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Poisoning the Day

ashore.io

11–20 of 82 posts

Re: Poisoning the Day

#11
> I sincerely doubt that anything great in the history of humanity has been built in the post-lunch afternoon

Interestingly, late afternoon is the time that I am most productive when coding. At 6pm when work ends I often feel that I could easily go on for another few hours

Re: Poisoning the Day

#12
post #4

Seems to be the exhaustion that happens when you’ve built up waste products that need to be cleared by sleep. But has anyone found success re-establishing that fresh mind without sleeping? Maybe meditation can help?

You might enjoy this discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41942096

The pattern didn't work on me, but maybe because I only watched a couple of cycles on my phone.

Has anyone had the experience where if you try to watch an anthill (or just many ants in one place), your vision gets out of focus after a couple of seconds? And you can't just re-focus, even after turning away from the ants. It takes a while until you are able to focus again.

It's very relaxing. I'm wondering if this is the same effect they are after with the animation.

Re: Poisoning the Day

#13
post #6

This feels like an incredibly elaborate way to say that he's a morning person. There's plenty of people for whom the entire thing works the exact opposite, and of course loads of people everywhere in between. I wouldn't really read deep into this, it's one of those takes that tries really hard to sound profound, but it really isn't.

Did you read the article?, is about doing the importnat stuff when no one is around to distract you. >Not an early riser? No problem, just flip it. Avoid the day. And when it’s done, that’s when your focussed work starts (my favourite adherent of this approach is Demis Hassabis: who works a “second day” from between 11pm and 4am).

I read the article and had the same response as GP. I don't know on what basis the author believes you can "flip it", but it seems at odds with the idea that at some point your day is "poisoned" and the rest must be written off, presumably until you can reset it by sleeping.

Re: Poisoning the Day

#14
post #11

> I sincerely doubt that anything great in the history of humanity has been built in the post-lunch afternoon Interestingly, late afternoon is the time that I am most productive when coding. At 6pm when work ends I often feel that I could easily go on for another few hours

I'm in the same boat where 6pm comes and I actually have a hard time shifting gears from writing code or thinking intensely about my project. I've been working on my focus and starting earlier in the day. The difference is when I get on track earlier I still chug along until the end of the day. Then by night I'm exhausted and go to bed early.

Work/life balance is important so I should probably listen to my body and focus when it wants to.

Re: Poisoning the Day

#15
post #6

This feels like an incredibly elaborate way to say that he's a morning person. There's plenty of people for whom the entire thing works the exact opposite, and of course loads of people everywhere in between. I wouldn't really read deep into this, it's one of those takes that tries really hard to sound profound, but it really isn't.

If you don't wanna read elaborations on known concepts then don't read articles.

I think simplistic terms like "morning person" and "night owl" are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_cliché applied to identity. Much like "introvert" and "extrovert".

Re: Poisoning the Day

#16
post #4

Seems to be the exhaustion that happens when you’ve built up waste products that need to be cleared by sleep. But has anyone found success re-establishing that fresh mind without sleeping? Maybe meditation can help?

Perhaps nsdr (popularized by Huberman).

Re: Poisoning the Day

#17
post #6

This feels like an incredibly elaborate way to say that he's a morning person. There's plenty of people for whom the entire thing works the exact opposite, and of course loads of people everywhere in between. I wouldn't really read deep into this, it's one of those takes that tries really hard to sound profound, but it really isn't.

Does the following part mean they're a morning person, or is it orthogonal?

> “Every day is a new beginning. You wake up and at some point in the day, someone shoots up a school, or something’s going on with your family, or you wake up and eat the wrong thing. And then you’re done. Emotionally cooked. Literally and emotionally poisoned.

> Every day I wake up and can get to the studio before something has shattered my existence, I am grateful. And I can do things.

Re: Poisoning the Day

#18
post #5

"Helpfully, this is one area of productivity where people with children are actually ahead of the curve. Because kids are professional day poisoners." When it's legal and otherwise sound I prefer to work and do business with parents for partly this reason. If they've managed to navigate the first few years of broken sleep and don't use work as escapism, then they're probably pretty hardy.

If you want something done ask the busiest person you know

Re: Poisoning the Day

#19
post #15
post #6

This feels like an incredibly elaborate way to say that he's a morning person. There's plenty of people for whom the entire thing works the exact opposite, and of course loads of people everywhere in between. I wouldn't really read deep into this, it's one of those takes that tries really hard to sound profound, but it really isn't.

If you don't wanna read elaborations on known concepts then don't read articles. I think simplistic terms like "morning person" and "night owl" are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_cliché applied to identity. Much like "introvert" and "extrovert".

Well I think they refer to the genetic make-up of the circadian timing system, as mentioned in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_owl .

Re: Poisoning the Day

#20
post #6

This feels like an incredibly elaborate way to say that he's a morning person. There's plenty of people for whom the entire thing works the exact opposite, and of course loads of people everywhere in between. I wouldn't really read deep into this, it's one of those takes that tries really hard to sound profound, but it really isn't.

Tangental but I noted this quote from 4HWW:

> Ask: if this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day? Don’t ever arrive at your computer without a clear list of priorities, you’ll just read unassociated email and scramble your brain for the day.

When I read that last bit ("scramble your brain") I had a profound sense of agreement that this was incredibly applicable to me. I feel like distractions 'poison' my vibe, productivity, priorities, and most importantly, distract that bit of my brain that ticks away in the background working on important creative stuff. When it's distracted with news, emails, or other junk, it's unavailable to work on creative/important problems that actually matter.

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