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

Don't Become the Machine

armeet.bearblog.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 157 posts

Re: Don't Become the Machine

#101

Post by ai-christianson »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #72

I play tennis twice a week and I inline skate twice a week (weather pending) and yesterday I commuted to and from work on inlines (first time I've done it, won't be the last, but won't be often). Having such hobbies plus a couple of kids (now teenagers so they're somewhat less demanding of my time) means I just don't have the time to do extra hours if I'm going to get enough sleep. And if I don't get enough sleep the…

Having a hobby kind of like going shallow into one or more topics.

Wouldn't the best way to spend a life be to go all in on one thing?

It's not like a video game where we can just try again. If the main quest isn't right, better find a new one, not just add distracting side quests.

Re: Don't Become the Machine

#103

Post by slfnflctd »

rglover wrote: post #61

Just do the work at your body's natural pace. Your body will tell you when it's tired, when it's ready to focus, and when it's excited to work. As with everything, the problem is hubris and impatience. So eager to prove god-like status, you stumble and fall, posting ephemeral think pieces about your "journey" on social media. Reading LinkedIn is the closest I've ever got to thinking "maybe asylums would be okay with…

Cooking with hotel coffee makers during a grind is a long standing tradition. Usually it's ramen or canned food, though.

For better or worse, this is becoming more difficult as the standard coffee maker in rooms these days is a one-cup-at-a-time model. So you need your own container, or you'll have to use the ice bucket (if they have one).

A chicken breast is a bit far fetched, but I could see it happening with someone who was craving chicken at an odd hour.

Re: Don't Become the Machine

#104

Post by mrwrong »

ai-christianson wrote: post #101
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #72

I play tennis twice a week and I inline skate twice a week (weather pending) and yesterday I commuted to and from work on inlines (first time I've done it, won't be the last, but won't be often). Having such hobbies plus a couple of kids (now teenagers so they're somewhat less demanding of my time) means I just don't have the time to do extra hours if I'm going to get enough sleep. And if I don't get enough sleep the…

Having a hobby kind of like going shallow into one or more topics. Wouldn't the best way to spend a life be to go all in on one thing? It's not like a video game where we can just try again. If the main quest isn't right, better find a new one, not just add distracting side quests.

> Wouldn't the best way to spend a life be to go all in on one thing?

no

Re: Don't Become the Machine

#105

Post by BLKNSLVR »

ai-christianson wrote: post #101
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #72

I play tennis twice a week and I inline skate twice a week (weather pending) and yesterday I commuted to and from work on inlines (first time I've done it, won't be the last, but won't be often). Having such hobbies plus a couple of kids (now teenagers so they're somewhat less demanding of my time) means I just don't have the time to do extra hours if I'm going to get enough sleep. And if I don't get enough sleep the…

Having a hobby kind of like going shallow into one or more topics. Wouldn't the best way to spend a life be to go all in on one thing? It's not like a video game where we can just try again. If the main quest isn't right, better find a new one, not just add distracting side quests.

Dealers choice.

The world is too interesting for me to be happy to limit myself to one thing.

Additionally, I listen to a wide variety of music, read not a very wide variety of books (mainly hard sci-fi), consider myself a connoisseur of film and television, take an interest in at least two other sports (have season tickets to the local teams games), run a slightly more than simple homelab (in a room I built myself in the shed, complete with backup battery power and rudimentary climate control), including hosting my own email server, amongst other parental and husbandly duties.

One of the reasons I'm awake at 3am on Christmas Day.

Everything is interesting. Limiting oneself to one thing is exceedingly boring.

Disclaimer: personal opinion. I see and live off the benefits to the world provided by the single minded. But I'll never pretend I could live like that.

Re: Don't Become the Machine

#106

Post by convolvatron »

ai-christianson wrote: post #101
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #72

I play tennis twice a week and I inline skate twice a week (weather pending) and yesterday I commuted to and from work on inlines (first time I've done it, won't be the last, but won't be often). Having such hobbies plus a couple of kids (now teenagers so they're somewhat less demanding of my time) means I just don't have the time to do extra hours if I'm going to get enough sleep. And if I don't get enough sleep the…

Having a hobby kind of like going shallow into one or more topics. Wouldn't the best way to spend a life be to go all in on one thing? It's not like a video game where we can just try again. If the main quest isn't right, better find a new one, not just add distracting side quests.

its really possible to top out on some of these things. once you're at the point where you're like 'I could try to do this professionally, but that would ruin the fun of it and its a really tough market'

plus, dont forget about the substantial benefits from cross-training

if you find something thats really your thing, thats great, but the goal is to interest and engage yourself. why is it that important to demand the time to to eek out that last 5%

its also possible to actually blow through a field. the scope of coding projects I can just spit out as rote are well past what anyone is willing to adopt. what would be the point of training any further. there's really a lot more to learn about machining.

Re: Don't Become the Machine

#107

Post by callc »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #72

I play tennis twice a week and I inline skate twice a week (weather pending) and yesterday I commuted to and from work on inlines (first time I've done it, won't be the last, but won't be often). Having such hobbies plus a couple of kids (now teenagers so they're somewhat less demanding of my time) means I just don't have the time to do extra hours if I'm going to get enough sleep. And if I don't get enough sleep the…

Very well written, thank you.

I recently was very sick and was thinking about the people whose employers put their work output over their health.

Re: Don't Become the Machine

#108

Post by Froztnova »

samuraijack wrote: post #31

The constant anti work agenda that is thrown in your face if you use almost any social media is so annoying. Have these anti work people ever considered that maybe some people actually like work and labelling them as slaves is insulting?

It's super weird to me because none of the jobs I've had as a programmer have been super demanding of my time or effort? I have to work, sure, but generally not as hard as I had to work at college. I rarely get called to do things outside of work hours, but generally when I do it's because there's a serious problem that I'm the subject matter expert for so it's understandable.

I absolutely do just "switch off" at 5pm. I sometimes work on programming things in my free time if I feel like it regardless.

I feel like, if your job is demanding more of you than a nine to five, and you don't thrive in that environment, you certainly have a right to complain or look for different work. I'm just surprised that it seems to be so common when all the work I've stumbled into in this field has been very reasonable.

And yes, obviously there's a difference between software dev and blue collar, or even other types of white collar work. I'm not blind to the fact that this is a particularly comfortable career, even if it's not as extravagant as it seems to have be a decade or so ago.

I guess I'm just surprised that there are so many apparently ground-down people in a place like this which you would imagine would be primarily populated with people in the software industry.

Re: Don't Become the Machine

#109

Post by butlike »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #72

I play tennis twice a week and I inline skate twice a week (weather pending) and yesterday I commuted to and from work on inlines (first time I've done it, won't be the last, but won't be often). Having such hobbies plus a couple of kids (now teenagers so they're somewhat less demanding of my time) means I just don't have the time to do extra hours if I'm going to get enough sleep. And if I don't get enough sleep the…

There's no such thing as productivity. Productivity is concocted solutions to manufactured problems.

Re: Don't Become the Machine

#110

Post by butlike »

ai-christianson wrote: post #101
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #72

I play tennis twice a week and I inline skate twice a week (weather pending) and yesterday I commuted to and from work on inlines (first time I've done it, won't be the last, but won't be often). Having such hobbies plus a couple of kids (now teenagers so they're somewhat less demanding of my time) means I just don't have the time to do extra hours if I'm going to get enough sleep. And if I don't get enough sleep the…

Having a hobby kind of like going shallow into one or more topics. Wouldn't the best way to spend a life be to go all in on one thing? It's not like a video game where we can just try again. If the main quest isn't right, better find a new one, not just add distracting side quests.

There's no such thing as going all in on one thing. At some point you know how to find food and eat, so no matter how much you've devoted your time to one thing, it won't be the maximum possible amount of time
Post reply on HN