Live data from Hacker News

Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

shime.sh

141–150 of 228 posts

Re: Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

#141
post #129
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 80 year old you you and the current you are two different people with different interests. Of course the future 80 year you would love it if you made every effort to make his life better, but the current you may value comfort more than going on terrifying adventures that make for amusing reminiscing if you survive them.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Our 20-25 year old influences our education/career based on our interests at that age. But shouldn't we make those decisions based on what our 40 year old will be like? Of course a career change at 40 is totally doable but wouldn't it be better if we had been working 15-20 years towards that goal instead of starting from scratch at 40? Impossible, I know, but something inte…

>Of course a career change at 40 is totally doable but wouldn't it be better if we had been working 15-20 years towards that goal instead of starting from scratch at 40?

I'm almost 40 changing careers and can confirm, in spite of how doable may or may not be I can't stop thinking how things would have been different if my father said "yes" to purchasing a personal computer when I was fawning over them through computer magazines as a kid.

Re: Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Because I'm single, and I've done both, and the dishwasher is very clearly easier and faster to me. Maybe you have a secret dishwashing technique that I don't know? A decent dishwasher doesn't require much maintenance at all. And the very, very little that it does is generally a more interesting use of time than washing dishes is anyway. But I started using dishwashers maybe 5-6 years ago, and I can count on…

I'm single, and the only problem I have with dishwashers is that it takes about a week for me to actually fill it with dirty dishes. by that time, there tends to be a gross smell whenever I open the door. I also have only one of certain utensils that I need to use more than once a week. I know dishwashers are pretty efficient and it's probably less wasteful to just run a half full load than to clean plates by hand, b…

Yeah, you need to just go ahead and run the dishwasher.

You're not being wasteful: when the dishwasher is full, it doesn't work as well. Which means you need to pre-rinse dishes, which wastes water versus just running the dishwasher more often.

Re: Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I’ve also learned to love the mundane. There’s more to washing dishes than you think. When I was looking for an entry-level New York studio apartment four years ago, one thing I absolutely insisted on having was a dishwasher. Screw the overall size of the kitchen or the square footage of the apartment, or even whether I had a stove or an oven—I needed a dishwasher god damn it! My parents and a lot of my friends…

Washing dishes takes no time. If you were single, it definitely takes less time than putting and maintaining the diskwasher.

I have a single apartment and I probably spend 15-20 mins a day washing dishes. I don't have a dishwasher, and I don't have a vacuum cleaner. I use a broom and I mop the dust every one or two weeks. It may take a little more time, but I agree with that other comment that it can be a zen-like experience. And I feel I need it as a balance from all the mental work I'm doing all day.

Re: Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next generation after millennial - they're like 18 right? That doesn't sound like a generation thing that sounds like a teenager/young adult thing. And I think the hippies in the 60s were way further on the "follow your heart" thing than teenagers now, and a lot of them grew up to be like conservative bankers or whatever.

The number of hippies from the 60s are vanishingly small proportion of the population. There're 100x people spitting on Vietnam protesters than there were protesters.

And there are probably an even smaller number of 18 year olds telling their mentors that they're going to leave behind their dreams of being a physicist to become a rock climber. Those stories stand out and get all the attention, and people really want to find ways to claim following generations are going astray, but the 100x people in gen z going on to study STEM fields and getting well paying jobs get outshadowed as people decide that the random person that wants to be a rock climber is going to define the trend. And hey, it's early days - rock climbing competitions and stuff need a winner too, and while I wouldn't expect every person that makes the call to leave a "Boring" path to become a rock climber or a musician or actor or whatever to succeed, id expect to successful ones to have stories along those lines. People had to be that way to create this generation of daredevils and movie starts, why would the next generation be any different?

Re: Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

#145
post #4

If the author is reading this, please make your font higher contrast (darker color), it's barely readable in good lighting conditions

11am, plenty of natural light, and a calibrated desktop monitor. Looks completely readable here.

Yes, but not everyone has perfect eyesight and perfect monitors or perfect lighting conditions. Thin font, plus a 5:1 contrast ratio (text #606f7b to white bg) isn't ideal for reading.

Original vs higher contrast, objectively, one is easier to read https://i.imgur.com/kDMPhfx.png

Re: Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

#146

My problem is that I get excited about different things with far too much frequency. This past week I've become obsessed with a video game idea. The week before I was obsessed with a design app that I'm working on.

What I do is write them all down in an evernote note. I have 50+ ideas in there. At one point I went through and decided which was most interesting. I still add new items to the list, but at least it's out of my head and I can go back to the one I decided I'd focus on :-)

Re: Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

#147

“Because every minute spent doing something other than what you love most today is a minute you’re more likely to regret when you’re 80.” I think the opposite is true. Most things that I hated doing when I was 20, I’m today at 49 happy that I did. Workout, do the homework, even my military service. Many things I loved doing in the moment, play video games all through university, for example, I’m not so sure about.

If 80 year old thinks that not playing video is more regretful than not working out, then nothing anyone says about living a good life or being productive applies to you

Re: Do whatever you can't stop thinking about

#148

What a simplistic way to put things in. You need to do a lot of things you do not love before you have the skills, the vision and the attitude to actually do what you love, and accomplish the goals you want to accomplish... As a millennial, I think this kind of attitude is the problem with our generation. I mean both simplifying things into instagram-quote-sized senteces like "always do what you love" and also convin…

The following quote helped me a lot: "The professional knows that the mundane physical act of sitting down and starting to work, sets in motion a mysterious process that produces inspiration. The amateur waits for inspiration, the professional knows that it will come after he starts. The professional therefore acts in the face of fear, when the amateur fears a big creative endeavor he waits for the fear to disappear,…

>The professional therefore acts in the face of fear, when the amateur fears a big creative endeavor he waits for the fear to disappear, the professional knows this will never happen and starts anyway."

It sounds like the most fundamental and precise definition of (the reason of) procrastination.

Post reply on HN