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

The days are long but the decades are short

blog.samaltman.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 406 posts

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#281

Post by peteretep »

johnward wrote: post #97

" 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." How do you fix this? For the last 10 years of my life I've basically woken up each morning and wished I hadn't. I don't like what I do. I can't afford to not do it anymore. I don't even know what, if anything, I would actually enjoy waking up for.

    > I don't like what I do. I can't afford to not do it
    > anymore.
It may be true that the first one is completely out of your control, and the second one isn't true, but...

I've been consistently amazed at how much I can squeeze my outgoings and maintain a pretty similar standard of living / happiness. The book "Your Money Or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence" really goes to town on this idea.

I've also been surprised by the degree to which I can sit down with a bright friend and brainstorm out changes I can make to my work that dramatically increase my enjoyment of it. Assuming that your enjoyment of your work is out of your control, rather than working to bring it in to your control, is a mistake.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#282

Post by peteretep »

epberry wrote: post #13

"Summers are the best." Agreed! Although I think fall in the midwest is my favorite combination of season and location. Too bad it always goes by so quickly.

I would extend that to: get the hell out of anywhere the weather is making you miserable, at all costs. If you don't cope well with darkness, London and Scandinavia are not the right places for you.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#285

Post by peteretep »

vinceguidry wrote: post #11
kungfooey wrote: post #6

Are we really at the point where a 30 year old can offer sage advice on living life? Wow. As a counterpoint to "be the best you can be in your profession": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJdFxYlEKE [PyCon keynote by Jacob Kaplan-Moss on 'mediocre developers'].

There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40 year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on. Each decade tends to revolve around the same themes. All of it is worthwhile stuff to pay attention to, particularly from someone whose accomplished the sorts of things people aspire to in that decade. Even the people who haven't accomplished much can still have worthwhile things to say about life. My fa…

    > There's advice smart 30 year olds give, advice smart 40
    > year olds give, advice smart 50 year olds give, and so on
I think the best generalist advice I've heard is:

"When I was 30, I realized that when I was 20 I didn't know shit. Now I'm 40, I realized that when I was 30 I didn't know shit."

It would be interesting to see how many of the above he would revise in ten years time, and also on the other side of the seismic event that is having a child.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#286

Post by dec0dedab0de »

fu9ar wrote: post #236
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's the parents meaning. There always have been and will be dominance rituals. Some would have been physical fights, but in modern office culture punching subordinates is seen as unacceptable - but some people still need some dominance rituals - and picking a fight over "do as I tell you and turn up on time, thus demonstrating I am the dominant one" is pretty tame stuff compared to a silver back ripp…

Making the argument that those two behaviors, management insisting on punctuality and violent bodily mutilation, are commensurable is the exact kind of insane thinking that I am criticizing.

It's the motivation that is the same. If you haven't seen it in action you're either very lucky, or not very observant.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#287

Post by astrocat »

jader201 wrote: post #268
andyjdavis wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 inclu…

I completely understand the sentiment - 40% seems like a lot to be "burning" for the sake of the other 60.

But it's helped me to think about this in a different context: think about the time you spend with your spouse. How much of that time is taken up with "life's necessities" like doing laundry, dishes, prepping meals, cleaning, more cleaning, driving places, even arguing and getting hurt are all part of relationships... And all that stuff takes time and it's not a nice meal out or a walk on the beach or an impromptu dance session. There's a lot of the mundane in our most treasured relationships, and the only people who have a problem with that are teenagers.

Should work/life really be any different?

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#288

Post by monksy »

mathattack wrote: post #72
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…

I can absolutely see this at an investment bank, or at a job where physical presence is mandatory (such as a security guard, a teacher, or a bank teller). In a creative job like software, it's absurd. Especially when so many places say, "Come when you want".

> "Come when you want".

Except for anyone who does daily standups first thing in the morning.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#289

Post by hkmurakami »

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…

If you think that is privileged, think about the "money buys you freedom" line (which is my line as well, fwiw).

Most people in this country and the world do not make nearly enough money to even begin to think like this.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#290

Post by paulhauggis »

quanticle wrote: post #239
paulhauggis wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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." Privileged? Hardly. I worked a regular job for many years while spending years of my free time and weekends to create a business where I can now choose what I…

>I worked a regular job for many years while spending years of my free time and weekends to create a business where I can now choose what I work on. Then you did not have a regular job. You had a job that paid you enough to support yourself while retaining enough free time and mental energy to pursue your startup idea. For most people, this is not the case (esp. the mental energy bit).

"Then you did not have a regular job. You had a job that paid you enough to support yourself while retaining enough free time and mental energy to pursue your startup idea. For most people, this is not the case (esp. the mental energy bit)."

I did have a 'regular job'. Most people party, hang out with their friends, and do plenty of other things in their free time. If you have the mental energy to do any of these things (or a hobby), you have the mental energy to start a company.

I worked 50 hours a week coding. Did I always have the mental energy? Of course not. But I had the discipline to continue on..even when I didn't 'feel' like it.

"For most people, this is not the case (esp. the mental energy bit)."

Most people don't want to sacrifice their fun time. I found this to be the case when I tried to find co-founders. All liked the idea of a startup, but none wanted to sacrifice their TV, friends, or bar time. It's one of the reasons why I have a successful company today..and most don't.

Post reply on HN