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Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

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Re: Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

#81

Post by postsantum »

souprock wrote: post #65
commandlinefan wrote: post #30

Get married and have kids. They'll fill up all of your free time and then some.

This is the correct answer. That feeling of empty pointlessness is because the drive to have kids is not being satisfied. User "volument" here is suffering an existential crisis. I have 12 kids. They depend on me. There is always something going on. Even the bad things have an upside of removing boredom. There is no time for television. Tomorrow, on Saturday, I will be homeschooling AP Chemistry. Three kids have to g…

What if they follow your advice and it wasn't the reason? Now instead of one bored person you have several unhappy ones.

I am sure a good chunk of the fathers who are still "looking for the right pack of cigarettes" had a similar idea

Re: Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

#82

Post by natalyarostova »

brm wrote: post #71

I'm a little sad at the thought that we as a society don't help people to better deal with questions like these. Or that someone alive in space and time can be stuck like this. See a movie. Date a person. Start a community war. Draw a picture. Read a book. Write a book. Go for a swim. Call a relative. Visit a friend. Make a friend. Take a night class. Play a video game. Whittle. Cook. Volunteer. Brew beer. Start a fi…

But actually don't start a fight.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

#83

Post by muzani »

azinman2 wrote: post #45
muzani wrote: post #7

I have a rule of thumb. From a stress rating of 0-10, your days should ideally be 8 stress or 0. Growth = stress + rest The more elite people can take on a lot more stress. 0 doesn't necessarily mean watching Netflix; for me that's more stressful than playing with spreadsheets or commenting on HN. What most people do is stick around 3-5 stress level (the comfort zone) or constantly at 6 (trying my best). It's a recip…

I’m not sure why you’re equating stress and growth. Surely you can grow without being stressed? In fact, that’s my preferred way! I enjoy learning new things and being challenged... to me that’s not stressful at all, but the opposite — restorative.

The book Peak Performance goes into detail on this.

Exercise is a closer analogy. You can't really lift more until you lift near your capacity. A brief session is far more impactful than long sessions of a lower weight. Short bursts at near max speed improve your stamina than an hour long walk.

Mentally it works the same way too. Sometimes growth means just thinking faster, or being able to follow a train of thought deeper.

Knowledge wise, you should be reading more difficult, information dense books, and less articles, podcasts, light books. The lighter ones I find are trivia, they don't improve your understanding of the world much, but the essays, biographies, historical books, academic journals go far.

You do need lots of rest. It's not a bad thing to be stressed out, as long as you get plenty of rest.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

#84

Post by muzani »

zajomi wrote: post #79
muzani wrote: post #7

I have a rule of thumb. From a stress rating of 0-10, your days should ideally be 8 stress or 0. Growth = stress + rest The more elite people can take on a lot more stress. 0 doesn't necessarily mean watching Netflix; for me that's more stressful than playing with spreadsheets or commenting on HN. What most people do is stick around 3-5 stress level (the comfort zone) or constantly at 6 (trying my best). It's a recip…

can I ask what idle games involve wikis and spreadsheets?

Honestly, even something like Farmville counts. I had a little spreadsheet to calculate which crop was the best for the period I wanted to leave the game. Basically all idle games are little spreadsheet games.

Deeper in, there's games like Kittens.

More complicated, there's online games like Cyber Nations. The one I've been playing for months is Soulforged, which has a complex research and crafting system: https://soulforged.net:8443/

Re: Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

#85

Post by peatmoss »

loriverkutya wrote: post #20

I do aikido.

Martial arts are a great answer. And aikido can be a great martial art. They are both social and exercise. Plus, if you’ve been braining all day in a relatively self-directed way, it’s really sublimate your ego and front brain to instruction and kinesthetic puzzling.

People get wrapped around the axel of the effectiveness of aikido, but truthfully it’s great defense against dying lonely or of heart disease. At least at many dojos. Some dojos are less physical than I'd like, and some are more. I’m happy to be at a dojo that leaves me uninjured but drenched in sweat and out of breath (and I’m in pretty good shape).

Re: Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

#86

Post by muzani »

nscalf wrote: post #60
azinman2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure why you’re equating stress and growth. Surely you can grow without being stressed? In fact, that’s my preferred way! I enjoy learning new things and being challenged... to me that’s not stressful at all, but the opposite — restorative.

I think the original post conflated stress and discomfort, because they described my views pretty closely but I call it discomfort instead. I think if you’re resting, be largely comfortable. If you’re uncomfortable (in a constructive way), you’re learning.

Yeah they're synonyms as far as I'm concerned. I use stress more in the physics sense of exertion and strain, but I suppose others may link the term with incompetent managers.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

#87

Post by ericmcer »

Side projects, but away from the computer. There is a lot that can be done totally offline, things like design, art, logos, Gantt charts, and just general notes, planning and ideas can all be sketched out on paper. I like to indulge in this as it feels productive and I can do it in the sun with a notebook.

Re: Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

#88

Post by azinman2 »

mrguyorama wrote: post #32
azinman2 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Put stuff on your calendar. Don’t overload it, but dot your calendar out for a month or two with an event once a week. Buy. Ticket to something so you feel some pressure, and invite some friends. Find ways to motivate yourself and see that as a challenge to overcome.

I've massively struggled to find these events to go to.

Unless you're somewhere extremely rural, there has to be _something_ going on. There are many places these are advertised and aggregated: local newspapers, Facebook events, Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, Meetup, and even Google has a pretty great events product now. What are you struggling with?

Re: Ask HN: What to do after the workday?

#90

Post by wayoverthecloud »

eyeundersand wrote: post #59
wayoverthecloud wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any recommendations?

I'm not OP but let me take this opportunity to recommend Fyodor Dostoevsky. I started with The Brothers Karamazov when I was fresh out of high school and struggling with identity (coming from a traditional Hindu society in Nepal). It has helped me immensely and I consider it to be one of the best most comprehensive and educational books I have ever read. (If it helps anyone, Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote Slaughterhouse Fi…

Hey, thanks for the recommendations. Glad to see a fellow Nepali in HN :).
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