141–150 of 428 posts
Personally I look to automate repetitive tasks, if am doing something which can be described to someone else in simple rules and the input a d output of this task is digital then it should be codified.
> The most impressive people I know have strong beliefs about the world, which is rare in the general population.
Is this true?
The average person is irrationally immovable on religion, politics and sports.
On-topic:
My philosophy on productivity:
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all ― Peter Drucker
What I like about this list is not so much the content, but the underlying message that Altman got to this point by experimentation and iteration. There's sometimes this hidden cultural idea that wildly successful people became so successful simply (by luck and) by being super good at what they do. I think Altman classifies as successful by most common measures so I find it refreshing that he apparently wasn't born a…
There's really only two things you need to do in order to be really good at basically anything: 1. Care a lot. 2. Work on continuously improving your skills. That's pretty much it. Yes, there is such a thing as natural ability, but outside of the true outliers, natural ability is a pretty small factor compared to caring a lot and continuous improvement. And, even if you're an outlier in terms of natural ability, cari…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Fasting is tremendously helpful to productivity. Nothing will hinder your performance like a huge meal in the morning (especially one high in carbohydrates) This seems to be really getting popular. What's the science behind it? I'm curious if this is mainly anecdotal or if you did some research before jumping in. My 2 cents: as an endurance athlete and student of nutrition, skipping breakfast seems like a bad idea.…
This will one day be as obvious as cigarettes cause cancer is. Prolonged fasting (consuming only water for 10 to 40 days) is a highly effective treatment for many diseases, including Crohn's, most other IBS related, diabetes, MS, and many more. At some point in the future we will consider pharma companies, government agencies and other entities hiding this fact to be criminal. Edit: my personal hope is that water fas…
More propaganda for working long hours coming from a VC. Surprise! """ You have to both pick the right problem and do the work. There aren’t many shortcuts. If you’re going to do something really important, you are very likely going to work both smart and hard. The biggest prizes are heavily competed for. This isn’t true in every field (there are great mathematicians who never spend that many hours a week working) bu…
I appreciate your cynicism and can relate to your irritation, but I think Altman actually believes what he writes. So it's less "propaganda" and more preaching the community values of the SV culture back to the community itself. It may get tiresome after a while, but less so when you settle comfortably into your own work ethics. On a related note, there is an essay "In praise of idleness" [1] by Bertrand Russell - he…
I see these kinds of articles come along from time to time, and it always makes me wonder: Why this pressing need to maximize productivity? Why not just do things you enjoy, at a pace that you enjoy? Is it for more money/prestige? What's the use if you've been stressing and pressuring yourself for it all your life? I feel like the odd person out because I work on something while I enjoy it, stop working on it when I…
I feel strongly about this topic and found the discussion here illuminating, so I wrote a short article about it and posted here, I'd welcome feedback: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16804062
Anyone have an opinion on his recommended mattress, as I nervously consider a 4k purchase this morning?
I see these kinds of articles come along from time to time, and it always makes me wonder: Why this pressing need to maximize productivity? Why not just do things you enjoy, at a pace that you enjoy? Is it for more money/prestige? What's the use if you've been stressing and pressuring yourself for it all your life? I feel like the odd person out because I work on something while I enjoy it, stop working on it when I…
> Why this pressing need to maximize productivity? Because this maximizes your happiness. We're happiest when we produce, not when we consume or when we're idle. Think of productivity as a rate of positive change you inflict on your surroundings, or as a unit of feedback you receive from the world acknowledging your existence. Re-arranging the world towards your views is hugely satisfying and it could be as simple as…
I get that some people may appreciate these types of posts, and I appreciate the intention of trying to be helpful, but it seems as if the tone were that of a robot. Little attempt at humor and a very cold tone overall. Is that what it takes to be a billionaire in Silicon Valley? Downvote me to hell but the tone and expressions of the article were far more telling than the actual explicit content itself..
> Finally, to repeat one more time: productivity in the wrong direction isn’t worth anything at all. Think more about what to work on. How can one say this? How can you know without action? You can spend your entire life thinking about what to work on. Ultimately, you have to do something. There's a saying... 失败是成功之母 (failure is the mother of success).