How to lose time and money
paulgraham.com
How to lose time and money
1–10 of 84 posts
Re: How to lose time and money
#2very timely advice. I was just thinking about investing a chunk of change. Thanks.
Re: How to lose time and money
#3But is it actionable? I have to answer email, sometimes.
Re: How to lose time and money
#4very timely advice. I was just thinking about investing a chunk of change. Thanks.
There's nothing wrong with investing, just investing foolishly.
Re: How to lose time and money
#5I think this ties into the idea of MMORPGs. I used to play them a lot until I realized they were not fun, just addictive; they make you feel like you're accomplishing something by leveling and gaining skills, when really it's only your character that's improving - you're not getting better at anything.
Re: How to lose time and money
#6I think for me this manifests itself in wasting time on reddit and twitter. Whenever I have a blank chrome tab, my unconscious reaction is to punch in one of these time-wasters.
Re: How to lose time and money
#7This short essay is not pg at his best in my view. Spending time having fun is Plain Good, and necessary, even for the most focused startup founder. But watching TV don't count obviously. Playing cards with friends at a terasse does.
Re: How to lose time and money
#8This short essay is not pg at his best in my view. Spending time having fun is Plain Good, and necessary, even for the most focused startup founder. But watching TV don't count obviously. Playing cards with friends at a terasse does.
The most dangerous way to lose time is not to spend it having fun, but to spend it doing fake work.
His focus is not criticizing having fun, but wasting time without realizing it.
Re: How to lose time and money
#9Sometimes I think the feeling of getting "basically nothing" done by the end of the day is not the right timeframe - there are projects that have gone on for weeks that ultimately were a complete waste of time. But while working through those projects I felt something productive was happening, which made it difficult to think of them as "basically nothing". I'm not talking about failed ventures that could have turned into something great, these projects were pretty much always going to amount to nothing (they just appeared at the outset to be different to what they were)
Re: How to lose time and money
#10I think this ties into the idea of MMORPGs. I used to play them a lot until I realized they were not fun, just addictive; they make you feel like you're accomplishing something by leveling and gaining skills, when really it's only your character that's improving - you're not getting better at anything.
I felt this way a decade ago when my wife and I rented Season 1 of the show 24. I never enjoyed it, but felt strangely compelled to find out what happened in the next episode, and would stay up too late watching. After one season I decided that was enough of that addiction.