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I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month

simonberens.me

161–170 of 346 posts

Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month

#161

I honestly cannot believe this. The porn part, the make me a smoothie request, dating dinners. This guy seriously paid people to sit behind him and didn't even think about them stealing his $1000 monitors until after the fact? He didn't try blocking any non productive sites? No productivity software? No pomadoro technique-esq focus methods? This guy should have paid $88/hour for therapy if we are being honest here

The idea seems decently self-aware to me. All the systems and techniques in the world can't compensate for poor discipline, and social accountability is a strong pull.

The porn thing was most likely a generic "mind your own business" non-response. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBE4262nxkE

Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month

#162

Chop wood. Carry water. Just do the work, or don't. This is some bullshit.

This isn't really helpful. I have ADHD and it's been a major limiting factor in my life. I have things I want or need to do and I'll easily spend 3-4x as long as the tasks actually end up taking just trying to do them.

Unless my brain happens to be "in the mood for work", the only way I can get things done is by being in a structured "you must do X now" kind of environment. Doubly so since shifting gears from something you are focused on to something new is essentially impossible.

It is shitty and stressful being forced to run 100% towards artificially imposed deadlines that I'm always just barely late for but unless I do that, I will never make progress regardless of how much I actually want to do the work. And this really hurts me for burnout as I constantly feel like a failure for not meeting deadlines that I knowingly set to be nearly impossible. So I'm stuck in a balance between not being able to do work because I'm not running against an impossible clock or feeling like a failure for not beating said impossible clock.

Even worse is the reality that if I start to recognise that the constraints I've placed are artificial or have consequences I control, any help they provide falls apart. So it's a constant struggle to find new, increasingly ratcheted constraints for myself so I can continue to do the things I enjoy or even basic day to day personal or work related tasks.

Because of this, I 100% get the author. I couldn't see myself doing what they did but the thought process makes complete sense to me. I'm practically doing the same thing but using friends, coworkers, or technology to do it, even if they aren't necessarily in the same room as me.

Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month

#164
post #92

I honestly cannot believe this. The porn part, the make me a smoothie request, dating dinners. This guy seriously paid people to sit behind him and didn't even think about them stealing his $1000 monitors until after the fact? He didn't try blocking any non productive sites? No productivity software? No pomadoro technique-esq focus methods? This guy should have paid $88/hour for therapy if we are being honest here

The scant photos in the blog post are not convincing enough for me. I'm calling it fake.

I wish I was good enough of a fiction writer to fake this :/

Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month

#166
post #46

Well fuck. This is definitely the weirdest thing I've read this year. I doubt something will dethrone it before the end of the year.

I miss updates on n-gate.com They'd have a field day with this.

I check the website from time to time. Hope it will start posting again.

Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month

#167

I honestly cannot believe this. The porn part, the make me a smoothie request, dating dinners. This guy seriously paid people to sit behind him and didn't even think about them stealing his $1000 monitors until after the fact? He didn't try blocking any non productive sites? No productivity software? No pomadoro technique-esq focus methods? This guy should have paid $88/hour for therapy if we are being honest here

Maybe I’m too cynical but it just seems performative. It seems like any number of YouTube videos where some financially well off influencer spends their money doing something awkward to attract views. And it worked. Here we are gawking at the latest stunt. Like and subscribe. Don’t forget to smash that bell. Check out my patreon for access to my Discord.

Oh no! The person I'm watching wanted to be watched!

Wait, what?

Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt this 0%. I’ve hired people just to help me focus and also to help with chores. To me, this is someone with the same job in the same city as me just taking what I’ve done two steps further. Literally nothing in that post is unbelievable to me, including the behavior of the people he hired. In the first paragraph he did mention tools for focusing, saying he went as far as making his own.

> I’ve hired people just to help me focus and also to help with chores But were those people the same? Usually have have one type of person for each purpose, one psychologist/therapist to help you figure out why you can't focus and then one cleaner that helps you keep a tidy house.

I'm not sure everybody needs a psychologist/therapist but I'd be willing to bet most would benefit from somebody to talk to (or even at)

If you ramble on long enough and your maid starts to answer and ask questions, are they a makeshift therapist?

Re: I hired 5 people to sit behind me and make me productive for a month

#170
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scant photos in the blog post are not convincing enough for me. I'm calling it fake.

I wish I was good enough of a fiction writer to fake this :/

Do you think having a girlfriend application on your page makes any sense? Is it a joke? Or are you just that self absorbed and insane?
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