large chunk done for most stuff, because personally the hard part is getting (re)started at all and figuring out where I got to.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#350

Post by beachstartup »

justinator wrote: post #309
SubiculumCode wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair to yourself, kids often disappoint their parents, but this is more on the parents. An anecdote: My dad was driven nuts by how much time I wasted as a kid and teen on gaming, and how it seemed that I had few productive interests,never built anything, and stopped projects as soon as I got bored.. He wanted me to be obsessed with something, but few teens are obsessed with anything but not being lonely, social…

I don't mean to be rude, but would you mind sharing the type of financial situation you grew up in? I don't remember wasting that much time as a teenager, since if I wanted something, I needed to get a job and work for it. If there was any chance of my bettering the type of situation I grew up on, I had to make sure my grades were amazing. I had to deal with someone else's serious drug addiction in the family, and tr…

do you make it a habit to shit on peoples' achievements as foregone conclusions because of their upbringing? do you realize that this is an extremely transparent projection of your own insecurities?
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