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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

#391

Post by innguest »

MrZongle2 wrote: post #380
innguest wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet is full of forums for parents to discuss regretting having kids. Do your own research. Also I didn't say (live-in tutor) == (being a parent). I said it's a way one can know what the path is like. Just like you can tell what the ocean is like by watching a movie of the ocean.

Do your own research. The onus is not on me. I have done my research: I am a parent, and that's the position I'm promoting. If you can't defend your own position, don't expect somebody else to.

So you doubt there are parents that regret having kids? You can prove yourself wrong in 10 seconds of googling. I won't help those who don't want to see the truth for themselves.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#393

Post by crpatino »

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…

Typical people need to sleep for 25%-30% of each day, it is hardwired into our biology. I think that "strive to be happy 100% of the time" can be turned into an excellent excuse to sleep deprive yourself, in order to avoid making hard decisions about what to prioritize in your life.

You can apply the same logic to your job. Everybody needs to earn their keep. That's a fact of life. People that already want an excuse to forgo their live for the sake of work will take it as confirmation of what they want to hear.

Not to say that what you say is wrong, just to point how it can be use it to rationalize if taking literally and/or out of context.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#394

Post by Retra »

swampthing wrote: post #294
Retra wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's more to it than that: you probably had resources that afforded you that time, or support that valued and encouraged that kind of behavior. Maybe you had a good education or reliable parents. And you probably had fairly good health throughout all of that. There are so many things that make your actions highly specific to your situation, and that's a privilege that you have.

If we're defining privilege that broadly, most people are privileged in some way... to the point where the word is basically meaningless.

Just because I've left some free variables in my description doesn't meant he concept I'm talking about is inherently vague. It means we need to put more work into pinning them down before one can make a proper analysis.

Don't expect perfection, because you won't get it.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#395

Post by mikob »

Kiro wrote: post #324

Since these lists are always a lot about friends and family let me list some non-mainstream insights I've gained about my own life: 1. Social activities are mostly a waste of time. 2. If you want to sit at home 24/7 programming then do it. 3. Don't make it a habit coming up with excuses. Learn to say no without an excuse attached. 4. Some people are not meant to be in a relationship. If you're in a healthy and happy…

This reads like sarcasm. But if you're serious, put it this way: if you were on this Earth alone what would you live for? Would you be sitting at home programming 24/7?

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#397

Post by fu9ar »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #286
fu9ar wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No. It's not the same motivation. Human hierarchical social behavior is not the same as other primates. It's much more complicated and in most human situations social status is based on a constellation of intangibles rather than who can literally rip the other's face off.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#398

Post by stegosaurus »

A lot of these posts seem to just accept that 'not everyone is as lucky as us'.

I agree, but not because of the same reasons.

I went through a period in my life when I just realised that playing silly games wasn't worth it any more. I gave up on the idea of being an 'adult', whatever that means.

As a human being I have judgement and I know what me arriving late / not arriving to work means. I don't need to be told.

If I am ill, I don't come. If you have a system of 'sickness days', you can employ someone else. Because I am an honest person and I do not want my basic human tendencies to be policed. Biology doesn't care about your employment contract.

I enter and leave work when I want to. 99.9% of the time this is normal office hours, but if something important comes up, life comes first.

I think this is perfectly reasonable.

It means I will be paid less. It means I probably won't be CEO of an investment bank. I don't care.

I am a human being, not a cog in a machine. I'll give up my roof, my food, my clothing before I subject myself again.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#399

Post by stegosaurus »

CydeWeys wrote: post #256
kcovia wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really want to work for someone who thinks getting to the office 5 minutes earlier is more important than your child?

There are many jobs (though largely not office jobs) where you HAVE to be on time, where not being on time seriously throws a lot of scheduled things out of whack. It is not unreasonable at all in these professions to expect someone to always be on time, and get rid of them and find someone more responsible if they cannot be. One good example would be all of the elementary school teachers I've ever known; they NEED t…

I would argue in this case that people simply need to plan a bit more around the inherent frailty of humans.

You can have supply teachers on call. Or you can pay them a bit extra to arrive early and mark work in that time. (e.g. make the actual working day 5-6 hours; other hours used for marking, planning, etc). There are other solutions.

One that sticks out in my mind is that when I used to work retail, our hourly pay stopped when the store closed. Obviously you don't and can't leave then. The last customer is slow, you might need to lock up, etc.

In most cases, all you need is for management to actually think about these issues and to not allow the quest for margins to result in abusive practices.

When you're a contractor then yes, you are The One, you have chosen and need to be reliable. When you are part of a massive organization with profit in the billions (e.g. a supermarket), it really is a deliberate choice they are making which results in stress being loaded on you.

Re: The days are long but the decades are short

#400

Post by stegosaurus »

georgemcbay wrote: post #40
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…

Assuming you were effective at your job, said boss needs to examine what is important to him, slavish respect-mah-authortai-style following of rather arbitrary rules, or having a "bird-in-the-hand" competent employee who gets shit done (perhaps 5 minutes later than the boss-man would like). It is kind of sad how many boss/manager types still fail miserably on this point, and then complain about not being able to hire…

Even assuming you weren't effective - why would anyone care? At all?

Unless you are heading to a meeting instantly or opening the store or whatever, why does 5 minutes matter? Why does 10 minutes matter? Even 10 minutes every single working day shaved off would be You're not going to suddenly turn around your productivity by adding a few minutes to your work day. Most of us spend more than that making coffee.

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