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Why are Adults so busy?

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Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#321

Post by __jal »

brightball wrote: post #262
sapphireblue wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also wonder how we manage to stay busy given that most home tasks (dishwashing, laundry, cleaning (roombas) and even cooking - see multicooker devices) are already automated, with "doing laundry" meaning merely loading and unloading the washing machine. I think you have a good point about idle time being gadgeted away. Also I think there is a tremendous potential in automation of physical labor (including remaining…

Doing laundry is still the most time consuming task because it's done sequentially. If there's any build up at all it throw it in the wash, wait, move it to the drier, wait, unload, fold and put away. Multiple loads means a multi hour time commitment to being on stand by to transfer and continue the process. The programmer in me actually has resorted to throwing everything in the car and driving to a laundry mat if I…

Laundry is actually one chore that doesn't bother me, and I don't even have in-home machines. My laundromat is two blocks away, serves food, beer and (if I fail time management and don't finish before it begins) truly, really horribly bad comedy acts.

I load my little wheelie-cart, my laptop for some work or a book if I have time, and do what I'd normally do somewhere else for a couple hours. The only real differences are minimal interactions with humans, a need for quarters, and having to wear pants.

Folding is tedious. I hang everything except T-shirts, and some way to skip folding things simply to hang them at home would be nice, but that would involve a vehicle, which is its own bundle of urban hassle and silly for two blocks.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#322

Post by brightball »

Spoom wrote: post #286
brightball wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing laundry is still the most time consuming task because it's done sequentially. If there's any build up at all it throw it in the wash, wait, move it to the drier, wait, unload, fold and put away. Multiple loads means a multi hour time commitment to being on stand by to transfer and continue the process. The programmer in me actually has resorted to throwing everything in the car and driving to a laundry mat if I…

I've always wondered why someone didn't build a vertical washer-dryer combo, about the size of a fridge, where the clothes in the washer portion at the top simply drop into the dryer portion at the bottom (possibly assisted by a mechanical push) and start the dryer portion automatically. Bonus if you can then push the dry clothes out the side into a waiting basket, but not totally necessary. Perhaps stability is a fa…

The biggest issue with both that and the single drum units another comment mentioned is that if there's more than one load you still have to be on stand by to put it in, so you're only saving time on the transfer of a single load.

For the single drum units, you lose the ability to wash 1 load while another is drying. The perk is that you can throw a load in when you leave for work and it will be done when you get back home. If you have more than one those, you're extending your total wash time from

wash * loads + (1 dry time)

to

(wash + dry time) * loads

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#323

Post by zeveb »

Retric wrote: post #208
pc86 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's rarely that you actually need to respond to any text message immediately.

In theory you're right. However, the expectation is someone will respond with ~"Thx, in meeting" unlike a phone where you may just let it go to voicemail, there is no message failed to get though feedback. So, you get sent a text and people will generally assume you are ignoring them unless you respond.

> However, the expectation is someone will respond with ~"Thx, in meeting"

If you check your phone in a meeting, and you don't have a family member in the hospital, you're wrong. It's discourteous in the extreme to check a smartphone (or noodle around on a laptop!) when meeting with others.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#324

Post by zaroth »

kale wrote: post #205
zaroth wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP clearly doesn't have kids for how glossed over the point is. Amazing that they come up with just 10 spare hours a week without even really factoring kids into the equation. For those of us who have kids, you just sit back some days and wonder... How little we recognized at the time, the sheer freedom of being able to just head out for dinner or a drink any day of the week, plop down and watch whatever movie we…

Nothing can prepare you for the "crap I can't do anything spontaneous now" like having children. I recently had to let tickets to a concert go (that I was really looking forward to) because the babysitter had a family emergency. And this is a deep confession that I've never really told anyone: I envy my divorced friends with kids. Every other week they (usually) are child free. And get to do things like mow grass, ha…

This is where I've seriously considered multi-family communal living, and wish it were more popular and mainstream.

Taking care of kids is relatively scalable, in that it's a full-time job for one person to "engage" (and I don't mean "watch" or "babysit" or "entertain" but more like "actively plan and execute a meaningful day's activies") one child, and it's nearly the same full-time job for one person to engage six children.

So I imagine sometimes how much better a job I could do if I could really focus and devote my full time and attention for 1 whole day out of 7 on a small group of children. What would we be able to plan and go out and accomplish and learn about? If you had 6 adults taking shifts with 6 - 10 kids?

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#325

Post by mwfunk »

"Surely adults were doing something wrong if they were never bored."

FWIW, I know plenty of adults that complain about boredom and they are most definitely the ones that are doing something wrong. Not because they aren't filling whatever free time they have with some other form of work, but because they don't know how to enjoy the free time that they get (lack of hobbies/interests/etc.), and/or they don't know how to relax and enjoy doing nothing.

As people get older the concept of their own mortality becomes more and more tangible, which makes each moment seem more precious. To a kid being bored is an annoyance, but to an adult being bored is more like a lost opportunity at best and a personal failing at worst.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#326

Post by Symbiote »

personlurking wrote: post #216
dazc wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, learning Spanish is tough and July/August is pretty hot, so much so I returned to the UK for 2 months.

I'm in Sevilla for several weeks and was told by locals to come in September rather than August, due to the heat letting up. So far, it's been 40-45C every single day (save for the past few), and that leaves me couped up in the apt. I'm missing Lisbon, where I usually live (over 300 days of sun yet it never really gets unbearably hot). I can't imagine being in Andalucia during the entire summer, though I hear Granada…

There's unusual weather in Europe at the moment. The UK recorded their hottest September day since 1911.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/13/uks-hottest-...

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#327

Post by porkloin »

the-dude wrote: post #312
dominotw wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No TV, no cable. > Lots of people in town know me, I know them, build a pretty social life. I love TV( youtube, Netflix, amazon etc). I grew up with state TV and there is no stopping me now. There are all kinds of amazing stuff on TV, there is no limit to how much you can explore the world. Eg: This week, I time traveled back to soviet union in the 50's got to look their communal houses, social classes, dress codes…

That is really great for you. Maybe you should also get a radio so you can become a good listener too.

What an incredibly rude comment.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#328

Post by pc86 »

greenshackle wrote: post #239
pc86 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know anybody that assumes that unless you let it go for days. Texting is asynchronous just like email, for a reason.

It's possible you two just hang out in social groups with different norms.

What I meant was that while I'm sure some people do think that, it's unreasonable. That's the same person who send multiple text messages "are you there?" "where are you?" "I need you" "call me" etc minutes or seconds apart. It hasn't occurred to them that the phone is off or silent or in another room or notifications are off or they've been explicitly muted.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#329

Post by Retric »

zeveb wrote: post #323
Retric wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory you're right. However, the expectation is someone will respond with ~"Thx, in meeting" unlike a phone where you may just let it go to voicemail, there is no message failed to get though feedback. So, you get sent a text and people will generally assume you are ignoring them unless you respond.

> However, the expectation is someone will respond with ~"Thx, in meeting" If you check your phone in a meeting, and you don't have a family member in the hospital, you're wrong. It's discourteous in the extreme to check a smartphone (or noodle around on a laptop!) when meeting with others.

We have a rather family friendly attitude at work so the norms are probably a little different. There is no way to know ahead of time if someone is in the hospital. Now someone is stilling there holding the phone and looking at it, taking an extra ~15 seconds to respond is not a big deal. Now, if someone is going to respond in depth the expectation is they will leave.

Also, there are more and less formal meetings, but in a technical meeting checking some point online with a laptop or phone occurs on a regular basis. It seems much more productive than having people just say random things that don't match up with reality.

Re: Why are Adults so busy?

#330

Post by the-dude »

porkloin wrote: post #327
the-dude wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is really great for you. Maybe you should also get a radio so you can become a good listener too.

What an incredibly rude comment.

Yeah sorry about that. It must have been the sun, just came back from 3 hours 'scaling back': bike ride, sunbathing and reading Kundera.
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