A lot of people would give absolutely anything to be 35 again.
[deleted]
I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
51–60 of 691 posts
Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
#52From Taleb's "Antifragile": "Abundance is harder for us to handle than scarcity.If tired after an intercontinental flight, go to the gym for some exertion instead of resting. Also, it is a well known trick that if you need something urgently done, give the task to the busiest (or second busiest) person in the office. Most humans manage to squander their free time, as free time makes them dysfunctional, lazy, and unmo…
> the busier they get, the more active they are at other tasks.
Wow does that ever ring true for me right now...
Over the last couple of months I've had some major work items at about 80% complete but just couldn't find the motivation to push them over the line. I'd have free time but I'd always waste it.
A couple weeks ago, an exec came to me and a couple of colleagues and asked us for a major assignment to be complete in two weeks. At first I balked but after thinking it through I saw an obvious path and bore down.
The work was fast and furious and with the deadline looming I put in late nights and used all my free time to get the work done.
It was incredibly satisfying!
But a weird thing happened: I suddenly got motivated to finish those other assignments and knocked off a number of them in short order.
Somehow I've gotten back into the mental headspace of just knocking tasks off my to-do list and I find the momentum keeps me going. I always knew that about myself--my productivity has always been very spikey--but this experience was truly eye opening.
Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
#53Paradoxically, when I had all the time in the world I frittered it away on video games and the internet. Now that I have multiple kids and my time is extremely constrained, I am very efficient with my time usage. I listen to audiobooks while doing the dishes. I plan in my mind exactly which programming tasks I want to accomplish as soon as the kids are in bed so that I can do them quickly and still have time to spend…
I read this somewhere, I tried to find the source, and I'm sad I can't properly attribute it:
When you are young, you trade time for money.
When you are middle aged, you trade money for convenience.
When you are old, you trade money for time.
Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re saying that comparison steals us of the natural energy of curiosity and “just doing it”?
Succinctly put! I can't count the number of times I've considered starting a project or something and thought "Nah, those guys did it better, I'll never be that good, what's the point..." Or: why we spend too much time focused on goals and accomplishments instead of effort, perseverance, and the joy of the journey.
Yup.
Actually for me it’s mainly the fear of doing something trite, that’s already been done a million times. I always think “oh what’s the point, this has been done before”.
But I’m starting to think that everybody hits that stage. People great at what they do hit it, keep pushing out of either strong will or just curiosity, and end up making it (or a facet of it) their own.
Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
#55Funny piece. It can be so easy to waste time when we have the internet. I think the most dangerous distractions are the ones that feel productive but don’t actually work toward your goals. For example, browsing hacker news. Such an activity is useful every now and then, but at least for myself I often scroll around only to realize later that it was a massive waste of time I could’ve spent working on something I care…
I like to think that gamification will help my kids get "addicted" to useful things like maths homework or exercise. I worry it is just teaching them to get gamified... But the idea is nice - banks that enforce aging and budgets, shops that put fresh produce at the checkouts and never sell chocolate bars...
I would advise you to fight any addiction your kids might have, especially gaming/other internet points addictions. Gamification is a fix that people addicted to dopamine rushes need, but children shouldn't require it. Instead I would work on framing work in a positive way.
Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
#56Let me guess: liberal arts degree with tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) in loans. Living in an extremely expensive city. Dating other unserious romantic people with no plans for a family, who could afford one anyway? I wish we (and people in similar situations) were more honest about these bad decisions. We need to warn our young people against falling into similar traps. It’s not victim blaming, it’s just…
I don't think this really is limited to liberal arts and big city urban life. I know this group might be highly represented but you have many other types of people who struggle with the exact same problems.
Not everyone who gets lung cancer smokes but it's a hell of a risk factor.
A lot of debt without a clear "shovel ready" career path to pay it off combined with a high cost of living sure isn't a recipe for a fulfilling life outside of work and if your work doesn't do it for you you're SOL at that point.
Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alternately: When you have a wife and kids and job you like, a lot of your most important needs are well met -- if you can keep juggling everything. Someone with hours and hours to do nothing likely isn't getting laid, isn't making much money, isn't intellectually gratified, etc. So you play games to occupy yourself to keep from going bonkers.
People underestimate how incredibly hard it is to pull yourself out of habits born from socioeconomic factors. Video games give you an alternate reality, likely much better than your own.
It wasn't a criticism of video games and if you are suggesting I am underestimating something, I got myself off the street a few years ago of my own efforts.
I still play plenty of videogames. It's something I can drop at will as I get my act together, make the connections I need to make, etc. I like games and my kids always joked "Video games are our only education."
But the reality is I would rather have a life and if I had more of a life, that fact would drive a lot of my activities and there simply wouldn't be time -- or need -- to play games for hours.
Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alternately: When you have a wife and kids and job you like, a lot of your most important needs are well met -- if you can keep juggling everything. Someone with hours and hours to do nothing likely isn't getting laid, isn't making much money, isn't intellectually gratified, etc. So you play games to occupy yourself to keep from going bonkers.
People underestimate how incredibly hard it is to pull yourself out of habits born from socioeconomic factors. Video games give you an alternate reality, likely much better than your own.
It's hard to stop being lazy too
Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
#59Funny piece. It can be so easy to waste time when we have the internet. I think the most dangerous distractions are the ones that feel productive but don’t actually work toward your goals. For example, browsing hacker news. Such an activity is useful every now and then, but at least for myself I often scroll around only to realize later that it was a massive waste of time I could’ve spent working on something I care…
I find browsing hackernews to be one of the more beneficial activities I can do for 5-20 minutes as a break between more mentally taxing activities. Meditation, going for a walk, getting a snack or a drink, and a quick chat with a friend are other activities I consider both beneficial and short duration.
Yep, I rarely think of HN reading time as wasted afterwards.
Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
#60https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24120275 has helped me a lot with procrastination already (the video and discussion and the original blogpost)