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

Poisoning the Day

ashore.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 82 posts

Re: Poisoning the Day

#51

Post by user_7832 »

nomilk wrote: post #20
Etheryte wrote: 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 distr…

Is 4hww 4 hour work week, the book, that you’re referring to? It’s a good quote!

Re: Poisoning the Day

#52

Post by rolisz »

mindslight wrote: post #49
Aurornis wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This feels like an incredibly elaborate way to say that he's a morning person. If you read the whole article there’s a section dedicated to evening people. Regardless, the advice is about avoiding emotionally draining stimuli until you’ve accomplished what you want to do for the day. You can wake up at noon and still do that. The root problem is that people are consuming large amounts of negative news and social me…

> If you read the whole article there’s a section dedicated to evening people. It's a perfunctory mention of the exact kind morning people commonly throw out to superficially address an evening person's actual constraints. The article's whole thesis is that after some point in the day your emotions will end up fried. An evening person can't simply flip the arrow of time to make it so that before that point in the day…

I have small kids, so at the moment I'm a "whenever I have 5-10 quiet minutes" at a time person.

But I remember that I used to be an evening person. And what I remember is that in the evening things got quiet in my head. Yes, usually "emotional" things happened during the day, but after 8-9 PM I had a boost of clarity and could get some difficult tasks.

Re: Poisoning the Day

#53

Post by ddellacosta »

For someone who suffers from anxiety like myself, and therefore empathizes well with the perspective in the article (i.e. an emotionally-charged event can have an impact on my productivity):

I think a better approach is to focus on becoming emotionally resilient so that things don't overwhelm so easily, or so it's possible to reset even given an emotional challenge. At least, that has been critical in my life to avoid spirals of self-recrimination or agonizing over things I can't affect or control.

Re: Poisoning the Day

#54

Post by WJW »

GistNoesis wrote: post #8
cadamsau wrote: 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?

The Magic of Not Giving a F** : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwRzjFQa_Og

It's always been ironic that a book about not caring what other people think needs to censor the word "fuck" in its very title.

Re: Poisoning the Day

#56

Post by munificent »

ddellacosta wrote: post #53

For someone who suffers from anxiety like myself, and therefore empathizes well with the perspective in the article (i.e. an emotionally-charged event can have an impact on my productivity): I think a better approach is to focus on becoming emotionally resilient so that things don't overwhelm so easily, or so it's possible to reset even given an emotional challenge. At least, that has been critical in my life to avoi…

I agree with this, but I also don't think the strategies are mutually exclusive.

Especially if what you want to be productive on is art, it's good to take advantage of the time when you feel most connected to yourself. But I find that connection requires lowering all of my defenses, including to the outside world. So it's still best to do that before I've been beset by the news.

At the same time, being more resilient can help me get other useful stuff done through the rest of the day, including stuff that is sort of adjacent to the art-making process. (For example, I make music and it's hard to find an inspired melody later in the afternoon when my head is aswirl with the chaos of the world, but I can still putter around with sound design and mixing.)

Re: Poisoning the Day

#57

Post by julianeon »

Etheryte wrote: 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.

There's something it it though that's not interchangeable, that becomes a bigger factor as you age (see: that Bezos quote).

The brain is becoming more physically tired during the day. At a certain point, say 5pm, it's done: the accumulated wear and tear is too much. Try again after sleeping.

This might not be a concern at 20 but is at 60 (Bezos' age).

Re: Poisoning the Day

#59

Post by ddellacosta »

munificent wrote: post #56
ddellacosta wrote: post #53

For someone who suffers from anxiety like myself, and therefore empathizes well with the perspective in the article (i.e. an emotionally-charged event can have an impact on my productivity): I think a better approach is to focus on becoming emotionally resilient so that things don't overwhelm so easily, or so it's possible to reset even given an emotional challenge. At least, that has been critical in my life to avoi…

I agree with this, but I also don't think the strategies are mutually exclusive. Especially if what you want to be productive on is art, it's good to take advantage of the time when you feel most connected to yourself. But I find that connection requires lowering all of my defenses, including to the outside world. So it's still best to do that before I've been beset by the news. At the same time, being more resilient…

> I agree with this, but I also don't think the strategies are mutually exclusive.

Yes I absolutely agree, and I should have said it. Thank you for making this point.

Emotional resiliency is not just about receiving negative stimuli and recovering from that. It's as much about knowing yourself well, knowing what kinds of situations or stimuli you should try to avoid or minimize, and knowing where and when you can best function to your full potential. So I very much agree with what you're saying.

Re: Poisoning the Day

#60

Post by hackable_sand »

WJW wrote: post #54
GistNoesis wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Magic of Not Giving a F** : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwRzjFQa_Og

It's always been ironic that a book about not caring what other people think needs to censor the word "fuck" in its very title.

That book is full of ironies. It is the energy drink equivalent of motivation.
Post reply on HN