Time is the only real currency we have • Hacker News Board

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#81

Post by IggleSniggle » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:19 PM UTC

dhruvkar wrote: post #58

IggleSniggle wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has also been a thing at many US grocery stores for many years now, but inexplicably, many people don't use them.

How? Where? Would love to know how to get access to this.

At least some of the Ahold Delhaize subsidiaries (Food Lion, Hannaford, Giant, Stop&Shop) have handheld scanner kiosks you can checkout when you enter. I know Giant and Stop&Shop also offer a smartphone app that operates the same way as the kiosk units using your smartphone camera to scan.

I've seen the kiosk system at Kroger in the midwest.

Sam's Club offers a mobile app scanner.

Perhaps it's just the places I frequent, but I've gotten to the point where I take them for granted. Keep an eye out for a kiosk that seems to be a kind of fnord. Check if your nearby groceries have a smartphone app that offers scanning via your phone if you're comfortable with that. The ones I've used worked fine, but I tend not to use the phone apps because I have a chronically low smartphone battery and storage space.

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#82

Post by frostwhale » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:20 PM UTC

kator wrote: post #42

seventytwo wrote: post #39

Parameters of the universe are currency. Time is one of them, space (or area on earth’s surface) is another, and energy is a third. How these three things are used is what generates value to human beings. Each of the fundamental items can be traded individually, but money is used as a proxy for value . The most common trade is when a person can trade their time and their body’s energy. They produce some level of valu…

The only currency you're born with is time. The rest are acquired by the application of time.

I'd say you're also born with energy if you're born with time.

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#83

Post by mapcars » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:20 PM UTC

>My Language is the best (Or, your language sucks)

>No, it is not. Both Church and Turing proved that.

This is not true, a simple check - are you writing in assembler/C? Why not? They are the fastest languages and both are perfectly complete from Church and Turing standpoint. But of course, there are thousands of other criteria that make the difference.

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#84

Post by seanwilson » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

When comparing careers, I'm amazed how little people mention free time. You see people saying things like "I did blah to move from $X thousand a year to $Y thousand a year" but it's rare anyone mentions how much free time they have like "I earn $X thousand a year and have Y days off".

I understand more money now could mean you'll have more free time later, but earning a lot with no time for your own personal growth doesn't sound great to me. I'd rather take a pay cut for substantially more time off.

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#85

Post by artsyca » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #30

I'd really like to get better at touch typing, is GNU Typist a solid recommendation, or are there better ones?

If you're serious about typing ditch the QWERTY layout and learn something that's actually optimized for the language of your choice it's so naive to attempt mastery of a broken paradigm without ever questioning that paradigm as in the case of the broken and arbitrary key layout from 1873

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#86

Post by madengr » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:22 PM UTC

mikestew wrote: post #56

IggleSniggle wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has also been a thing at many US grocery stores for many years now, but inexplicably, many people don't use them.

I don’t use them because I just assume it’s going to be a personal information harvest fest, and it won’t work as advertised anyway. Like most other software-driven things these days.

Unless you pay with cash at the grocery store, they are already harvesting it. I’m surprised they are not selling it to the health insurance companies to monitor your habits.

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#87

Post by carapace » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:23 PM UTC

hackeryogi wrote: post #79

carapace wrote: post #61

This is great! In re: time is money, it's even worse than that: attention is money. The quality of time varies with the "self-remembrance" if you will. - - - - Take time to "pop the 'why?' stack. In practice many of us are "yak shaving" and wasting a lot of time and effort on "low-leverage" actions. > yak shaving > [MIT AI Lab, after 2000: orig. probably from a Ren & Stimpy episode.] Any seemingly pointless activity…

Does xkcd even need attribution? I was sure most readers would recognise the art (if not the comic) :) Point taken and corrected (noob blogger mistakes!) Thanks!

You're a scholar and a gentleman! Well met!

("Does xkcd even need attribution?" Sir? https://xkcd.com/1053/ would you forego the delight of being the one who introduced somebody to XKCD? (^_^) <3 )

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#88

Post by RareSoft » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:25 PM UTC

ciconia wrote: post #36

Somehow the idea that time is our only currency is conflated with efficiency. Yes, time is the most limited resources we have, and therefore the most precious, but does this mean we have to squeeze every last bit of productivity from our time? Do we really have to keep running all the time, always optimising for more efficiency? I would say the exact opposite. If time is our most precious asset, let's rather spend it…

I agree in priciple but it's only by having money through success that we're able to enjoy those more meaningful aspects of life.

The only group of people that have the luxury of prioritizing those more meaningful things are those with enough assets that they can do whatever they want. Everyone else has to try to keep up.

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#89

Post by ukj » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

mapcars wrote: post #83

>My Language is the best (Or, your language sucks) >No, it is not. Both Church and Turing proved that. This is not true, a simple check - are you writing in assembler/C? Why not? They are the fastest languages and both are perfectly complete from Church and Turing standpoint. But of course, there are thousands of other criteria that make the difference.

Theoretical vs practical expressivity.

You can always insist you were arguing for theoretical expressivity when people start throwing counter-examples at you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressive_power_(computer_sci... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_tarpit

Re: Time is the only real currency we have

#90

Post by mark_l_watson » Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 2:30 PM UTC

Interesting premise and article.

I do disagree with a lot of it since I believe more in maximizing human potential through mindfulness and tuning ourselves instead of our tools.

re: “ You don’t want to be the person who thinks their problem through on a piece of paper,...” For difficult problems I think you do want to be this kind of person. Walking away from your laptop, sitting outside or anywhere relaxing with a pad of paper and a pen, and really thinking is a super power.

The author’s good advice on spending a few minutes a day learning about your IDE/tools can also be applied to the idea of sitting quietly a few times a day with paper and pen and just thinking. If you don’t have this habit, how about trying it for just ten minutes a day to see if it pays off for your work style?