How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job • Hacker News Board

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#21

Post by cmos » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 8:15 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #13

Excellent post! Especially relevant to this audience. When I read "How to Get Rich" by Felix Dennis, I made a list of 10 things I had to do to affirm my commitment. "Get rid of my TV" was #1. I did it and it has made a huge difference. A few points: - I put a radio next to my computer. It's much easier to work with radio than with TV. - I watch a couple of shows with my mother and SO on their TVs, not mine. 2 to 3 ho…

I also watch sports at my local bar.. now I have a whole different 'genre' of friends who happen to not spend their day in front of a computer. Socially, it has been quite a learning experience!

If you lack self control with regard to TV watching I can't recommend enough how much better your life will be. If your scared, try cutting the AC power cord. Give it a week.

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#22

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 8:23 PM UTC

drsnyder wrote: post #16

Great article! Recognize though that time is not fungible. For example just because you stop watching tv from 9pm to 10pm doesn't mean your going to be productive in that same block of time after working a full day at your day job. Based on a lot of our responses, I think a lot of us are just substituting web surfing for watching tv (self included). So how do we keep from just substituting another time sink for tv? H…

[deleted]

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#23

Post by bawr » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 8:23 PM UTC

drsnyder wrote: post #16

Great article! Recognize though that time is not fungible. For example just because you stop watching tv from 9pm to 10pm doesn't mean your going to be productive in that same block of time after working a full day at your day job. Based on a lot of our responses, I think a lot of us are just substituting web surfing for watching tv (self included). So how do we keep from just substituting another time sink for tv? H…

Well, taking your dedicated work machine off the internet - or maybe at least blocking it on the router with a script every hour or so, forcing you to make a conscious decision about going online seems to work for lots of people.

Then again - reading tech news, for example, isn't all that bad, so how about just mapping Youtube and similar time-sinks to 127.0.0.1 in your hosts file?

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#24

Post by juliend2 » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 8:27 PM UTC

It's been since August that i dont listen TV. It's clear for me that having no TV really forces me to go out more often, think about creative ways of spending my time. I surely have more time for personal hacking projects.

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#25

Post by Femur » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 8:41 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #19

Femur wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really good point; I hadn't considered that view. So on your internet machine, do you consider 'mindless internet surfing' watching TV? I also keep my work and internet machines separate.

"do you consider 'mindless internet surfing' watching TV?" No. Activity Value Reasoning ------------------------- ----- ------------------------- watching TV 0 totally passive mindless internet surfing 1 you do some initiating actively working 9 usually produces benefits reading Hacker News 10 basic research :-)

We should be friends.

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#26

Post by ryanwaggoner » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 8:41 PM UTC

cmos wrote: post #21

edw519 wrote: post #13

Excellent post! Especially relevant to this audience. When I read "How to Get Rich" by Felix Dennis, I made a list of 10 things I had to do to affirm my commitment. "Get rid of my TV" was #1. I did it and it has made a huge difference. A few points: - I put a radio next to my computer. It's much easier to work with radio than with TV. - I watch a couple of shows with my mother and SO on their TVs, not mine. 2 to 3 ho…

I also watch sports at my local bar.. now I have a whole different 'genre' of friends who happen to not spend their day in front of a computer. Socially, it has been quite a learning experience! If you lack self control with regard to TV watching I can't recommend enough how much better your life will be. If your scared, try cutting the AC power cord. Give it a week.

If your scared, try cutting the AC power cord.

Be sure to unplug it first :)

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#27

Post by electromagnetic » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 8:42 PM UTC

benmathes wrote: post #10

electromagnetic wrote: post #6

This is probably great for him, I rarely watch TV anymore, but I still watch a lot of series on DVD and such. However, in the space of 60 minutes, I can (for example) watch 3 episodes of The Simpsons or Futurama, not the 2 I'd get on TV. I probably still watch the equivalent of about 3 hours of TV a day, just it's compacted into 2 hours. The other hour I can read a book, and a lot of the time I leave shows running on…

>There's not enough jobs to go around the people we have already, if people suddenly double their hours then lots of people would likely loose their job. There is not a fixed amount of work to do. If the author of this article just watched TV instead of creating the blog network that he did, he wouldn't have put anyone out of a job.

In the immediate, yes there's a very finite number of jobs. If there was an unlimited supply of jobs, not a single person in the world would be unemployed.

Jobs are tied to the economy, until the economy grows there can't be more jobs. The system might handle a flux of 10% new workers (either from a bizarre immigration mistake or a ton of people working over time or double full-time jobs) however, resources are finite. All 300 million people in the USA can't overnight get a second job.

In certain sectors there's probably great ease in getting a second job. However, there's not 300 million minimum wage jobs going.

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#28

Post by kirse » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 8:45 PM UTC

0xdefec8 wrote: post #9

For me, TV is the opiate of the masses that numbs my brain after a long day quicker than booze, god, or exercise. Replacing it with a second job is about as likely as giving up weekends and vacations.

numbs my brain quicker than exercise

Sounds like you're not running fast enough. =)

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#29

Post by PostOnce » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 9:12 PM UTC

On the other hand, some people watch TV because they just want to relax and not work every waking hour.

I use the computer for that rather than TV, but still, killing time is killing time.

Re: How Dumping TV Allowed Me to Quit My Job

#30

Post by axod » Fri, Apr 24, 2009, 9:38 PM UTC

Keep your TV. It'll keep you in touch with popular culture for a start. Which is handy if you want to sell things to the 'masses'.

I know it's popular on here to hate TV, but this is bs. If you actually make a conscious decision on what you want to watch, assuming you have access to quality programming, then it's extremely useful. You really can't quantify the amount you learn from movies, educational tv, comedy, music etc etc

The problem is when people go into a state when they just watch something they don't really want to watch, doesn't teach them anything, and just wastes their time. But that's not a fault of having a TV, it's just a fault of those people misusing it.