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

Productivity porn

calebschoepp.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 430 posts

Re: Productivity porn

#371

Post by Ensorceled »

Kosirich wrote: post #301
Ensorceled wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been doing SCRUM for a long time ... it's pretty natural for me to break down projects into smaller pieces that fit into a 1 week or 2 week cycle.

Yea, I've been thinking the same. I don't do so much scrum at work, but when I did and when I tried something similar on non-direct-work related projects it did something for me...In retrospect, I remember the pleasure of achieving certain amount of "points". When you break them down, do you try to "predict effort" in points or similar? I think it's perhaps time to try again.

I just keep breaking it down until it either feels silly to break it down anymore and/or I can estimate the chunk fairly reliably.

Re: Productivity porn

#372

Post by mandeepj »

mindentropy wrote: post #355
stevenfoster wrote: post #206

The Jewish people have their Sabbath, as a hispanic person myself, we have our Siesta. I spent over a decade in the tech industry and I'd literally be scoffed at for actually napping in a nap room or pod for 20min. Finally just started doing it in my car. But that's one of my practices that anchors me not only to my culture, but my Creator. It humbles me. And brings me joy. I hope everyone could find what their pract…

As an Indian I loved my afternoon sleep during the holidays. During school days I would come home and sleep for an hour while reading something. I really loved my sleep. When I started work I hated that my sleep was reduced drastically. Sleeping late working on personal projects played havoc on my sleep. Now in WFH I sleep for an hour or more in the evening which would have been wasted commuting. I have seen my cogni…

I can resonate; I also love napping. Naturally, my body does not require much sleep, but napping is like having one of those 5 hours energy drink, without actually having it. Sometimes, I'm up from it in just 20 mins w\o an alarm and there are times when I don't wake up with an alarm even after 1 hour - it goes for 2ish hours.

Yes, I'm gifted - https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/22/health/short-sleep-gene-welln...

Re: Productivity porn

#373

Post by docmars »

helpfulmandrill wrote: post #339
PostOnce wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you can either die having achieved your goals, or die with them unmet.

But then again, nothing makes you feel more empty than achieving a goal...

Achieving something evokes a feeling of loss that you have to bear until you've found whatever is next. It's not unlike experiencing a death or break-up. This happens when you finish a book, video game, or TV show you've invested a fair bit of time in. We are driven to cope with this feeling by seeking what's next.

Re: Productivity porn

#374

Post by jisbruzzi »

danielbln wrote: post #331
helpfulmandrill wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most people want to be productive because they want to feel valued by others. But if you have to look to your own value from others, you've already lost, and will continue to lose forever. I think for me its about fear of death.

Death will come for you regardless of your productivity.

For some, productivity equals virtue.

A virtuous life is always better than a lazy or vicious life. So you die having lived a better life. And (at least for us catholics AFAIK), a virtuous life leads to heavens.

Re: Productivity porn

#375

Post by agota »

biztos wrote: post #182

One of the original, and most effective, competition hacks is to convince people that you sleep less than they do. When someone tells you they sleep 5 hours a night then run two miles and take a 15-minute cold shower then start their work day, 85% of the time they are lying, 10% of the time you will have already noticed the effects of chronic sleep deprivation, and 5% of the time it's drugs. But this has been a suref…

You need to account for genetic outliers.

IIRC, Jocko Willink believes that his ability to function on little sleep is genetic, he just doesn't need much of it.

He has mentioned that this was a running joke in the Seal teams, which presumably consist of people already selected for their ability to function on little sleep, not your average "7 - 8 hours of sleep" folks.

But then normal people who need an average amount of sleep start "getting after it" by waking up at 4.30 AM because that's what Jocko does.

You can wake up at 4.30 AM as a normal person, but you'd need to go to sleep at 8.30 PM - 9.30 PM for that to be sustainable.

You can't "discipline equals freedom" yourself into optimal performance under perpetual sleep deprivation.

Re: Productivity porn

#376

Post by agota »

999900000999 wrote: post #54

Life advice, self help, etc, all of it is too general to be helpful to anyone. What works for a 46 year old married mother of 3 probably won't be what works for a 23 year old tech nerd. You have this obsession with becoming some type of super human who can do things vastly beyond your peers. Sure the average 30 year old living in LA will never buy a home. That doesn't concern you super elite hustle bro. Hustle so har…

>"Fix your life in 3 weeks, only takes 30 minutes a day"

More like "This ONE Tip Will Change Your Life!"

Re: Productivity porn

#377

Post by shatnersbassoon »

biztos wrote: post #182

One of the original, and most effective, competition hacks is to convince people that you sleep less than they do. When someone tells you they sleep 5 hours a night then run two miles and take a 15-minute cold shower then start their work day, 85% of the time they are lying, 10% of the time you will have already noticed the effects of chronic sleep deprivation, and 5% of the time it's drugs. But this has been a suref…

If you read enough of those "day in the life" articles in newspapers about the daily routine of famous/successful people, you realise that they are probably complete fabrications. Even if it's not for competition purposes, convincing people that you do mad stuff like get up at 2am for a kale cleanse, followed by three hours of meditation is fun. And on top of that, it adds to the razzle-dazzle and gets people talking about you. That's why Michael Jackson pretended to sleep in an oxygen tent.

Re: Productivity porn

#378

Post by elenaferrantes »

j7ake wrote: post #293
Yajirobe wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of this awesome video - The Hustle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o7qjN3KF8U

Great, now I will never be able to read Marcus Aurelius again without associating it with this satire.

Fan of Ryan Holiday ? ;-) I’m always wondering : is this guy just a marketing scam or does he worth listening to ?

Re: Productivity porn

#379

Post by the_af »

idrios wrote: post #224
ravi-delia wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The production value is just immaculate. Every frame is so clearly meticulously constructed to portray the emptiest imaginable life. A man going nowhere at maximum speed, really more of an absence than a man. It's so very close to being too painful to be funny, and I've never even believed in the grind. Just pity for a wretched soul.

Probably the most production value they put into a video was their Virtual Coachella one https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=67sfZfreOrU Which has way fewer views than it deserves, possibly for algorithm reasons because it was given a cease & desist by actual Coachella https://mobile.twitter.com/EFF/status/1373006482397032449

Virtual Coachella is a hilarious take on a dystopian hellscape (not far from our present time). I love it. Like a Black Mirror episode, only condensed so that every single second is brilliant and packed with jokes.

Re: Productivity porn

#380

Post by goatcode »

swyx wrote: post #164
goatcode wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was disheartened when I read about all these successful people and their lofty advice. I was more disheartened when I realized their advice is just the random stuff they happened to do that on their path to success, and that equivalent advice of the myriad failures that complement them would never be heard (and that both were of approximately equal value). Despite how in the overmind the notion of "correlation is n…

the irony is that they are just giving the audience what it wants - a causal formula for success. a guy just saying "i got really lucky" over and over would get no readership.

1. I got really lucky

2. My cousin has a connection to cheap money and invited me into a social circle where I could use it

3. I was willing to make people angry and unhappy along the way

4. I somehow fit into someone else's plan, and I get some decent scraps of riches for existing and pretending to do something important

These seem to be the main keys to success. I will admit that someone who's completely incompetent is less likely to succeed with access to just one or two of the above (excluding 4, which can stand on its own for a period of time), but if he's got all of the first 3 or 4 alone, success is pretty well guaranteed, regardless of ability or worthiness. I'm sure there are exceptions, but the vast unwashed rabble of successful people I believe have something from the above list.

Post reply on HN