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

newyorker.com

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

#211

Post by jedberg »

voidhorse wrote: post #13

Funny 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…

> It can be so easy to waste time when we have the internet.

I'm just really glad I did college when the only thing distracting on the internet was Slashdot and you could only access it with a computer attached to an ethernet cable.

I'm almost certain I would not have made it past Freshman year if I had a smartphone.

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

#212

Post by abootstrapper »

hodgesrm wrote: post #208
abootstrapper wrote: post #116

Everyone here is reading this article as a cautionary tale on procrastination. To me it’s about the unrealistic expectations we place on ourselves. Maybe that’s due to our fake meritocratic society, or comparisons made on social media, or our parents expectations. I thought I’d be a millionaire by now, changing the world for the better, with a Wikipedia page and a yacht. But what I really want now is to put down the…

On the other hand some very well-known people felt profound conflict about not achieving their self-imposed goals before actually doing so. There's a famous story about Caesar bursting into tears at the thought of how Alexander the Great had built an empire whereas Caesar himself had done nothing of note by the same age. [1] It's common to read about other military leaders like Alexander who felt similarly, but perha…

Survivorship bias perhaps? I suspect even more people felt profound conflict about not having achieved their goals only to continue to fall short of their aspirations.

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

#213

Post by DoreenMichele »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #205
DoreenMichele wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was Director of Community Life for the oldest set of gifted support email lists on the internet while I was a homeschooling parent. It was common knowledge in those circles that the best way to improve typing speed for kids was to encourage them to get involved in things like online games. My son was already a gamer. He hated his typing program. I told him he could quit doing practice typing as one of his assignmen…

I've always hoped this was a common knowledge, but unfortunately it somehow never reached my parents or my teachers. > He hated his typing program. I remember those typing practice programs. I always hated them. Super boring, couldn't stand them for more than 2 minutes. Much later on (and well after I've achieved high typing speeds) I've discovered The Typing of The Dead - a House of The Dead clone where you shoot zo…

I don't remember what typing program he had. Each of my sons had their own typing program because they had different learning styles.

I was very goal oriented. If they could meet the standard, they could move on to do something else instead. Where they exceeded grade level expectations across the board for some subject, I let them do whatever they felt like doing as "gifted enrichment."

For science, I got my oldest anything he was interested in -- books to read, magazine subscriptions, whatever he wanted -- because at age 13 he was talking slow and repeating himself a lot to explain the Theory of Relativity to me. This was enormously helpful in getting me through some of my later upper class college classes.

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

#214

Post by ip26 »

voidhorse wrote: post #13

Funny 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 realized recently after many years puttering around online that I frequently couldn't name anything I had just read over the last four hours.

I haven't taken full control of myself back yet, but that thought was a strong wake-up call to me.

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

#215

Post by ip26 »

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…

Similar boat. I flip-flop between efficient time usage, and squandering my free time, because I'm so fried I just want to do nothing.

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

#216

Post by grugagag »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #102

I've been mentoring CS college students and new grad SWEs for a while. It's shocking to see how many of them perpetually feel like they're overwhelmed and short on time, yet they can't account for where they've actually spent their time. It's not uncommon for new grad SWEs to complain that an 8-hour work day is somehow consuming 100% of their weekday hours, leaving them without any time to do anything else. On furthe…

Thanks for reminding me to turn on screen time on my phone. I am indeed wasting a lot of time on my phone reading things that don't get me much value while procrastinating on real work or things that I consciously want to spend my time on. This problem is a lot more prevalent on my phone than on my laptop. I catch myself browsing HN without any intent and without any goal, mostly reading comments and skimming on articles. It's a complete waste of time and I'm not really getting anything from it. I wish I could come once a week and get a synthesis of what's been happening over here. There are a lot of things that I absolutely don't care about at all and filtering on categories would help me skip those. I noticed that the top 30 or 60 items on HN move rather slowly and one visit a day is enough to not feel that you're missing out. I feel that I need outside help to regulate these behaviors.

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

#218

Post by Insanity »

WD-42 wrote: post #168
asw12az wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While some of what you are writing is probably true, a work day (especially pre-COVID), really takes up a lot more than 8hrs. If you live in a city and want to live somewhere affordable, you're often looking at 1hr+ of commute each way. You have to get up a little early to prep for the day. Some jobs don't count a lunch break towards your 8hr day, or expect you to stay later, so you end up working more like 9hrs. If…

Not to mention the 8 hour work day (9-5) are your prime waking hours. It takes a lot of discipline to be productive outside of them.

I suspect this 9->5 is more 'by convention' than an actual fact? For me, I am not that productive before lunch and have to push myself, but on the other hand I can easily be productive in the afternoon and evening.

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

#219

Post by necheffa »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #102

I've been mentoring CS college students and new grad SWEs for a while. It's shocking to see how many of them perpetually feel like they're overwhelmed and short on time, yet they can't account for where they've actually spent their time. It's not uncommon for new grad SWEs to complain that an 8-hour work day is somehow consuming 100% of their weekday hours, leaving them without any time to do anything else. On furthe…

Let's not kid ourselves here, an 8 hour work day takes up a ton of time when you factor in cooking, cleaning, and attending to other chores. Maybe you even have to take care of another small human too.

It is incredibly disingenuous to think all you need is a little time management and all will be right in the world.

Sometimes it takes a couple hours after a full days work just to recharge and focus deeply on a task again.

Lets not forget about the physical and psychological impact of shorter days in the winter time too.

Sincerely, a hardened in the trenches 10 year vet.

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

#220

Post by NegatioN »

jeffnv wrote: post #180
tayo42 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk if it's just terrified, but I think we're addicted. This probably sounds ridiculous but I recently blocked some apps and sites on my phone and actually felt a little off for a day, like my sleep was weird. I think there was a slight withdrawal from the constant bombardment of stuff. It is helping kill my Facebook habit. I don't even really like the site, I just check it impulsively. It's weird. Reddit is another…

What information on reddit is useful?

Devils advocate: reddit can be just as useful as HN (or more so) if you only interact with subreddits you have a deep connection to.

I used to often see niche, really interesting stuff on there, although I haven't used it much lately. The Frontpage is pure garbage though.

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