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I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

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Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#71

Post by belly_joe »

renjimen wrote: post #31
umvi wrote: post #4

Paradoxically, 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’m very nostalgic about the countless hours I frittered away on video games and the internet as an adolescent. Part of me thinks it made me the person I am today, who I am proud of. I recently joined a Counter Strike team with work and had some of the most fun times I can think of recently. I compare that with the time I put aside to learn 3D modelling, which was fun in its own way but required more self motivation…

I feel this deeply. I was extremely lazy in high school and college and then got my act together gradually throughout my 20s to the point where I feel like I no longer waste much time. I've experienced some success and accomplished goals as a result, but when I look back on my life, I remember those hours wasted playing video games most fondly.

There's a motivational saying that when you die you get to meet the person you could have become, and that's your individual heaven/hell. I've got a nagging fear that maybe if I learn to speak French or sell a business or whatever, raise a family, grow old and die, I'll come face to face with the guy who played 10,000 hours of Civ.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#73

Post by emteycz »

barry-cotter wrote: post #64
pjfin123 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gamification of Duolingo is something that has really worked for me (as an adult). It has all the parts of an addictive mobile game that keep you coming back: a streak that notifies you if you're in danger of losing it (this is the one that really works for me), social rankings, fun graphics, in game currency. I have a 410 day Spanish streak as of this morning! I took French in middle/high school with the standar…

Duolingo is great as a beginning to language study but that’s all there is to it. If you have a 410 day Spanish streak it’s time to start reading Spanish children’s books or watching telenovelas or Narcos, anything but continuing with Duolingo.

Duolingo takes you 10 minutes a day. If it's the only thing you're doing, I agree it's not sufficient, but I disagree with stopping doing it - it has mechanisms to reinforce what you learned.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#74

Post by throwaway45349 »

morelisp wrote: post #33
ed25519FUUU wrote: post #6

Let 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…

> We need to warn our young people against falling into similar traps. It’s not victim blaming, it’s just honesty about what’s happening. It is victim blaming. Rather than warning young people about the dangers of a solid education, we should make getting that education not dangerous. We fucked up universities with layers of bureaucracy, bizarre funding and compensation schemes, and vocational focus. Admitting and fi…

Liberal arts aren't a solid education for survival. I'd rather the major/minor system to allow people to study these things while getting a useful qualification alongside.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#75

Post by pjfin123 »

barry-cotter wrote: post #64
pjfin123 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gamification of Duolingo is something that has really worked for me (as an adult). It has all the parts of an addictive mobile game that keep you coming back: a streak that notifies you if you're in danger of losing it (this is the one that really works for me), social rankings, fun graphics, in game currency. I have a 410 day Spanish streak as of this morning! I took French in middle/high school with the standar…

Duolingo is great as a beginning to language study but that’s all there is to it. If you have a 410 day Spanish streak it’s time to start reading Spanish children’s books or watching telenovelas or Narcos, anything but continuing with Duolingo.

Yeah I agree (sorry I edited the original post to essentially say this while you wrote the comment). I also took a semester of Spanish in college and Duolingo let me (barely) place into the second level class. I've also been watching Spanish media (Telemundo, Casa de Papel, Pasion de Gavilanes) and just started a Spanish meetup group to practice speaking.

What Duolingo has been best for is getting a baseline vocab and familiarity with the language. It also lets you stay fresh/keep making progress when you don't have time or mental effort to spend more than a few minutes a day.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#76

Post by sanedigital »

emteycz wrote: post #73
barry-cotter wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Duolingo is great as a beginning to language study but that’s all there is to it. If you have a 410 day Spanish streak it’s time to start reading Spanish children’s books or watching telenovelas or Narcos, anything but continuing with Duolingo.

Duolingo takes you 10 minutes a day. If it's the only thing you're doing, I agree it's not sufficient, but I disagree with stopping doing it - it has mechanisms to reinforce what you learned.

But what you’ve learned isn’t all that valuable from a language perspective. It doesn’t matter how well is reinforcing lessons of those lessons weren’t very valuable in the first place.

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#77

Post by [deleted] »

arsome wrote: post #65
gas9S9zw3P9c wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Time to set up my emacs config to manage my life and stop wasting time.

I mean org-mode is pretty amazing for that kind of thing...

[deleted]

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#79

Post by pensiveharsh »

etrautmann wrote: post #59
bjo590 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Perhaps you haven't spent an absurd amount of time on HN

Re: I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35

#80

Post by chesneyc »

sneak wrote: post #26

“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.” —Kurt Vonnegut

I recently read an article on HN where someone mentioned that they saw a guy sitting on a bicycle just talking to a friend, he then lost his footing and hit his head on the ground and died.The commenter then wrote "We're just farts in the wind". Now I understand the reference!
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