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Finish your projects

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Re: Finish your projects

#191

Post by darkerside »

latexr wrote: post #187
SanderNL wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like it would complicate life, not make it easier? His wealth and power is predicated on him being the leader of the friggin’ Roman Empire. I don’t see that as an easy life. Being an emperor and even trying to do a good job is damn near impossible in my eyes. Lot of respect for that. My tiny life sometimes overwhelms me already.

> My tiny life sometimes overwhelms me already. Because you (presumably) have to deal with every tiny thing in your life. Even having to buy and cook food can feel overwhelming when you’re busy trying to accomplish other things. Marcus Aurelius had slaves. He was the emperor. He did not have to worry about the multitude of minutiae required just to continue to exist. When it seems to you rich people are able to achie…

Managing people is a lot more complicated than you seem to realize

Re: Finish your projects

#192

Post by PcChip »

gryn wrote: post #163
kaba0 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caffeine though really is a jackpot for humanity, it has realistically speaking no negative side effects. Even serious physical symptoms from withdrawal are basically just a week of headaches and other minor things.

only if it has an effect on you, I tried it many times and the only effect it seems to have on me is the bitter taste and heart palpitations if I drink too much of it. if I'm tired or sleepy and drink it, I'm still tired/sleepy but with a higher blood pressure/heart rate. sometimes I wonder if it's just people that oversell the effect of coffee.

Some coffees with high caffeine have this effect on me as well. I find that different brands of coffees have very different effects on me, I can even get a good coffee feeling from some decafs. I'm convinced it's the other alkaloids in there besides caffeine that I like

Re: Finish your projects

#193

Post by vinc »

jhp123 wrote: post #30

To take the contrary position: give up. Your project will take far longer than you think, and you will get much less from it than you hope (at least in terms of external validation and rewards). You may feel a horrible pressure to finish it, but you are a free person and can simply choose not to. You can free yourself from this pain without lifting a finger. Go take a walk or bake some cookies instead. If you have th…

I found that a good solution is to have an handful of ongoing projects so we can pause the current one when the motivation is low, have a little break, then see which one can be resumed after that. There's less pressure, it's more healthy, and over the years it adds up.

Re: Finish your projects

#194

Post by iandanforth »

"Those few people—the ones that actually finish—know the deep satisfaction of seeing something through to the end. It’s a satisfaction much deeper than the euphoric high of starting."

For me, this is false. I see other people who jump for joy at winning, who seem to really really like overcoming obstacles, who do get some deep satisfaction from accomplishment. I don't. Winning and completion feel ok, but at their most powerful they feel like a relief from the stress of effort or the shame of not getting something done. I look at people who get a natural internal reward for doing hard things like they have a super power. It's like they get paid millions for their work while I'm over here getting pennies.

Over the years I've had to actively work to focus on intellectual pride rather than any feelings of satisfaction or accomplishment. If there's no rush then at least I can objectively say "I've done X to an acceptable level of quality" and have confidence that others will react positively. To some degree I get that feeling of reward from external praise, which I'm very thankful for, as I'd hate to be totally missing out on feelings of satisfaction, but I imagine there are people who don't even have that.

So ultimately I feel like the author has failed to conceive of a world where people are wired differently and is saying "You'd like it if you tried it" without considering the possibility that, no, not everyone will like it enough to try it a second time.

Re: Finish your projects

#195

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

darkerside wrote: post #191
latexr wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My tiny life sometimes overwhelms me already. Because you (presumably) have to deal with every tiny thing in your life. Even having to buy and cook food can feel overwhelming when you’re busy trying to accomplish other things. Marcus Aurelius had slaves. He was the emperor. He did not have to worry about the multitude of minutiae required just to continue to exist. When it seems to you rich people are able to achie…

Managing people is a lot more complicated than you seem to realize

[flagged]

Re: Finish your projects

#197

Post by dizhn »

joecot wrote: post #100
jmort253 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know about the opium. He mentioned not getting addicted to things in the book. I bet he was talking about all of the things he had done wrong in his life. Do what I say not what I do.

Romans didn't consider opium an addiction as much as a medicine. Same as many of the drugs we now consider illicit. Marcus Aurelius was taking opium every day for "stomach issues" (krohns or similar perhaps?) and "nerves".

Is it known what the dosage would have been? I read elsewhere before that though they drank wine all the time, its alcohol content was very low compared to today.

Re: Finish your projects

#198

Post by Levitz »

kaba0 wrote: post #133
renewiltord wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Like how people are absolutely juiced to the gills on caffeine these days, riding a stimulant Shai Hulud across the sands of time.

Caffeine though really is a jackpot for humanity, it has realistically speaking no negative side effects. Even serious physical symptoms from withdrawal are basically just a week of headaches and other minor things.

Many people have a sleep problem disguised as a caffeine problem. Also many people have a caffeine problem disguised as a sleep problem.

Taken now and then, sure, probably worth it. The part in which a lot of people's brains are seemingly unable to wake up without taking caffeine? Probably not good.

Re: Finish your projects

#199

Post by Levitz »

bayindirh wrote: post #186
kaba0 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From most studies I saw, moderate consumption ( Could you expand on what you found and what were the specifics?

I think moderate consumption is a function of tolerance and the specific metabolism of the person combined. I remember reading a comment in HN, where the commenter had a genetic trait which slowed caffeine metabolism by 4 times. So, he had it inside his system 4 times longer, and caffeine had no positive effect on him. However, let's not digress. I'm not a body hacker, and I don't like to mess with my body much, howe…

Perhaps you know if this makes any sense or if it's just a personal impression of mine.

I started taking coffee at 20, for some two or three years, I later started taking black tea instead. One teaspoon of Twinnings Earl Grey, to be precise.

Thing is, by any calculation I do, a cup of coffee ought to have more caffeine in it than the cup of tea. Especially since I sometimes had not one, but two cups of coffee back then. I can still do this, if I'm travelling or I spend the day outside for some reason I'd rather take coffee than tea.

Problem is, tea wrecks my sleep in a way coffee just doesn't. It feels as if tea stays with me way, way longer than coffee does. If I ever take more than one cup of tea in a day I know that I'll be feeling it the next day, maybe even the day after, whereas with coffee, as long as I don't take it too late in the day I'm largely ok. Sleep does worsen somewhat but nothing I can't manage.

It puzzles me, since as far as I know it's caffeine in both cases, I don't understand why my metabolism seems to act in such a different way.

Re: Finish your projects

#200

Post by aarondf »

benatkin wrote: post #151
rocho wrote: post #120

I found this paragraph so relatable: > Personally, I like to put a single song on repeat for hours and hours, days even. It helps me zone in. Why does this admittedly strange behavior help me? I'm not sure exactly, but I've known it to be helpful for more than half my life. I like to get up early before the family is awake, close Slack, put my phone in Do Not Disturb mode, and work. I even put a Post-it note on my mo…

Hmm who told him that was a good idea? I get talking proudly about it but unless there's a good reason it feels like a bad feedback loop. I am a little obsessed with songs at times and even I can't stand listen to the same song more than 10 times in a day unless I was trying to memorize it or something.

Huh? Nobody told me it was a good idea! I did it once and liked it and so I kept doing it.

In that paragraph I'm describing how I work. The very next sentence is:

> These things work for me, but you'll need to find what works for you.

It's not prescriptive, just descriptive.

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