A while ago my car died, so I suddenly needed transport right now. I was considering renting a car, but my family loaned me an extra vehicle they had on hand that they keep around for just these emergencies.
EDIT: No, there is absolutely no public transport out here. People who can't drive for whatever reason have a very hard time of it.
I would have made a much worse decision if I had to pay for every day I took to make it. Given the luxury of time, I made a much better buying decision for the new-to-me vehicle.
These sort of time luxury, magnitude of free/disposable income, and free cognitive load (less stress, etc.) aspects are all too frequently overlooked when shunning the working poor and now, even many working middle class Americans.
I remember the sort of stress I had first starting out simply keeping up with utility bill payment schedules to avoid late fees. I had the luxury of enough assets and steady income that I quickly setup autopayments on my credit card and never had to think about it again.
I had relatives and friends who couldn't setup autopayment because they were never sure if they'd have enough in their account or ability to pay their credit card and had to strategically optimize when and what they'd pay. The amount of cognative load folks endure juggling many of these artificial constructs makes it difficult for them to pursue and seize opportunity when it arises to get ahead.
Arguments could be made as to why some should or should not be in such situations but this is just one example. I often think about how difficult it is to fit certain necessary things in my schedule and then remember I don't ride the bus in the work which dramatically reduces my commute time.
There are many such aspects people deal with daily and it can be daunting. If you're very wealthy, a lot of these problems you can throw relatively marginal money at and the problem is solved while focusing on furthering yourself.
On the other hand, consider — poor people don’t have to worry about having a car that keeps up with the Joneses, so they can drive around in a beater. If I had a dirty 1999 Camry then my rich neighbours would look askance at me.
If you think it’s expensive to be poor, try being rich.
>Next, participants received our standard instructions to
entertain themselves with their thoughts (in this
case for 15 min). If they wanted, they learned,
they could receive an electric shock again during
the thinking period by pressing a button. We
went to some length to explain that the primary goal was to entertain themselves with
their thoughts and that the decision to receive
a shock was entirely up to them.
Many participants elected to receive negative stimulation over no stimulation—especially
men: 67% of men (12 of 18) gave themselves
at least one shock during the thinking period
[range = 0 to 4 shocks, mean (M) = 1.47, SD =
1.46, not including one outlier who administered 190 shocks to himself], compared to 25%
of women (6 of 24; range = 0 to 9 shocks, M =
1.00, SD = 2.32).
I´m quite intrigued about the outlier who managed to shock himself every 4.7 seconds for 15 minutes straight. Was he trying to go for a record or just plain masochism...
Personally, my main takeaway can be summarized by this passage:
>And those who philosophise on the matter, and who think men unreasonable for spending a whole day in chasing a hare which they would not have bought, scarce know our nature. The hare in itself would not screen us from the sight of death and calamities; but the chase, which turns away our attention from these, does screen us.
The opposite is idleness, which we also do not particularly enjoy and will make ourselves play to avoid.
It's a spectrum. Too busy or too idle for too long and we break.
Some people do not perceive this, they're either workaholics or aboulics.
Tiredness and boredom are good things evolved to prevent damaging ourselves.
If you ignore these you get burnout on one end, but no idea what is the opposite called.
Personally, I think there is a big difference between busy and occupied and lazy and idle. I love being productive / occupied, yet I hate being busy. And that has nothing to do with stress or pressure, but rather with impact.
And yes, being busy resulted in a couple of less than perfect decisions on my behalf. The worst ones just for the sake of doing and deciding something.
I suspect 'humans' is an attempt to avoid stereotyping/sexism - but some people certainly do if not enjoy actually being busy, enjoy talking about how busy they are and how little time they have.
i.e. the enjoyment I think is in projecting a certain image of oneself; not necessarily actually embodying that image.
I could not agree more.
For years I was just doing things for the sake of being busy.. crossing tasks off my todo list on a daily basis.
I felt so accomplished, however, I was not really getting a lot of useful work done!
--------------------------
What did I do?
- I started thinking about the tasks I needed to do, assessing if they were actually important to begin with.
- I often found that they were not adding value to my product (DarwinMail[1]) and so I discarded them.
- I also quickly completed any task that would take 5 minutes or less to complete.
--------------------------
What was the result?
- About a year on and I have a successful product (well, success in my head is a product which has thousands of users of which at least hundreds love the product and could not live without it).
- I feel more successful, more fulfilled and a greater sense of accomplishment.
[+] [-] twoquestions|6 years ago|reply
A while ago my car died, so I suddenly needed transport right now. I was considering renting a car, but my family loaned me an extra vehicle they had on hand that they keep around for just these emergencies. EDIT: No, there is absolutely no public transport out here. People who can't drive for whatever reason have a very hard time of it.
I would have made a much worse decision if I had to pay for every day I took to make it. Given the luxury of time, I made a much better buying decision for the new-to-me vehicle.
One of the many ways it's expensive to be poor.
[+] [-] Frost1x|6 years ago|reply
These sort of time luxury, magnitude of free/disposable income, and free cognitive load (less stress, etc.) aspects are all too frequently overlooked when shunning the working poor and now, even many working middle class Americans.
I remember the sort of stress I had first starting out simply keeping up with utility bill payment schedules to avoid late fees. I had the luxury of enough assets and steady income that I quickly setup autopayments on my credit card and never had to think about it again.
I had relatives and friends who couldn't setup autopayment because they were never sure if they'd have enough in their account or ability to pay their credit card and had to strategically optimize when and what they'd pay. The amount of cognative load folks endure juggling many of these artificial constructs makes it difficult for them to pursue and seize opportunity when it arises to get ahead.
Arguments could be made as to why some should or should not be in such situations but this is just one example. I often think about how difficult it is to fit certain necessary things in my schedule and then remember I don't ride the bus in the work which dramatically reduces my commute time.
There are many such aspects people deal with daily and it can be daunting. If you're very wealthy, a lot of these problems you can throw relatively marginal money at and the problem is solved while focusing on furthering yourself.
[+] [-] larnmar|6 years ago|reply
On the other hand, consider — poor people don’t have to worry about having a car that keeps up with the Joneses, so they can drive around in a beater. If I had a dirty 1999 Camry then my rich neighbours would look askance at me.
If you think it’s expensive to be poor, try being rich.
[+] [-] automatoney|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FernandoTN|6 years ago|reply
>Next, participants received our standard instructions to entertain themselves with their thoughts (in this case for 15 min). If they wanted, they learned, they could receive an electric shock again during the thinking period by pressing a button. We went to some length to explain that the primary goal was to entertain themselves with their thoughts and that the decision to receive a shock was entirely up to them. Many participants elected to receive negative stimulation over no stimulation—especially men: 67% of men (12 of 18) gave themselves at least one shock during the thinking period [range = 0 to 4 shocks, mean (M) = 1.47, SD = 1.46, not including one outlier who administered 190 shocks to himself], compared to 25% of women (6 of 24; range = 0 to 9 shocks, M = 1.00, SD = 2.32).
You can read the complete study here, https://wjh-www.harvard.edu/~dtg/WILSON%20ET%20AL%202014.pdf
I´m quite intrigued about the outlier who managed to shock himself every 4.7 seconds for 15 minutes straight. Was he trying to go for a record or just plain masochism...
[+] [-] birdyrooster|6 years ago|reply
I have never enjoyed feeling busy.
[+] [-] leggomylibro|6 years ago|reply
http://stmaryvalleybloom.org/pascal-diversion.html
Personally, my main takeaway can be summarized by this passage:
>And those who philosophise on the matter, and who think men unreasonable for spending a whole day in chasing a hare which they would not have bought, scarce know our nature. The hare in itself would not screen us from the sight of death and calamities; but the chase, which turns away our attention from these, does screen us.
[+] [-] brianmcc|6 years ago|reply
A 2 week project crunch can be exhilarating, but 6 months? No thanks!
Similarly a few weeks of beach vacation can be wonderfully relaxing, but months, years of "doing nothing" will soon become boring.
[+] [-] AstralStorm|6 years ago|reply
It's a spectrum. Too busy or too idle for too long and we break. Some people do not perceive this, they're either workaholics or aboulics. Tiredness and boredom are good things evolved to prevent damaging ourselves.
If you ignore these you get burnout on one end, but no idea what is the opposite called.
[+] [-] romanovcode|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hef19898|6 years ago|reply
And yes, being busy resulted in a couple of less than perfect decisions on my behalf. The worst ones just for the sake of doing and deciding something.
[+] [-] OJFord|6 years ago|reply
i.e. the enjoyment I think is in projecting a certain image of oneself; not necessarily actually embodying that image.
[+] [-] thejackgoode|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] _pmf_|6 years ago|reply
Clearly, you are not manager material.
Managers like to flaunt their busyness. It's their essence, their halo.
[+] [-] DarwinMailApp|6 years ago|reply
--------------------------
What did I do?
- I started thinking about the tasks I needed to do, assessing if they were actually important to begin with.
- I often found that they were not adding value to my product (DarwinMail[1]) and so I discarded them.
- I also quickly completed any task that would take 5 minutes or less to complete.
--------------------------
What was the result?
- About a year on and I have a successful product (well, success in my head is a product which has thousands of users of which at least hundreds love the product and could not live without it).
- I feel more successful, more fulfilled and a greater sense of accomplishment.
[1] https://www.darwinmail.app
[+] [-] afarrell|6 years ago|reply
I've found answering "Is this important?" very hard. I find it much easier to answer "What is the impact if I do this?"
[+] [-] TurkishPoptart|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pklingens|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] loceng|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AstralStorm|6 years ago|reply