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The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

nytimes.com

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Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#11

Post by all2 »

klipt wrote: post #7

> I think you should quit your job > We’re in a much more precarious place financially now Hmm...

You forgot the part immediately following your out of context quote where she says they had multiple large expenses that were inexpected.

You suggest (by placing those two quotes together) that seeking happiness in a less expensive area will put people in financially precarious situations.

I'd like to know why you decided these quotes go together, and why they don't merit being quoted in proper context?

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#12

Post by badpun »

village-idiot wrote: post #5
maneesh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are allowed to make new friends, even as an adult. As someone who has lived in a dozen cities in my adult life, it does take effort. But it seems like, as the author is willing to take the effort to track and adjust their life, they are likely willing to put in time to make new friends. I've found meetup.com to be an excellent way to make friends, as well as hobbies. (for me, standup comedy and DJing were excelle…

Group fitness classes at some gyms have a stable cohort that you’ll bond with over time.

We need a different word than "friends" for such bonds though... Someone who does not know your birthday is not a friend.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#13

Post by dominotw »

badpun wrote: post #12
village-idiot wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Group fitness classes at some gyms have a stable cohort that you’ll bond with over time.

We need a different word than "friends" for such bonds though... Someone who does not know your birthday is not a friend.

acquaintance ?

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#14

Post by village-idiot »

badpun wrote: post #12
village-idiot wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Group fitness classes at some gyms have a stable cohort that you’ll bond with over time.

We need a different word than "friends" for such bonds though... Someone who does not know your birthday is not a friend.

Repeated interaction is a necessary first step to friendship, you cannot befriend someone you don’t see. My gym buddies are now my friends, and we see each other regularly outside of the gym context.

Also, most of my friends don’t know when my birthday is, so that’s a bad metric imho. Birthdays are not universally important across the population.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#15

Post by seem_2211 »

all2 wrote: post #11
klipt wrote: post #7

> I think you should quit your job > We’re in a much more precarious place financially now Hmm...

You forgot the part immediately following your out of context quote where she says they had multiple large expenses that were inexpected. You suggest (by placing those two quotes together) that seeking happiness in a less expensive area will put people in financially precarious situations. I'd like to know why you decided these quotes go together, and why they don't merit being quoted in proper context?

I dunno, in my view this seems like the sort of thing that should show up if you are relentlessly auditing your life - surely one of the pillars you would optimize for is stability, and thinking 'hey, what happens if one of us gets laid off' or 'hey, what happens if I get pregnant' or both at the same time sort of thing. Once you've worked out what the current fires are in your life, it makes sense to work out where fires could come from and do some prevention (to torture the metaphor a bit here)

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#16

Post by twblalock »

all2 wrote: post #11
klipt wrote: post #7

> I think you should quit your job > We’re in a much more precarious place financially now Hmm...

You forgot the part immediately following your out of context quote where she says they had multiple large expenses that were inexpected. You suggest (by placing those two quotes together) that seeking happiness in a less expensive area will put people in financially precarious situations. I'd like to know why you decided these quotes go together, and why they don't merit being quoted in proper context?

> You suggest (by placing those two quotes together) that seeking happiness in a less expensive area will put people in financially precarious situations.

That may be true.

The Bay Area has expensive housing, but a lot of things cost the about the same everywhere in the country -- an iPhone, a Honda Civic, a lawnmower, a water heater, clothing, school supplies, etc.

The salaries in the Bay Area are also a lot higher than elsewhere. People spend a lot of money on housing, but all of the other stuff they buy costs a smaller portion of their income than it does in other places.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#17

Post by mettamage »

When I used to do conscious self improvement, I journaled. I simply answered the prompt: what did I do to achieve my goal today, and what can I do better?

This had the same effect as their quantitative approach: you start to see patterns.

I’d suggest: the profound enabler of change isn’t the quantitative aspect of it, it is that you’re logging data in the first place.

Our brains can’t log that much. Notepads and spreadsheets can.

Of course, quantitative va qualitative have some trade offs, but the low hanging fruit is data logging, not Excel.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#18

Post by ssss11 »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #6

I have a secret startup plan - MOOPs Massive Open Online Psychology. You wire your house with iPhones or Alexas recording your daily conversations with your family - it records things like "number of positive responses" vs "number negative responses" when replying to your spouse or children. There are dozens of simple verbal checks one can pull out of even fairly raw speech to text, let alone visual dances. And imagi…

Oh god no. Tell me this idea is a joke.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#19

Post by marcinzm »

>We’re in a much more precarious place financially now, after a few non-spreadsheet-related surprises, but we’re still determined to make whatever decisions we can to improve our lives.

This, imho, shows the issue with basing life decisions so relentlessly on personal data no matter how well collected. Either the unexpected catastrophic scenario hasn't happened so you don't hedge for it or it has happened and you hedge too much on it happening again. Just like basing stock decisions on the recent past is great right until a recession or bubble hits to wipe you out.

Re: The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life

#20

Post by MuffinFlavored »

mettamage wrote: post #17

When I used to do conscious self improvement, I journaled. I simply answered the prompt: what did I do to achieve my goal today, and what can I do better? This had the same effect as their quantitative approach: you start to see patterns. I’d suggest: the profound enabler of change isn’t the quantitative aspect of it, it is that you’re logging data in the first place. Our brains can’t log that much. Notepads and spre…

so... I'm with this, but... I know the results my logs would be.

I want to work out and be in great shape. Run, stretch, weights, yada yada.

I can log all day. It won't change the fact that I'm lazy/just don't have the work ethic to actually do it.

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