Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

kottke.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 152 posts

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#61

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

chrismeller wrote: post #7

Quoted post unavailable.

> Stop aggrandizing him, it doesn’t take courage to take time off, it takes money. Hypocrites.

This is a fine point to make, and I 100% agree.

But your excellent point is ruined by the obnoxious negativity preceding it. It's obvious you're incredibly envious, and you've allowed your envy to turn you bitter.

But more on topic, there was another thread somewhat recently where I commented a similar thing: There are so many people that rave about how much happier they are once they quit their job and started just doing things they want to do like travel the world and work on projects they deem enjoyable. These people conveniently leave out the fact that they've got a 7-figure savings account to fund their activities. They will literally ask minimum wage workers why they work shitty jobs instead of going backpacking in New Zealand or some shit.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#62

Post by reggieband »

I watch a lot of YouTube and a fair amount of Twitch. Sooner or later every creator talks a bit about their anxiety working in that content creator grind.

On Twitch, taking a day off may mean losing hundreds of subscribers. Streamers are cautious about taking bathroom breaks since they can lose thousands of viewers during a short break. YouTube ruthlessly punishes creators that don't upload on a consistent schedule. I imagine TikTok and Instagram are similar.

My guess is that Kottke has been living under a similar stress for 24 years. That has got to wear a person down.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#63

Post by shortformblog »

naikrovek wrote: post #35
asellke wrote: post #16

Dare I say no one has done more for the blog form than Mr. Kottke. His humble, almost monkish 24-year commitment to not only the pursuit of knowledge and meaning in the world, but his absolute insistence on sharing that pursuit with anyone who wants to ride along in that journey is one of the all-time greatest contributions to the web. Godspeed, Jason. Be well and see you on the flip (in whatever way you deem fit).

Quoted post unavailable.

This has been downvoted, but as someone who has been blogging for 13 and a half years now, I’m sorry you had to deal with that. You did not deserve that discouragement.

I faced discouragement early on when I wanted to get into blogging—in my first attempt, I faced a guy who was effectively trying to cyberbully me—but I eventually found my way in. I’ve been at it ever since. I encourage you to give it another shot, if you haven’t.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#65

Post by waynesonfire »

reggieband wrote: post #62

I watch a lot of YouTube and a fair amount of Twitch. Sooner or later every creator talks a bit about their anxiety working in that content creator grind. On Twitch, taking a day off may mean losing hundreds of subscribers. Streamers are cautious about taking bathroom breaks since they can lose thousands of viewers during a short break. YouTube ruthlessly punishes creators that don't upload on a consistent schedule.…

No post body was provided.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#66

Post by MontyCarloHall »

munificent wrote: post #47
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #34

Jason posts a handful of cool links each week and occasionally writes a few paragraphs about them. He also sometimes produces a podcast. As far as I can tell, this is the full extent of his job. It’s really hard to imagine getting “burnt out” from this. It sounds exactly how many people actively enjoy spending their free time: surf the internet for fun and take a few minutes sharing a couple cool links with your frie…

The emotional experience of an activity is 10% the activity itself and 90% the framing around the activity and what it means for your life. It's not the surfing and posting links. It's the knowing if I don't surf and post sufficiently interesting links every day, I can't afford my health insurance. The stakes are much higher in the latter.

>[K]nowing if I don't , I can't afford my "

is true for literally everyone except the independently wealthy. It is a lot easier to not stress over for someone for whom "the activity itself" is a non-demanding job, than for someone whose job is inherently extremely emotionally or physically draining.

As an extreme example, suppose my parents bestowed on me a trust fund. It affords me a monthly allowance that lets me live an upper middle class lifestyle without having to otherwise work. The only requirement to get this allowance is to have an earnest phone call with my mother for an hour each week. Failure to do so results in the trust being revoked. Saying that I'm "burnt out" from "knowing if I don't call my mom this week, my whole income disappears" would be absurd. The ease of my carefree lifestyle is more than enough to offset the mild stress of having to remember to call my mom on a weekly basis.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#67

Post by nullandvoid »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #56
santoshalper wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really feel like you're reading too much into the term "burned out". You can get sick of doing anything and lose the spark. I've never managed to do anything consistently for half as long as he's run his blog. It's kind of amazing to me he lasted this long. I just get the sense that his interest in it is waning, and he doesn't want to just "check the box" every day. It's his right. Just because some people live in…

I agree with everything you wrote. This is the crux of my annoyance: >I'm curious, would it have bothered you as much if he'd just said: "I'm sick of this blog and I'm quitting it?" because that's basically what he did, except he promised to come back (I wonder if he'll regret that promise in six months). Yes, this is exactly how he should have phrased it. "Burnt out" is a very strong term that refers to a state of e…

I think burnout is unique to an individual, and can simply be bought on by prolonged working on something (anything) that doesn't deliver the results you expect.

If the blog poster expected to be happy, or to have riches for example, and neither occurred at the level they expect (especially now 24 years in) burn out occurs.

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#68

Post by patternMachine »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #56
santoshalper wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really feel like you're reading too much into the term "burned out". You can get sick of doing anything and lose the spark. I've never managed to do anything consistently for half as long as he's run his blog. It's kind of amazing to me he lasted this long. I just get the sense that his interest in it is waning, and he doesn't want to just "check the box" every day. It's his right. Just because some people live in…

I agree with everything you wrote. This is the crux of my annoyance: >I'm curious, would it have bothered you as much if he'd just said: "I'm sick of this blog and I'm quitting it?" because that's basically what he did, except he promised to come back (I wonder if he'll regret that promise in six months). Yes, this is exactly how he should have phrased it. "Burnt out" is a very strong term that refers to a state of e…

Is it possible that running a blog is not as easy as you think?

Re: I’m going to miss you, but I am taking a sabbatical

#70

Post by gentle »

I've been reading Jason every day for the last 20-something years. I love his writing voice and his perspective on the world.

There's no other blog I read as consistently or as enthusiastically. I hope he gets the time out he needs from his sabbatical. I look forward to the next 20 years of reading his work.

Post reply on HN