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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?

#91

Play music! I can't recommend it enough! I'm conducting a hobby orchestra and it's the most fun I have all week. There's something deeply satisfying in playing together in a large group. I'd recommend something a little livelier than classical but that's fun too!

> What changes have you seen in the students coming into the computer science program over the years?

> Knuth: There is a very profound change that I can't account for. In the 70s, the majority of our students were very interested in music. The first thing we'd ask them when they came in was "What instrument do you play?" We had lots of chamber groups and so on. Now almost none of the students are interested in music.

From http://tex.loria.fr/litte/knuth-interview

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

#92

Freelance, find new recipes that you may enjoy and make interesting dinners. Also the obligatory third place - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

Is Third place even a thing in modern cities nowadays? I feel like it has shifted online, and even online Third places (small message boards) have been disappearing... HN may be quite close to one. In a city like NY or London or SF, what would be good Third places for HN-type people?

There are Third Places if you know where to look. You just have to decide what your Third Place is, or discover it.

I'm not sure what "HN-type people" means because I'm clearly way out of the standard demographic and my Third Place would not be yours. It pains me to think that there is a standard demographic here.

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

#93

Start reading. There is nothing more worthwhile than reading (especially classic literature). Find an author who interests you and read all of their books and move on from there :)

Do you have any recommendations?

https://github.com/bcbrown/bookreviews/tree/master/2016 https://github.com/bcbrown/bookreviews/tree/master/2017

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

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :).

I'm genuinely surprised. What are the odds! Khusi laagyo :)

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

#95
The phrases "mostly enjoy" and "somewhat interesting" are red flags to me. It brings to mind Hamming's talk [1] where he recounts:

> And I started asking, ``What are the important problems of your field?'' And after a week or so, ``What important problems are you working on?'' And after some more time I came in one day and said, ``If what you are doing is not important, and if you don't think it is going to lead to something important, why are you at Bell Labs working on it?'' I wasn't welcomed after that; I had to find somebody else to eat with!

Let me suggest that it may be possible you haven't yet found your calling.

Now, maybe you're at the start of your career, or at a point where you need to work your way up the ladder to gain skills and prove yourself in order to get to the important work. Sometimes you need to grind. If your field is software, though, I'd caution that it's not going to stay the same, and what you see as interesting and important may not exist in a couple years when you get there.

The people I most look up to are hungry to go to work every day, and do their work. They attack it, and then look for more. They've done many completely different types of work, so they're sure this is what they want to spend their life on.

If I could go back 10 or 20 years, to where I was in the same position, I'd tell myself to spend those extra hours learning new skills and trying different kinds of work. I kind of did, but I definitely undershot on variety. I didn't even have the correct first approximation to the job I have today.

[1]: https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html

The literal answer to your question is: after work, volunteering, and training, I pretty much go home and go to sleep. I have no energy left for even watching TV.

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

#96
post #79
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?

Which idle games doesn't? The main challenge is to try to make your numbers tick up faster, and that requires mostly math (spreadsheets) and information (wiki).

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

#97

Try slackline - it's a meditative practice and a way to meet new people. There was a period in my life when I just moved to another country and felt lonely. I bought a line and started to practice in a popular park. On a good day I could meet 1-2 people per hour. There were people from wildly different backgrounds - sometimes it's a quirky homeless guy, young father, cute girls, policeman

Second this. Recently got a slackline and it's absolutely the best way to meet people. I often have groups of 5-10 people crowded around. People are curious about it and where I'm from they aren't afraid to ask to try it.

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

#100
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 cannot agree with any of this.. but I think this comes down to how you define stress. I equate stress to be a bad thing but I don't equate stress to pushing myself.

Stress for me is mainly responsibility with lack of authority. Other stress comes from anxiety.

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