Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Productivity

blog.samaltman.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 428 posts

Re: Productivity

#411

Post by mantas »

suprfnk wrote: post #352
mantas wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually "proper nutrition" and "enjoyment of food" are closely related. Although our bodies are selfish. For example, we like sugar so much because it's good yet used to be scarce. Now we finally can get plenty of it, but our body gets greedy and we overeat it.

> Actually "proper nutrition" and "enjoyment of food" are closely related. I don't think that is the case for the vast majority of people. If I would only eat according to my "enjoyment of food" I would probably only eat cake and chocolate. I don't do that, of course, because I value "proper nutrition" for my body above my "enjoyment of food". I see relatively few people around me that would take broccoli over cake i…

That's what I said in 2nd part of my comment. We still crave for sugar which was hard to get. And our bodies are greedy and abuse it. Yet historically it was needed for proper nutrition.

Broccoli may suck, but there are lots of tasty veggies. I love to snack on fresh carrots or cucumbers. Don't get me started on how tasty nuts or berries are...

Re: Productivity

#412

Post by rnmjr »

mchmr wrote: post #400
logfromblammo wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just people trying to bottle the lightning. Person X becomes successful. Other people ask X how they did it. Person X explains some personal philosophy, and the other people nod sagely. Then persons Y, Z, and Q follow the recipe by X, and do not become successful. It's probably better to ask failures what they did wrong. You end up with rules like "don't ever try heroin", "always insure the things that make you…

It's almost like there is more to success whether or not someone sleeps on a tempurpedic mattress with a cooling pad, earplugs and eye mask... or whether they write lists on paper... or whether they have that unfortunate characteristic where they only work on stuff they don't like (you know, a job)

I had no idea who Sam Altman was before hand.

The post describes a few principles the author follows. It isn't a recipe for anything.

I thought it was really good, though I don't agree with all of it.

Take what works and leave what doesn't. Know your self.

Re: Productivity

#413

Post by eafkuor »

whalesalad wrote: post #295
eafkuor wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean breakfast is not "necessary"? No single meal is necessary, obviously, but why skip it? > skipping this meal saves me time in the morning. I already gotta worry about getting ready, feeding the dog+antibiotics, taking him out to pee, etc... one less thing to worry about. I really can't understand how you can put "getting ready" and feeding your dog above your own nutrition. Maybe you don't enjoy food…

You've been socially conditioned to believe 3 square meals per day are vital, and that breakfast is the most important one. That's simply not the case. Once you start to remove that bias, you'll have an easier time understanding where I am coming from with my lifestyle. I'm not choosing my dog's nutrition over my own. Rather, I find that skipping breakfast is a win for me for fat-loss goals as well as mental clarity,…

> You've been socially conditioned to believe 3 square meals per day are vital, and that breakfast is the most important one

Where I come from, dinner is considered to be the most important meal, while breakfast is just a quick snack to give you some energy to "last" until lunch :)

> mental clarity

Can you expand on this?

Re: Productivity

#414

Post by eafkuor »

FooHentai wrote: post #266
eafkuor wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean breakfast is not "necessary"? No single meal is necessary, obviously, but why skip it? > skipping this meal saves me time in the morning. I already gotta worry about getting ready, feeding the dog+antibiotics, taking him out to pee, etc... one less thing to worry about. I really can't understand how you can put "getting ready" and feeding your dog above your own nutrition. Maybe you don't enjoy food…

>I really can't understand how you can put "getting ready" and feeding your dog above your own nutrition. >Maybe you don't enjoy food the same way that I do. First, these are two separate thoughts, unless you have some confusion between 'proper nutrition' and 'enjoyment of food'. Second, 'proper nutrition' and 'enjoyment of food' often conflict since what provides the best nutritional value to your body is not often…

> First, these are two separate thoughts

Sure they are, sorry for mixing them up. Food for me represents both. Eating an avocado toast in the morning both makes me happy and gives me energy that I will use until around 12-13

> Do you understand it to be of short-term (i.e. energy levels before lunch) or long-term importance?

Both: short term as in energy needed during the day, and long term from a psychological point of view. This is subjective, of course.

Re: Productivity

#415

Post by eafkuor »

suprfnk wrote: post #352
mantas wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually "proper nutrition" and "enjoyment of food" are closely related. Although our bodies are selfish. For example, we like sugar so much because it's good yet used to be scarce. Now we finally can get plenty of it, but our body gets greedy and we overeat it.

> Actually "proper nutrition" and "enjoyment of food" are closely related. I don't think that is the case for the vast majority of people. If I would only eat according to my "enjoyment of food" I would probably only eat cake and chocolate. I don't do that, of course, because I value "proper nutrition" for my body above my "enjoyment of food". I see relatively few people around me that would take broccoli over cake i…

For me, it's the opposite. Of course I enjoy snacks, but I'd rather prefer to eat something both tasty and healthy. I'd prefer carrots and hummus to a cake 99% of the time

Re: Productivity

#416

Post by eafkuor »

Retra wrote: post #303
eafkuor wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean breakfast is not "necessary"? No single meal is necessary, obviously, but why skip it? > skipping this meal saves me time in the morning. I already gotta worry about getting ready, feeding the dog+antibiotics, taking him out to pee, etc... one less thing to worry about. I really can't understand how you can put "getting ready" and feeding your dog above your own nutrition. Maybe you don't enjoy food…

This has nothing to do with enjoyment of food; one can enjoy food without worshiping it, ritualizing it, or being a gluttonous. Someone who enjoys video games isn't under any obligation to devote time to it each morning. Either way, your body isn't going to be negatively affected by a 3-7 hour delay in getting nutrients. Many people aren't hungry when they wake up, and coffee is pretty good at pushing that feeling of…

> one can enjoy food without worshiping it, ritualizing it, or being a gluttonous

I didn't mention any of those? I'm not talking about eating a full English breakfast every day. My breakfasts rarely involve more than 500-700 calories.

> Eating breakfast every morning when you don't need it is a waste of resources.

And the same is true for lunch and dinner. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

> Why do you care about 'meals'? What's a meal?

Come on, there's no need to be so pedantic :)

Would you have liked it more if I said "Why not just eat 3 times per day but smaller portions"?

Re: Productivity

#417

Post by drb91 »

Tomminn wrote: post #311
drb91 wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Physical tasks are obviously a different story. But your mind doesn't seem to slow down much at all for a pretty long time during fasting. I’m not sure i agree with this. Highly productive sessions always end with me feeling exhausted despite just concentrating intently for several hours. Doesn’t your brain already consume like 30% of your energy? It would really surprise me if your brain operated at full capacity…

The assumption you're making is that your brain gets no calories when you have no food. Every kilogram of fat on your body is 9000 calories just sitting there. Most of us have at least 10 of em, or 90,000 calories. While it's definitely true that some things slow down to conserve energy, it seems like the brain isn't one of em . There are moments* now I feel I'm thinking considerably clearer than usual. The world jus…

Well, I am quite skinny—it wouldn’t surprise me to be more affected by fasting than most.

Re: Productivity

#418

Post by rkhassen »

jwilliams wrote: post #287
rkhassen wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wondering if you can say more about managing "energy and motivation"? I'm curious abut the details, how one does this. It sounds like a great approach!

Thanks! I'll give the most simple and effective technique for me. On a day-to-day basis, I usually have a pretty good idea of what I should be working on . My issue is actually doing it. I can work hard for a full day, but not seemingly get anything done. So one technique is to chunk the tasks up. Pretty well established technique. But I'll chunk smaller and smaller until I get momentum on what I need to do. That cou…

Cool! Thank you - it's great to get a peek inside your approach.

Re: Productivity

#419

Post by quadrangle »

fogzen wrote: post #242
eloff wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This applies to your 9-5 as well. Working on the right problems is critical to anything you do, even in your personal relationships.

The person that serves Sam espresso in the morning, why would they choose to make minimum wage? Because they have no other options that’s why. “Do what you love” “work on important things” is so incredibly tone-deaf it’s insulting. It’s not helpful either.

I read things in his post that indicated he's aware of his luck and privileges and neither takes them for granted nor credits himself for having them.

I know lots of jerks out there parrot the victim-blaming nonsense that everyone could just be rich and successful if only they did the right things (while our whole economic system is based so much in exploitation that it's actually impossible for everyone to be middle or upper class, our system wouldn't run that way)…

So I understand taking Sam's comments in that light, but from my reading, I think it's a fair assumption he's not one of those jerks, even if he's also not one of the people focusing primarily on the injustices etc.

Re: Productivity

#420

Post by quadrangle »

eloff wrote: post #302
fogzen wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person that serves Sam espresso in the morning, why would they choose to make minimum wage? Because they have no other options that’s why. “Do what you love” “work on important things” is so incredibly tone-deaf it’s insulting. It’s not helpful either.

I don't accept that people have no other options. This is life, it's unscripted. There's always more options than we have imagination. Working as a barista is not slavery, the person choose to do it because it seems to them to be their best available option. I find their judgement questionable, but if it works for them, who am I to say otherwise.

A quantity of options does not mean every option. The barista in question is not likely someone who can just choose to switch to a much more lucrative job. They could pursue that direction, there's always room for improvement, but as Sam mentions, there's a compounding-interest here. So, someone starting at a lower point has to start with very small productivity decisions and persist as they slowly compound to become something more substantial.

Also, while the economy isn't zero-sum, there are zero-sum aspects to it. We can't have every garbage collector suddenly become a high-end programmer or something or our system will fall apart due to piling-up of garbage. Any one garbage collector could better their lot, but until we have dramatically automated everything (and that's still a long ways off), we need people to collect the garbage.

In short: we don't have a caste system, so any arbitrary working class person can rise to higher classes. But that doesn't change the system, it just shuffles where people are. We don't have an economic system that can function without a working class.

If/when the working class gets paid better, then they can afford to invest in improving themselves more because they won't be desperate for every day's income just to survive. Some people will make poor judgments with such freedom, but others will thrive. So be it. I agree with your "who am I to say otherwise" quip as long as you aren't appealing to total-relativism.

Post reply on HN