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Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

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Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#41

Post by asim »

tenpoundhammer wrote: post #31

I found in my mid thirties that my perspective on what was important and desirable shifted significantly. Which led me to become disengaged from my desire to build side projects and learn new programming languages. It was a time were ecclesiastes from the Bible resonated a lot. After a while I just found out that I wasn’t interested in nothing but I had to rediscover what was important to me and what I valued spendin…

Bingo. This happened to me also. What I valued changed. In my 20s and early 30s I was really serving myself. Even work was about my own curiosity and desire to work hard. Eventually as "me" time was stripped away I had to re-evaluate and understand what I was living for. We live in a world of abundance, excess and desire. The desire to create is not the same as being driven by a real need. And the cycle of consumerism only made our lives worse as we watched others who we aspired to be like or escape our lives for short periods through endless content binging. Our real needs are much simpler. We don't need a lot to live a good life. If anything we have to become more disciplined in learning how to need less.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#42

Post by cowboyscott »

Do what feels right for you, and make sure you're doing that in a way that ethical for those around you and the rest of the world. It sounds like our paths getting there were a bit different, but I also took a significant break from my professional life and disengaged with expectations that were not my own and used that time to deliberately work on my mental health and relationships. Thankfully, I was in a situation where I had the resources to do so (which includes the support of my partner). I quit a nice tech job and spent a year studying a ton of subjects that I loved or thought I'd love, and explored radical shifts in my career. I'm not done yet, but I managed to find the parts of my old work I still enjoy, the parts I don't, and the beginnings of an understanding of how to trade my time for money in a way that I'm comfortable with. I've been easing back into things, and am even finding joy in the things in things that had previously been surefire triggers for emotional spirals (including hackernews!). Anyway, I'm still not settled, and never will be, but I'm content with that for now.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#43

Post by ponderings »

My idea is to work on small toy things I can finish in uhh 30 minutes, a day, a week, 30 years etc Ponder the big problems in life, read up what was done to progress the progress sufficiently to be able to participate in attempting to solve the puzzle. Look where others didn't look. Eventually you find a problem that fits your ability. This could be a small problem that takes 5 years to complete or a big problem that takes 1 day once you know how to do it.

Sometimes you just have to try stuff. Without going into details my 2 most stupid ideas turned out to be completely hilarious and unlike anything one could imagine in advance.

Enjoy the process not the results.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#44

Post by shadowfoxx »

I don't think its possible to be working on 'absolutely nothing'. I think you'll find that if you really explore this idea that you can almost always go further. For example. Do you clean your house? Maintenance is something. The status quo is something and it need to be maintained to exist. I think you recognize this because you admit that you're working on yourself.

The only time I think you could truly do nothing is when you've passed.

I would say I was in a similar place - Wake up, Go to work, come home, watch youtube, sleep, repeat; I had projects I was interested in but couldn't bring myself to do them. For me, part of the answer was changing my environment, the people I was with, the culture was to chill because you're exhausted from work. Another part was, like you're doing now, working on yourself. Another, specific part of working on myself was taking inventory of the things I 'valued'. Did I truly still value those things or were they things from my youth that I am clinging to? Do I value them because I authentically value them or is it because culturally they are valued? Am I applying those cultural valued to places that matter to me. For example: "Hard work". I do value hard work, but the places I was applying that value did not provide return on the investment. So now I apply 'hard work' elsewhere.

I think it is both necessary and good to do this from time to time. Good luck on this journey.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#46

Post by panarky »

Sajarin wrote: post #35
reactordev wrote: post #6

If you find yourself thinking “this is all for nothing”, you’d be correct. You can’t take any of this crap with you when you pass. You do what makes you happy. What makes you happy? Searching for external validation of a pat on the back for a job well done is not what makes one happy. Take a moment, pause, just be, focus on your happiness and what that means to you . Stop comparing yourself to others. Stop trying to…

This is a step in the right direction but it is still wrong. Yes, whatever praise or accolades you earn from work will be things you can never take with you when you pass. But the same also goes for whatever enjoyment you get from hobbies, interests or activities. You've just swapped one temporary source of happiness for another. Even if the latter is more meaningful, it is still temporary. It is easy to suggest focu…

> when you pass

Nihilism is not the belief that there is no God and life is ultimately meaningless.

Nihilism is recognizing that there is no God and life is ultimately meaningless, while continuing to sacrifice at a grinding job you hate, continuing to submit to the phony morality of those higher than you in the social hierarchy, conforming to social rituals and customs you privately think are bullshit, continuing to follow the rules of external authorities as if that might pay off in the afterlife.

Nihilism is understanding the truth, but pretending the universe is different than it really is, so you can evade personal responsibility for creating your own meaning.

Nihilism is behaving as if there is a God who gives life meaning, even when you don't actually believe that, instead of assuming responsibility for making your own meaning during the brief time you're alive.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#47

Post by fidotron »

tenpoundhammer wrote: post #31

I found in my mid thirties that my perspective on what was important and desirable shifted significantly. Which led me to become disengaged from my desire to build side projects and learn new programming languages. It was a time were ecclesiastes from the Bible resonated a lot. After a while I just found out that I wasn’t interested in nothing but I had to rediscover what was important to me and what I valued spendin…

One of the massive things which caused a shift was knowing a decent sized group of people that became incredibly financially successful as the result of acquisitions and what this actually did to their personal lives. It really wasn't the all happy fun situation that it is so often portrayed as being.

Then there is the whole have kidsnot have kids axis, and where people fall on that will dramatically influence their priorities with work as well, with the former tending to see it as a way to finance raising their kids and the latter tending to attempt to replace kids with something else in their lives, which can often be work.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#48

Post by Sajarin »

panarky wrote: post #46
Sajarin wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a step in the right direction but it is still wrong. Yes, whatever praise or accolades you earn from work will be things you can never take with you when you pass. But the same also goes for whatever enjoyment you get from hobbies, interests or activities. You've just swapped one temporary source of happiness for another. Even if the latter is more meaningful, it is still temporary. It is easy to suggest focu…

> when you pass Nihilism is not the belief that there is no God and life is ultimately meaningless. Nihilism is recognizing that there is no God and life is ultimately meaningless, while continuing to sacrifice at a grinding job you hate, continuing to submit to the phony morality of those higher than you in the social hierarchy, conforming to social rituals and customs you privately think are bullshit, continuing to…

I'm not a nihilist so I don't know whether those characterizations are accurate. It seems you are making some conflations with absurdism and pascal's wager.

Nihilism to me is about accepting the idea that there is no self but without actually having directly experienced that truth. And according to buddhism for instance, there is a way to experience a selfless existence which gives rise to true equanimity.

Without direct experience, nihilism is just another form of faith.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#49

Post by jassyr »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #37

Wow, I just wanted to say thanks a lot for posting this. I'm in a very similar boat. I was always very focused and goal-oriented in my younger days - a bit of a workaholic but generally enjoyed working hard. A number of changes since the pandemic have left me feeling very similar to you: 1. Like tons of other people, I re-evaluated my relationship with work during the pandemic. To be honest, it wasn't easy. I think a…

Feels like you read my mind. I'm disconnected from career and generally feel disappointed with direction of technology. It's quite difficult finding meaning in life surrounded by careerist.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#50

Post by jessehorne »

I resonate a lot with this but I think it's against my will that I feel lost. I've started little projects like 48hr.dev to try to help me just build more and to collaborate with people in the same spot. I have friends building these incredible saas apps or stuff to help in scientific research, or just really cool side projects but I struggle to find ideas that are valuable to people. I don't lack motivation or interest I just lack the luck or either skills to find (and have faith in) solid ideas.
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