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The days are long but the decades are short

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#261

Post by zeroonetwothree »

malnourish wrote: post #212
noname123 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really interesting point. I listened to 'Q on CBC' where they recently featured a guest where she talked about how the world is pitted parents vs. child-free couples. I think the "us against them" mentality is where the child-free peeps are seen as narcissistic individuals who don't take on this important responsibility. Her argument was that it's kinda of a false dichotomy, and there are plenty of ways for child-fre…

My partner and I (heterosexual relationship) have both independently decided to not have children. Personally, I was raised at first with an abysmal parent, and then by a slightly-better-but-still-not-good parent. Never had money, homeless, abusive, etc. I don't want to have kids not because they left a bad taste in my mouth (I still love them: they were young, made a mistake, but still tried), but because I never go…

Children are actually a great way to experience what you missed in childhood.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#262

Post by comrh »

andyjdavis wrote: post #221
nosuchthing wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to say, but in practice it's difficult to go home satisfied with the concept of a dead end job. Personally I found plenty of little things to love about otherwise horrible dead end jobs, but that wasn't really the reason to keep going back to work, I was there to get paid to live my life outside of work because the job itself was not really fun or fruitful.

>Personally I found plenty of little things to love about otherwise horrible dead end jobs, but that wasn't really the reason to keep going back to work, I was there to get paid to live my life outside of work because the job itself was not really fun or fruitful. I actually think this is a better message for people... Some jobs are going to be great, others are going to suck. That doesn't really matter because for m…

I've heard advice in a similar vein as this and it really sounds great. I try to stay in this mindset but a part of me really struggles with the idea that I'm going to spend 40+ hours a week on a "means to an end". It just seems like such a long time to be unhappy, or at best not miserable?

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#263

Post by ryanx435 »

bbcbasic wrote: post #149
bengali3 wrote: post #143

> "having enough money so that you don’t stress about paying rent does more to change your wellbeing than having enough money to buy your own jet" remember the old adage future billionaires of HNs: "if it flys, floats or flirts, it's cheaper to rent it". Rarely does it make sense to buy a jet until you're utilizing over 100 hrs annually. Charter->JetCard->Fractional->Ownership

>> ...or flirts... That is so not politically correct. It's funny.

human nature is no longer politically correct? lol. they're called "gold diggers," brother.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#264

Post by ryanx435 »

bbcbasic wrote: post #149
bengali3 wrote: post #143

> "having enough money so that you don’t stress about paying rent does more to change your wellbeing than having enough money to buy your own jet" remember the old adage future billionaires of HNs: "if it flys, floats or flirts, it's cheaper to rent it". Rarely does it make sense to buy a jet until you're utilizing over 100 hrs annually. Charter->JetCard->Fractional->Ownership

>> ...or flirts... That is so not politically correct. It's funny.

human nature is no longer politically correct? lol. they're called "gold diggers," brother.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#265

Post by eli_gottlieb »

pyrrhotech wrote: post #170

A lot of the points can be boiled down to "work very hard". But what if you simply are the type of person who doesn't like working? Another point is do what makes you happy. For some lucky folks, work makes them happy, but there's a lot of us who don't like it. And no, it's not just a specific job. A lot of us are just kinda lazy to be perfectly honest. The things I enjoy most are running, eating fine meals, quality…

That's how I feel about most work, but I still take a level of pride in doing it well and learning new things from it. I think a job is a good fit for me when I like it enough that it doesn't need to be one of my rare passion projects.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#266

Post by benrhughes »

JungleGymSam wrote: post #228
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #33

I was 5 minutes late to work every morning, because of taking my son to school in the neighborhood where our new house was being built. I didn't want him to have to move schools in the middle of the year. Boss said "This won't do. You'll have to examine your priorities." I thought about it all day, that night. Next morning I got to work (5 minutes late), went in his office, said "I examined my priorities. Work is #12…

Why not just leave 5 minutes earlier? > Next morning I got to work (5 minutes late) You showed him! edit: No, absolutely. Leaving 5 minutes earlier is _not_ an option. How dare he.

He was dropping his son off at school. There's a limit to how early you can do that. Leaving home 5 minutes early won't help if the "issue" is the commute between school and work.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#267

Post by soidjmwiebsfew »

samsolomon wrote: post #3

Those of you on HN that are past the 30+ mark. What would you add to this list?

This advice is clearly not for everyone but it has been working for me for many years:

Do your best not to off yourself until your parents are dead. Avoid romantic relationships and avoid inflicting your accursed genes on another generation. Do not make promises that you cannot keep.

Seek out and savor close friends. Know yourself and treat yourself with kindness. Reflect on your astonishing fortune to have been born in a time and place where someone like you has a shot at enjoying life.

Some people will attempt to persuade you that living in agony is virtuous. It is not. Tell them white lies.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#268

Post by jader201 »

andyjdavis wrote: post #221
nosuchthing wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to say, but in practice it's difficult to go home satisfied with the concept of a dead end job. Personally I found plenty of little things to love about otherwise horrible dead end jobs, but that wasn't really the reason to keep going back to work, I was there to get paid to live my life outside of work because the job itself was not really fun or fruitful.

>Personally I found plenty of little things to love about otherwise horrible dead end jobs, but that wasn't really the reason to keep going back to work, I was there to get paid to live my life outside of work because the job itself was not really fun or fruitful. I actually think this is a better message for people... Some jobs are going to be great, others are going to suck. That doesn't really matter because for m…

> Personally I find the increasing emphasis on work as a way to derive personal satisfaction troubling. It looks like a subtle trap to me. A way to convince people to forgo time with their family, hobbies, side ventures and anything else you might possibly derive happiness from in favor of just working more and trying to convince yourself that that is enough.

A counterpoint to this is that many people -- myself included -- see that we spend so much of our waking hours at a job (about 40% assuming a 40-hour week) that we want to spend that 40% doing something that makes us happy.

So it's not that work defines us or drives our satisfaction, but that work makes up a large part of our lifespan, and it seems wasteful to spend it doing something just to facilitate the happiness of the other 60%.

I don't want to strive to be happy just 60% of the time -- I want to strive to be happy 100% of the time.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#269

Post by peteretep »

pyrrhotech wrote: post #170

A lot of the points can be boiled down to "work very hard". But what if you simply are the type of person who doesn't like working? Another point is do what makes you happy. For some lucky folks, work makes them happy, but there's a lot of us who don't like it. And no, it's not just a specific job. A lot of us are just kinda lazy to be perfectly honest. The things I enjoy most are running, eating fine meals, quality…

    > A lot of the points can be boiled down to "work very
    > hard". But what if you simply are the type of person who 
    > doesn't like working? Another point is do what makes you
    > happy. For some lucky folks, work makes them happy, but
    > there's a lot of us who don't like it.
I think regularly getting in to "flow" is a key to happiness. Video games - one of the things you enjoy - seems to be something that gets people in to flow. Could you find work like that?

You laden "work" with a lot of assumptions.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#270

Post by pkaler »

astrocat wrote: post #68

> On work: it’s difficult to do a great job on work you don’t care about. And it’s hard to be totally happy/fulfilled in life if you don’t like what you do for your work I get that this is aimed at the startup crowd, but I've always felt that this sentiment is pretty privileged. We, the elite, get to cherry pick our work and do what we like. But I bet 9/10 people will never feel they have this luxury, and 8/10 will b…

> I get that this is aimed at the startup crowd, but I've always felt that this sentiment is pretty privileged. We, the elite, get to cherry pick our work and do what we like. But I bet 9/10 people will never feel they have this luxury, and 8/10 will be right.

Maybe. Maybe not.

My less "book smart" friends that learned blue-collar trades like being a welder or carpenter are much happier than the ones that found white-collar data entry and sales jobs.

They have to put up with crap like unions and graveyard shifts, but in general, they are happier because they get the satisfaction of making things.

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