Herman Hesse's pop Buddhism is strong in this one.
How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
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Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#42You may want to not waste time reading this but instead use that time to read pg's essay on similar ideas, "How to Do What You Love" ( http://paulgraham.com/love.html ), which, if I had the power, I would have millions of copies printed and have every kid in the world read it. It explains (at least) two simple ideas very effectively: 1. The work versus fun dichotomy is taught very early: "The very idea is foreign to…
> Unproductive pleasures pall eventually. After a while you get tired of lying on the beach. If you want to stay happy, you have to do something." Nonsense. This in itself is a result of falling prey to what Leo Baubata (the author of the linked article) writes about: Inability to "let go". There may certainly be things you'd find more fulfilling. But if you need to do stuff to be happy, you are letting yourself suff…
"Unproductive pleasures pall eventually". Would you be happy staring at the clouds consistently for two months?
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#43You may want to not waste time reading this but instead use that time to read pg's essay on similar ideas, "How to Do What You Love" ( http://paulgraham.com/love.html ), which, if I had the power, I would have millions of copies printed and have every kid in the world read it. It explains (at least) two simple ideas very effectively: 1. The work versus fun dichotomy is taught very early: "The very idea is foreign to…
I've already read all of Paul's essays, most of them more than once. I come to HN to read new things. I liked this article, I think it was worth it just to be reminded of this:
>I could be in discomfort and nothing bad would happen.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#44There's no relation between 'procrastination' and 'letting go'. Procrastination is pretty much normal, everyone procrastinated once entire days on HN/Netflix/...
There are easy cures and proven techniques against procrastination and not a single one is mentioned in this write-up.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#45There's no relation between 'procrastination' and 'letting go'. Procrastination is pretty much normal, everyone procrastinated once entire days on HN/Netflix/... There are easy cures and proven techniques against procrastination and not a single one is mentioned in this write-up.
Procrastination is often caused by the urge to find a small comfort to escape discomfort. Checking your email account in the middle of a difficult task, checking the news, etc. Letting go of this urges helps you stop procrastinating. There are no practical methods explained in this article but the main idea is a solid one that may help people overcome this problem.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#46The Now Habit is also good reading on the subject of procrastination http://lifehacker.com/5658620/the-now-habit-overcoming-procr...
I found the Procrastination Equation to be a better read. The Now Habit can be summed up as "don't be a perfectionist", whereas the Procrastination Equation says there are three types of procrastinators, and perfectionism isn't actually what causes most procrastination. The latter book is much better sourced and more thorough: there are loads of footnotes where you can look up the studies and the articles he's citing.
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#47Mark Twain nailed it: "Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day AFTER tomorrow."
Left recursion
-- noam chomsky
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Unproductive pleasures pall eventually. After a while you get tired of lying on the beach. If you want to stay happy, you have to do something." Nonsense. This in itself is a result of falling prey to what Leo Baubata (the author of the linked article) writes about: Inability to "let go". There may certainly be things you'd find more fulfilling. But if you need to do stuff to be happy, you are letting yourself suff…
"Unproductive pleasures pall eventually ". Would you be happy staring at the clouds consistently for two months?
My wife tells me this all the time - because I am on the spectrum I see things in black or white; work vs fun, productive vs unproductive. Only black or white. I think I'm starting to understand...
The key is moderation. Don't dedicate 100% to productive-only tasks or you'll burn out. Don't dedicate 100% to veging on the couch watching TV or you'll bore out.
Can't everyone just stop analyzing every minute detail of life and just chill by living in the moment?
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Unproductive pleasures pall eventually. After a while you get tired of lying on the beach. If you want to stay happy, you have to do something." Nonsense. This in itself is a result of falling prey to what Leo Baubata (the author of the linked article) writes about: Inability to "let go". There may certainly be things you'd find more fulfilling. But if you need to do stuff to be happy, you are letting yourself suff…
"Unproductive pleasures pall eventually ". Would you be happy staring at the clouds consistently for two months?
There are lots of unproductive pleasures to explore, when one is no longer interesting you can move to another.
Incidentally, one of the unproductive pleasure is starting side projects. The pleasure is immense when you spend few hours setting up yet another Clojure/Haskell/whatever project. This time it definitely is the one you are going to see through to finish!
Re: How I Learned to Stop Procrastinating, and Love Letting Go
#50On a side note, I just listened to this audiobook "The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing" http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Procrastination-Lollygagging-P... A humorous take on working with procrastination, not against it. Short, but highly recommended.
In the same vein: structured procrastination. http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/
Yes, more precisely, it's the (audio)book's author's webpage ;-) The book presents an attainable ideal to strive towards as a procrastinator, instead of a lofty hyper-productive pipe dream. In any case, it's a fun read and an interesting take on living with akrasia.