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My Life in Weeks

weeks.ginatrapani.org

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Re: My Life in Weeks

#61

Post by croisillon »

nrvn wrote: post #41

I like weeks. Just 52 every year. Leap year agnostic. I have a notebook for self reflection. Week-based. Since it is not a diary I call it septimary. Unlike a diary, the septimary gives me flexibility and every week I summarize something without mentioning specific dates or days unless this level of detail is really required by the context or significance of what needs to be written down. Week 7 of year 2025 comes to…

52 times 7 days (+ 1 or 2) yes, but the last 4 days of 2026 will be the 53rd week of the year ;)

Re: My Life in Weeks

#63

Post by mtsolitary »

sebmellen wrote: post #49
HL33tibCe7 wrote: post #19

Into my heart, an air that kills, from yon far country blows. What are those blue remembered hills? What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content. I see it shining plain. Those happy highways, where I went, and cannot go again.

Tennyson?

Housman https://poets.org/poem/shropshire-lad-xl

Re: My Life in Weeks

#64

Post by kenjackson »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #35
picafrost wrote: post #21

So much of our life is consumed by work. Seeing your lifespan laid bare like this, there's a perverse instinct to optimize what remains. Have to be more productive, more efficient. But it's a bit like seeing you're bleeding out and deciding to optimize your blood donation schedule, isn't it?

Exactly. I have thought about it for a while, I think I have to get rid of work or family to be substantially happier. Apparently getting rid of family is morally wrong, so the only option is to get rid of work, somehow, anyhow. I fully understand why people buy lottery tickets. Hope beats probability on every single instance. I, a Master of Statistics graduates, buy them too.

What’s going on with your family? I can’t imagine much joy without mine.

Re: My Life in Weeks

#65

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

layer8 wrote: post #25
picafrost wrote: post #21

So much of our life is consumed by work. Seeing your lifespan laid bare like this, there's a perverse instinct to optimize what remains. Have to be more productive, more efficient. But it's a bit like seeing you're bleeding out and deciding to optimize your blood donation schedule, isn't it?

Finding work that gives one enjoyment and purpose should be an important priority.

Like others replying to this comment, I disagree because there is much work that needs to be done which cannot truly provide purpose to most people.

However ... I do believe that any job should provide dignity and "purpose" in the narrower sense of something the person doing it believes needs to be done. Any job done full time (however a culture defines that) should also make a reasonable lower middle class life possible.

Re: My Life in Weeks

#66

Post by hombre_fatal »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #36
999900000999 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest failure has been not getting an extreme income ( 300k TC a year +) before 30. I had planned to retire by 40 and be done with this work nonsense. Now I'm in my mid 30s and that doesn't seem possible. However I will say if you have a highly variable income ( one year you make 100$ an hour, the next year you have no work), you should max out your 401k during the good times. Having 30k in retirement funds that…

Yup. My advice to young people is -- if you can't figure out what to do in life, make more $$. With enough $$ you will have a world of time to ponder what to do. I also regret that I gave up a FAANG level opportunity because my faily doesn't want me to go to another city. I would hit well over 200K TC by now -- a very comfortable salary in Canada.

On the other hand, there are opportunities that are only open to you when you're young. Squandering those opportunities by working so you can be retired at 40 or 50 isn't free.

Meeting people in travel hostels would be one example. Being a young single on a beach abroad is another. Traveling in general is another.

Wandering around Prague with some beers and friends you made 6 hours ago hits different at 26 than it does as a retired 55 year old that waited to live their life.

I live on a beach in Mexico in my 30s and see both ends of the spectrum.

Re: My Life in Weeks

#67

Post by Gooblebrai »

999900000999 wrote: post #57
trevithick wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is parent's advice ironic? I, like probably most people, would have more time for relationships I value now if I had followed their advice. Your first sentence reads as if their advice was "earn money at the expense of relationships and well-being" and that isn't the case at all.

I want to retire early and make music and games for 40 years after I turn 40. I don't want to wait until I'm 69 to retire for at most 11 years. Plus none of us know how much time we actually have. A lot of people plan to retire at 68, die on the job at 67, and your replacement is in your chair next week.

> Plus none of us know how much time we actually have

Precisely because of this, you should be making music and games now. You never know if once you reach the amount of money you desire, death will knock on your door.

If you are already doing it, that's great. But so many people defer the enjoyment and overwork themselves waiting for that future where they hit the number.

Re: My Life in Weeks

#68

Post by haswell »

layer8 wrote: post #25
picafrost wrote: post #21

So much of our life is consumed by work. Seeing your lifespan laid bare like this, there's a perverse instinct to optimize what remains. Have to be more productive, more efficient. But it's a bit like seeing you're bleeding out and deciding to optimize your blood donation schedule, isn't it?

Finding work that gives one enjoyment and purpose should be an important priority.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve shifted to: learning how to find enjoyment and purpose from whatever situation you find yourself in should be an important priority.

Finding work that is inherently enjoyable and purposeful to you is still great if you can find it. But that’s not always possible, and I’ve been increasingly interested in the ideas in books like “Flow”, which details the ways people in all manner of circumstances find purpose/enjoyment from the work in front of them.

Re: My Life in Weeks

#69

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

hnthrowaway0315 wrote: post #32

This is an interesting way of reflecting on one's life. I have calculated my ROL (Rest.Of.Life i.e. before been garbage collected) productive hours (hours dedicated to side projects) in a similar way, and the result panics me. Assume that I still have 37 years before been garbage collected, and 35 years before cognitive degeneration: Starting from today: [Time-frame 1]: I have 200 days before kid goes to primary scho…

I find it mildly insane that your only measure of productivity appears to be working on some sort of project.

If you're really not trying to do that, maybe restructure this sort of assessment to just be a computation of hours you will be awake. That would at least leave it much more open what a productive hour actually means.

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