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Productivity porn

calebschoepp.com

391–400 of 430 posts

Re: Productivity porn

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a new F-150, XL edition (lowest) in 2020 for 29k, just for reference. On the Ford site, it appears the new models at a similar trim level are about 31k. Most people don't buy the baseline "work truck," which is what mine is (4x2, 3.3L, 8ft bed, short cab), but they don't have to be 40k. Add 4x4 and any level of trim and you're there, though.

that is pretty cheap, compared to europe after all taxes... 31k gets you fake SUV on sedan platform, not F150

For what it's worth, what I would call the "fake SUV" from Ford (the Escape) is listed starting @27k. The Explorer, you might call a real SUV, starts @35k.

Re: Productivity porn

#392
post #363

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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…

How many cultures are there that have a midday/afternoon sleep? I only knew of the siësta in Spain..

From my experience, Italians and in the south of France. The French also shut everything down on Sundays.

In the middle east I’ve also seen people napping in mosques. The large ones remain nice and cool during the hot summer day. Mind you, it was Ramadan, so that might have changed things.

Overall, I expect people in hot climates to sleep through the mid day heat and go back to work later. I for one envy them.

Re: Productivity porn

#393

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…

Such a good point. How do I calibrate to the all the advice out there? Find that hard - be it finance advice, health advice, hustle advice or anything else.

Like you say, most of us are average. There's rarely any content for a '46 year old married mother of 3' or any of the average folks. But a normal person's daily life goes for a toss when they hear advice on YT (or watch a Insta reel or a TikTok dance) they know they won't be able to do themselves but they think should be doing.

Re: Productivity porn

#394
post #389
post #375

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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 amoun…

When you listen to Jocko talk about himself, you are not getting an honest accounting about an actual human being Your are being given a story created by Jocko to build the Jocko mythos. Jocko will not let any truths get in the way of a good story about the mythical Jocko. His artisinal leather boots and cologne don't sell themselves, you know.

I tend to believe what he says because I don't get the "narcissist cult leader" vibe from him.

I do get that vibe from the vast majority of popular content creators in the "hustle" niche, though.

Re: Productivity porn

#395
post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How many cultures are there that have a midday/afternoon sleep? I only knew of the siësta in Spain..

There was a famous line about it for when the British started colonizing Africa, "only mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun"

Re: Productivity porn

#396
post #270

I disagree with the premise. I think the things you learn reading that tweet or that medium post can be useful. There were definitely times when I ran into a problem and thought to myself, "Hey I remember reading about this on Hacker News, how did they solve it?" and then going back and finding the post and finding a solution to my problem. There is also the notion of being able to make better decisions with more "co…

> There is also the notion of being able to make better decisions with more "connection material" in your mind. The more you know, the more likely you are to make a novel connection. I completely agree with this, but I don't believe all blog posts and technical articles are written equal :) You have: 1. Your garden variety tech blog post about somebody's experience using X or Y framework or just a general techy blog.…

If we're talking about „reading a full article + following the discussion“, then yes.

But for me, 1.) has also been helpful for discovering frameworks or tools that I'm now using in my everyday work life (e.g. LogSeq, Prefect). I wouldn't count it as „productive” either, but just reading announcements or random tech blog posts sometimes translates into actually adopting the thing.

Re: Productivity porn

#397

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> 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.

But what if we hack death??

Joking, obviously. But it is amusing how many people (Kurzweil, Harari) seriously have faith in this (and believe there is something novel in this pursuit).

Re: Productivity porn

#398

Hustle and grind. Create 7 streams of income. Work 18 hour days - anything less and you're a loser destined for mediocrity. Read 5 books a week. Start trading stocks and crypto. Take cold showers, hit the gym. Optimize your schedule, log every minute spent. Ditch your loser friends and only hang out with likeminded - success breeds success. Sigma grindset. Moon or bust. If you're not worth $1 million liquid before 30…

I get that this is satire but could you expand on why people who want to be healthy + productive "have it wrong" (which I feel your satirical comment alludes to?) You're "taking the piss" at people who value working hard/long hours, reading, trying to be successful financially, taking care of their health/fitness, cutting ties with loser friends (drug addicts? bums?)

I'm open for different opinions, but in my view, being more productive for its own sake is fundamentally misinformed. Being productive means being more efficient at producing output. To get there, you need to put effort into optimizing your process. This effort is only worth it if you know that you NEED more output, in order to reach some OTHER goal. More efficiency in of itself is a misaligned goal. It doesn't lead to happyness. In fact, it seems to me, most of those gurus, and their followers seem to be about boasting their productivity dick. It's like flaunting money: a status symbol that doesn't make you happy in of itself. If you're making honey because you think just simply having money will make you happy, you'll be leading a miserable life.

That's not what the article is about but it relates to what you said.

Re: Productivity porn

#399
post #347
post #278

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I honestly thought it was satire until the comments showed otherwise. Eat clean… cocktails. Hustle by taking long drives.

And the rest? What is wrong with keeping a schedule, running, resistance training, eating healthy? Also, long drives are mentioned in the context of "unwind after work" (I see nothing obviously wrong with it). Alcohol is bad, avoid it if you can but no social life may be worse.

None of that is inherently bad. He talks a lot of working hard to maintain multiple brands/companies while everything shown is pure vanity, which is why I thought it was satire.

I don’t know anything about what he does but in reality people don’t have time to work out twice a day, take long relaxing drives, meet their friends, eat healthy and do 5x the work of an average CEO.

Re: Productivity porn

#400
post #313

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I used to devour this stuff in the beginning of my career, because I always felt like I was drowning in a job that was asking too much of me. Eventually though I got to a place where I no longer needed anymore of these tips. These productivity systems and life hacks are useful, so it is not bad to explore what is out there, but they are tools and tools are not useful unless they are set to a purpose. Also, it is easy…

> (a) work is effectively infinite and (b) the things worth doing or seeing exceed the capacity of a human life. These are some of the main ideas in the book 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. I think it is one of those rare self help books that are actually worth a read.

This is a great self realisation. I started to stop working after 6. It's been a pretty hard change, but feels amazing.
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