Sometimes it's possible to get a pretty good bead on someone's worldview from even a short excerpt. In this case, the author not only has a low internal locus of control, but seems to adopt it as a core belief. Here's the key part:
"Constantly ask yourself why are you working so hard on this damn thing. If the answer is: 'so I can get ahead,' remind yourself that it’s a treadmill and you’ll always stay at the same place, no matter how fast you run."
Note that this isn't merely a statement that the world is unfair, but that it's unfair and any effort you make to deal with it will end in frustration.
I find this fatalism both increasingly common and increasingly odious. The opposite attitude may be irritating - Steinbeck's "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" - but I prefer to reason from agency when there's a decent chance the more empowering view is right. Rather than concluding that everything is a red-queen rat race, why not try to find a corner of the world where you can play a better game?
It's my experience that when you find yourself thinking, "I can understand this person's entire worldview from a short statement, and I can use that to dismiss what they're saying," it's a sort of self-inflicted strawman to protect yourself from ideas that make you uncomfortable to the point where you refuse to believe they originated from a reasonable human being. It's simpler and safer to imagine they came from a caricature. (Not throwing shade, I'm describing my conclusions from observing this behavior in myself.)
That doesn't mean the idea is good, maybe it's a terrible idea, but you should seek to challenge your thinking on the subject, not protect it and keep it precious.
I interpreted this statement completely differently. The author isn't fatalistic at all, he's merely advocating for a more thoughtful approach to spending your time.
If the only reason you work on something is out of a fear of falling behind, then you ought to reevaluate your priorities and, if you deem it necessary, choose a path that seems more fruitful. "Getting ahead" implies judging your life relative to others, based on metrics that are societally accepted, but may be completely misaligned with your actual desires. Spending some time to introspect and to get a grasp on your own idea of a meaningful life can be very beneficial.
I think the treadmill analogy is a reference to the hedonic treadmill, where you may assume that spending oodles of your time pursuing greater wealth or reputation will surely be worth it in the end, but are faced with the reality of feeling the exact same way as before.
The author is suggesting finding a corner of the world where you can play a better game. The better game they are suggesting is to hop off the treadmill of external validation, and figure out how to find it internally instead.
Like many or most of us here, I spend a lot of my time around software people. But I just spent a bunch of time this weekend with a group of people for whom music is their way of making money in some way or another; teaching it, playing it, writing it, etc. Something very striking to me is how much different the internal vs. external validation thing is between them and me. These are people who get little external validation, always scraping by with unstable income, struggling for recognition in a crowded field. But they all do it because they just freaking love music, they're excited by the possibilities, and almost always happy when they're playing. On the other hand, most software folks I know are compensated richly externally, but often struggle to find peace and contentment internally.
I think it's the opposite: the purpose here is to say that pursuing efficiency so that you have more time will not give you more time; it will just give you more work allotted to that time. Instead, you first need to prioritize your goals, giving your personal goals a relative weight to professional ones, or your personal goals will get lost.
>Note that this isn't merely a statement that the world is unfair, but that it's unfair and any effort you make to deal with it will end in frustration.
You got it backwards. The post specifically encourages the person to take action.
What they describe in that part is what happens when you're caught in that kind of work treadmill. In that case, anything you do within the context of the treadmill isn't going to make any difference. You need to escape/reframe the context.
>>"Constantly ask yourself why are you working so hard on this damn thing. If the answer is: 'so I can get ahead,' remind yourself that it’s a treadmill and you’ll always stay at the same place, no matter how fast you run."
>>Note that this isn't merely a statement that the world is unfair, but that it's unfair and any effort you make to deal with it will end in frustration.
It is also a statement of fact. Working hard on a job that pays a fixed salary is just pointless by definition after a while. Especially in a job that doesn't have overtime. The company has little incentive to reward free work they can get done, and get away with.
>>Rather than concluding that everything is a red-queen rat race, why not try to find a corner of the world where you can play a better game?
Yes. If you absolutely have to work hard, do it in a place that pays you for it.
The phrase that stuck with me from that book: tomorrow in not guaranteed.
I'm in my forties and have watched a few friends die slowly from cancer, and others die suddenly in car crashes.
During COVID, working from home in my dimly-lit basement during perpetual grey days, doing my bureaucratic middle management job, I kept thinking: I can't die like this.
My wife and I both quit our jobs and are on a sabbatical. It's glorious. Every day is sunny.
Now I'm mid deep contemplation about my next job and how I can find something that motivates me and fills me with happiness even if it's for less money.
Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Don't forget to act on that, everyone.
Candid question: how do you finance your sabbatical ?
I feel like a lot of people (I'm in there) are dreaming for exactly what your are living right now, but won't EVER be in the position to do it.
I am 36 with about 14 years of software engineering, and I need LOTS_OF_MONEY per month just to finance my mortgage, the school of my children and the basic living expenses that rose about 50% in the last year due to energy and inflation. If my wife and I quit for 3 month, we are out of our saved money and will be losing the house.
I try to reason about this a lot, and the trouble is everything I aspire to do happens across decades. Nothing that can be accomplished in a day or a week seems satisfying.
> All theory aside, the feeling that you’d be left behind your peers is very real. A millionaire lawyer in front of her boss still feels that she has a lot to catch up on.
It's not always a feeling though. Criteria for promotion can be all over the place. We've all worked with some idiot with a fancy title.
If you are not getting a fair shake, the solution is sometimes to run away. But you will usually be stuck for emotional or professional reasons (you don't want another short stint in your CV, you don't have the energy to go through a big tech hiring process, etc.)
This kind of contradiction inevitably leads to alienation, then burnout. Many workers will quiet quit instead of quitting for real, because even if they can afford not to work for a while, they still rely on income to progress towards some goal such as buying some property, paying off their student loan, etc.
I have been a quiet quitter before it was a term, but what worked for me was actually the opposite. Every time I have doubled down on some side project with the goal of getting a better gig, it has worked out. I make it clear to my manager I hate some aspects of my work so I would rather focus on others, and it's up to them to make it work. I would rather focus on the right productivity than being anti-productive.
The article (and maybe the book) has a nice message, I guess, but... this is advice for people whose fundamental economic needs are secure and already taken care of.
The vast majority of people on the planet are forced to be "productive" for most of the day so they can just have a few short moments at the end of the day or on a weekend to be "at peace with and bask at merely existing". Because if they didn't the alternative would be starvation of themselves or their loved ones.
This article is all a very "bourgeois" perspective. There are many things us middle class people could do to cut complexity and simplify and live in the moment. But the origin of "the hustle" is frankly just the material reality of every day existence.
It shouldn't really be a surprise that after people get past the brute force problems of not-starving, they run around pushing with the same productive drive elsewhere in their lives and producing needless complexity because it's just part of the fundamental drive that stops you from starving in the first place.
Also once you have kids, "striving for a future that never arrives" is frankly just part of your fundamental being. You will (hopefully) die before your kids or grandkids die. The moment you hold that child in your arms for the first time.. a huge part of you willingly and with deep love begins sacrificing a huge part of your present for a future you will never see.
I love skiing -- among other activities -- because it puts me in this mental space described in this article. But I also see that pursuit of this comes with its own problematic aspects. It is actually super easy to get caught up in the "live the moment", and lose grasp of the obligations that we have to those around us, or to responsibilities that actually bring long-term satisfaction.
I actually think our society has far more of a problem with people pursuing self-satisfying personal fulfillment (at the expense of social responsibility) than it does with people being overproductive.
This. The article alludes to Buddhism, when it comes to living in the moment. But it totally ignored the trap of hedonistic pleasure seeking that goes along with it.
> The message seems old. The entire self-help industry revolves around saying variations of it. Stay in the present. Enjoy the moment. Seize the day.
Plenty of old books too:
Art of War - Choose the right battles to fight.
Meditations - Live in the present moment and focus on what you can control.
Tao Te Ching - Live in harmony with the natural world.
The Bhagavad Gita - Find meaning in your actions even in the face of uncertainty.
The Bible - Make the most of your time on earth.
> Time is a series of nows. In that sense, the future never arrives.
It's a good perspective. Especially if you make the most of the present each day. But if you have nothing to look forward to, how can you really make the most of each day? That's the basic argument here.
Many philosophers believed you need to have a strong vision to make the most of your life. That can be found through one's acceptance of mortality/finitude/purpose/morals/desires/suffering/etc.
>> Many philosophers believed you need to have a strong vision to make the most of your life.
I'd say it's not to make the most of your life, but to make something of it. Having goals or purpose can be separate from the competition for "most". I also find that goals or principles help to make decisions when a course is not clear. Like a tie breaker.
Your summary of the Bible is off base. If you're summarizing the book of Ecclesiastes, you're almost there. Solomon provides a succinct description of the point of the book.
Ecc 8:15 15So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his fntoils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
But also
Ecc 11:8-9 8Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to come will be futility.
9¶Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the fnimpulses of your heart and the fndesires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.
As for the Bible, I'll direct you to the late theologian Chuck Missler.
I'm really productive. So productive, in fact, that I have to slow down for the rest of the team. a lot.
Rather than be frustrated by it, I use the extra time to do things like dig out a flowerbed for my wife (ow), or catch up on streaming stuff.
But I really like coding, and tend to spend free time coding; even though I don't have to.
It makes a huge difference, not having someone breathing down my neck, basically saying "Shut up, bitch. Just go out and make me money!"
I don't have a ton of money, but I have enough. I live frugally (many folks here, would have contempt for my level of living), I can afford good development systems (my toys), and I have a great deal of social interaction.
What if i like work? I like getting things done and the fact that there is infinite work is an opportunity to me. I 100% respect anyone who have other interests, but I like how the work I do have an impact and I want to maximize that impact. Choosing to not engage is a perfectly fine choice, but if one makes that choice one should be aware that one will not have the same impact.
For most people the impact from their work is negative.
The "selling more shit, destroying more environment, make more people obese, putting more ads to make people buy BS to feel something, making everybody lonelier, busier, and more disconected and depressed" kind of impact.
If one's work indeed has a positive impact, say a doctor or a teacher or a nurse or a street cleaner, sure...
Do you like all your work? Or are there things you do at work that you do only because you are obligated to do so?
There's a saying, "Money ruins everything" which in this context is saying that even if you enjoy what you do for money, doing it for money makes it less enjoyable than if you did it for its own sake. When you aren't completely doing something by choice, you end up doing things that you wouldn't do by choice.
I think the internet likes to treat basic human instinct as something profound. At least in the western world, I suspect that at most 1% of people actually over-optimize on productivity. This is different from the 9% of people who try too hard for their employer, which is often it's own form of laziness of sticking with what you're comfortable with.
I love this book. I read it not long after it came out. The authors newsletter can be found on his website (Oliver burkeman), is also a great read.
I love the basic productivity advice that I believe comes from Jung that he quotes, which is basically, figure out something worthwhile to do, go do it and then figure out the next worthwhile thing to do, complete forever. Something simple about that.
Jung points out that this is also a natural way of being, in that sense you are living from your true sense of self as you are deciding what is important moment to moment and actually living your life, rather than trying to make it fit some predetermined idea of what you think it should be.
I'm trying to get more into this mode of thinking / being.
Funny "enough", that quote inspired me to write a book called "Enough." as a double meaning for being fed up with the world and also being satisfied with what you have.
I read this story in Jack Bogle's book called "Enough". I had no idea where I came across these other words until now, but I did use them as a intro page in my book because they were so fitting at the time:
I really do like this story, but there is also a part of me that reacts by thinking "Easy for world-famous novelists Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut to chuckle about they have talent, notoriety, and respect that no amount of money could buy and couldn't have been achieved by chasing wealth. For the rest of us toiling away in the rat race, hedge fund billions sound pretty great!"
Just finished reading this insightful article, and it resonates with my recent experience backpacking through Chile. I've been amazed by the slower pace of life here, where people seem to prioritize relationships, leisure, and hobbies over chasing career goals and constantly striving for efficiency. It's refreshing to see communities that embrace the idea of enjoying the present moment rather than being fixated on a future that never really arrives.
As someone in the tech industry, it's easy to get caught up in the productivity treadmill, trying to maximize every moment of our finite lives. But this article is a stark reminder that there's more to life than just work and chasing success. Instead of focusing solely on efficiency, we should actively choose what truly matters to us, like personal connections, health, and happiness.
Chile has taught me that embracing a slower pace and appreciating the present can lead to a more fulfilling and content life. It's a lesson we can all benefit from, especially in our fast-paced, efficiency-obsessed world. Let's not forget that life is a series of choices, and it's up to us to prioritize what truly matters.
> In an ideal world, such efficient folks like yourself would invest a few hours per day working hard, but then spend the rest of the day in a lazy glory
I detest laziness. There's only so much 'Netflix and Chill' a person can do, and after lazing around, I actually feel drained, rather than energized. You would think that laziness gives you energy, but it saps it instead. I guess this is because we're all human in the end, wired to be productive and working on at least one problem.
I think the author and you might have different understandings of "lazy". If I pursue a hobby for an afternoon with no financial upside (say, building model kits or painting) I might consider that a "lazy Sunday".
I was productive, insofar as I pursued an interest, but I was not productive in the "producing salable work".
I think there's a universe where lazy can mean different things for different people. For some that's lying on the couch, others might read or write or pursue art and music.
YES. I experience the same depletion of energy during “rest”. In fact, lots of down time without productivity (doesn’t have to be work!) leads me to depression. Going back to school and taking a single class has made me feel productive and filled me with pride.. with thought it’s not too impressive. Watching Netflix for hours, or browsing my phone, leads me to a bad outlook of myself and the world.
I think it’s a lot easier to become productive and efficient at work than it is at home (or generally tasks for yourself). Because of the structures built to support it only usually end up in one environment. That imbalance is what I think leads to burnout.
But saying that the solution to productivity is… productivity… is just as bad as telling people to meditate instead of taking time off work. Probably true! But very unhelpful.
All my life I've liked working, learning, doing things, getting stuff done. I really like to make myself useful. I'm also the proverbial guy who, if left in the woods with an axe, will just start chopping trees and build something.
Some consider the emphasis on hard work and striving for its own sake to be less a default or inevitable value as an arbitrary confluence of history and Protestant/Calvinist doctrine.
One of Max Weber's theories is that working ever harder for more material gain once basic needs are met is not a universal part of human nature but more a cultural artifact of a certain time and place.
Not a message usually impressed upon us these days.
Why is dying without regrets the de facto most important thing? You don't take your regrets with you either. If you want to care about something, at least pick something that will last longer than you will.
Indeed... If I don't -- at least temporarily -- regret some things it likely means I didn't put much on the line.
Two kinds of regret: 1. Regret making a mistake. Making mistakes is part of existence and learning. Regret is a natural consequence of messing things up. Moving on from the regret is also part of the learning.
2. Regret for losing something we love, or for loving something we can't have. This can be problematic, if not framed correctly. But also something we learn to move beyond. But it's also, again, part of the richness of a life well lived -- to make or seek attachments and feel regret when they're lost and to constantly re-evaluate. We lost my mother in law to cancer 11 years ago. I often feel regret for not making better moments with her before it ended, and so on. That regret is just part of the nature of having love and attachment in my life. Giving it up would make me a poorer person.
We will potentially all leave this world with a sense of loss or regret. If I didn't, I would worry about what kind of dissociated detachment I was carrying with me.
I don't know, maybe I will live a rich full life and die after I'm just tired of living, with no sense of loss?
I'm an organism that feels both joy and suffering. I try to minimize the latter in favour of the former. But there's no formula to avoiding suffering that doesn't involve joyless detachment. It requires intellectual and emotional effort to analyze and deal with every situation. That's just part of the story.
Shameless plug but I wrote an app[1] with the same idea of anti-productivity in mind. Having read the book, the idea of 4000 weeks in your life can be scary but also inspiring.
This seems to be targeted specifically at people who are extrinsically motivated and do not prioritize family. In my humble opinion that's the worst quadrant of those two variables. But apparently, with how prescient this seems to most commenters, many people actually inhabit that quadrant. Could that really be so?
>If you must work hard and be efficient, consciously pick that work
With this one sentence, the whole dichotomy proposed by the article falls apart. It all depends on what gives your life meaning and what your goals are. If you primarily derive meaning from having experiences with friends and family, then it absolutely makes sense to devalue productivity. If you primarily derive meaning from creating artifacts that will survive for a long time and provide benefit to humanity, then it's hard to see why you shouldn't optimize for productivity.
A lot of the anti-work, anti-productivity discourse seems to revolve around this assumption that some things are more meaningful than others independent of individual preferences. If people really value competence in a certain domain and "getting ahead" is important to them, what ground is there to stand on to say that they're wrong?
> If you primarily derive meaning from creating artifacts that will survive for a long time and provide benefit to humanity, then it's hard to see why you shouldn't optimize for productivity.
You are still devaluing productivity because this is actually an agility problem. Optimizing for productivity doesn't necessarily make you any progress towards creating long lasting artifacts, and instead will draw you into doing infinite work before making any progress on those artifacts
The key is to be agile and ensure that your productivity furthers the things you care about. Your speed towards irrelevant items is irrelevant, but there's an infinite number of irrelevant tasks to complete.
I interpreted the book to be about living intentionally. I don't think the author would say advancing in a field you're passionate about is a bad thing.
[+] [-] xianshou|3 years ago|reply
"Constantly ask yourself why are you working so hard on this damn thing. If the answer is: 'so I can get ahead,' remind yourself that it’s a treadmill and you’ll always stay at the same place, no matter how fast you run."
Note that this isn't merely a statement that the world is unfair, but that it's unfair and any effort you make to deal with it will end in frustration.
I find this fatalism both increasingly common and increasingly odious. The opposite attitude may be irritating - Steinbeck's "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" - but I prefer to reason from agency when there's a decent chance the more empowering view is right. Rather than concluding that everything is a red-queen rat race, why not try to find a corner of the world where you can play a better game?
[+] [-] maxbond|3 years ago|reply
That doesn't mean the idea is good, maybe it's a terrible idea, but you should seek to challenge your thinking on the subject, not protect it and keep it precious.
[+] [-] Last5Digits|3 years ago|reply
If the only reason you work on something is out of a fear of falling behind, then you ought to reevaluate your priorities and, if you deem it necessary, choose a path that seems more fruitful. "Getting ahead" implies judging your life relative to others, based on metrics that are societally accepted, but may be completely misaligned with your actual desires. Spending some time to introspect and to get a grasp on your own idea of a meaningful life can be very beneficial.
I think the treadmill analogy is a reference to the hedonic treadmill, where you may assume that spending oodles of your time pursuing greater wealth or reputation will surely be worth it in the end, but are faced with the reality of feeling the exact same way as before.
[+] [-] sanderjd|3 years ago|reply
Like many or most of us here, I spend a lot of my time around software people. But I just spent a bunch of time this weekend with a group of people for whom music is their way of making money in some way or another; teaching it, playing it, writing it, etc. Something very striking to me is how much different the internal vs. external validation thing is between them and me. These are people who get little external validation, always scraping by with unstable income, struggling for recognition in a crowded field. But they all do it because they just freaking love music, they're excited by the possibilities, and almost always happy when they're playing. On the other hand, most software folks I know are compensated richly externally, but often struggle to find peace and contentment internally.
[+] [-] ebiester|3 years ago|reply
I don't think that's low locus of control at all.
[+] [-] coldtea|3 years ago|reply
You got it backwards. The post specifically encourages the person to take action.
What they describe in that part is what happens when you're caught in that kind of work treadmill. In that case, anything you do within the context of the treadmill isn't going to make any difference. You need to escape/reframe the context.
[+] [-] kamaal|3 years ago|reply
>>Note that this isn't merely a statement that the world is unfair, but that it's unfair and any effort you make to deal with it will end in frustration.
It is also a statement of fact. Working hard on a job that pays a fixed salary is just pointless by definition after a while. Especially in a job that doesn't have overtime. The company has little incentive to reward free work they can get done, and get away with.
>>Rather than concluding that everything is a red-queen rat race, why not try to find a corner of the world where you can play a better game?
Yes. If you absolutely have to work hard, do it in a place that pays you for it.
[+] [-] noveltyaccount|3 years ago|reply
I'm in my forties and have watched a few friends die slowly from cancer, and others die suddenly in car crashes.
During COVID, working from home in my dimly-lit basement during perpetual grey days, doing my bureaucratic middle management job, I kept thinking: I can't die like this.
My wife and I both quit our jobs and are on a sabbatical. It's glorious. Every day is sunny.
Now I'm mid deep contemplation about my next job and how I can find something that motivates me and fills me with happiness even if it's for less money.
Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Don't forget to act on that, everyone.
[+] [-] xgbi|3 years ago|reply
I feel like a lot of people (I'm in there) are dreaming for exactly what your are living right now, but won't EVER be in the position to do it.
I am 36 with about 14 years of software engineering, and I need LOTS_OF_MONEY per month just to finance my mortgage, the school of my children and the basic living expenses that rose about 50% in the last year due to energy and inflation. If my wife and I quit for 3 month, we are out of our saved money and will be losing the house.
[+] [-] ip26|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mkl95|3 years ago|reply
It's not always a feeling though. Criteria for promotion can be all over the place. We've all worked with some idiot with a fancy title.
If you are not getting a fair shake, the solution is sometimes to run away. But you will usually be stuck for emotional or professional reasons (you don't want another short stint in your CV, you don't have the energy to go through a big tech hiring process, etc.)
This kind of contradiction inevitably leads to alienation, then burnout. Many workers will quiet quit instead of quitting for real, because even if they can afford not to work for a while, they still rely on income to progress towards some goal such as buying some property, paying off their student loan, etc.
I have been a quiet quitter before it was a term, but what worked for me was actually the opposite. Every time I have doubled down on some side project with the goal of getting a better gig, it has worked out. I make it clear to my manager I hate some aspects of my work so I would rather focus on others, and it's up to them to make it work. I would rather focus on the right productivity than being anti-productive.
[+] [-] coldtea|3 years ago|reply
And often we were that idiot for others. It's a matter of perspective as everybody tends to think that their farts dont stink
[+] [-] cmrdporcupine|3 years ago|reply
The vast majority of people on the planet are forced to be "productive" for most of the day so they can just have a few short moments at the end of the day or on a weekend to be "at peace with and bask at merely existing". Because if they didn't the alternative would be starvation of themselves or their loved ones.
This article is all a very "bourgeois" perspective. There are many things us middle class people could do to cut complexity and simplify and live in the moment. But the origin of "the hustle" is frankly just the material reality of every day existence.
It shouldn't really be a surprise that after people get past the brute force problems of not-starving, they run around pushing with the same productive drive elsewhere in their lives and producing needless complexity because it's just part of the fundamental drive that stops you from starving in the first place.
Also once you have kids, "striving for a future that never arrives" is frankly just part of your fundamental being. You will (hopefully) die before your kids or grandkids die. The moment you hold that child in your arms for the first time.. a huge part of you willingly and with deep love begins sacrificing a huge part of your present for a future you will never see.
I love skiing -- among other activities -- because it puts me in this mental space described in this article. But I also see that pursuit of this comes with its own problematic aspects. It is actually super easy to get caught up in the "live the moment", and lose grasp of the obligations that we have to those around us, or to responsibilities that actually bring long-term satisfaction.
I actually think our society has far more of a problem with people pursuing self-satisfying personal fulfillment (at the expense of social responsibility) than it does with people being overproductive.
[+] [-] fisf|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leroy-is-here|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thenerdhead|3 years ago|reply
Plenty of old books too:
Art of War - Choose the right battles to fight.
Meditations - Live in the present moment and focus on what you can control.
Tao Te Ching - Live in harmony with the natural world.
The Bhagavad Gita - Find meaning in your actions even in the face of uncertainty.
The Bible - Make the most of your time on earth.
> Time is a series of nows. In that sense, the future never arrives.
It's a good perspective. Especially if you make the most of the present each day. But if you have nothing to look forward to, how can you really make the most of each day? That's the basic argument here.
Many philosophers believed you need to have a strong vision to make the most of your life. That can be found through one's acceptance of mortality/finitude/purpose/morals/desires/suffering/etc.
[+] [-] phkahler|3 years ago|reply
I'd say it's not to make the most of your life, but to make something of it. Having goals or purpose can be separate from the competition for "most". I also find that goals or principles help to make decisions when a course is not clear. Like a tie breaker.
[+] [-] all2|3 years ago|reply
Ecc 8:15 15So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his fntoils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
But also
Ecc 11:8-9 8Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to come will be futility. 9¶Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the fnimpulses of your heart and the fndesires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.
As for the Bible, I'll direct you to the late theologian Chuck Missler.
[+] [-] ChrisMarshallNY|3 years ago|reply
I'm really productive. So productive, in fact, that I have to slow down for the rest of the team. a lot.
Rather than be frustrated by it, I use the extra time to do things like dig out a flowerbed for my wife (ow), or catch up on streaming stuff.
But I really like coding, and tend to spend free time coding; even though I don't have to.
It makes a huge difference, not having someone breathing down my neck, basically saying "Shut up, bitch. Just go out and make me money!"
I don't have a ton of money, but I have enough. I live frugally (many folks here, would have contempt for my level of living), I can afford good development systems (my toys), and I have a great deal of social interaction.
[+] [-] navierstokess|3 years ago|reply
Please teach us mere mortals how to be as productive as you are.
[+] [-] mewpmewp2|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] quelsolaar|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coldtea|3 years ago|reply
The "selling more shit, destroying more environment, make more people obese, putting more ads to make people buy BS to feel something, making everybody lonelier, busier, and more disconected and depressed" kind of impact.
If one's work indeed has a positive impact, say a doctor or a teacher or a nurse or a street cleaner, sure...
[+] [-] kerkeslager|3 years ago|reply
There's a saying, "Money ruins everything" which in this context is saying that even if you enjoy what you do for money, doing it for money makes it less enjoyable than if you did it for its own sake. When you aren't completely doing something by choice, you end up doing things that you wouldn't do by choice.
[+] [-] wahnfrieden|3 years ago|reply
What I described is nearly all work as it exists today. I don’t think most people drown from sipping water
[+] [-] klabb3|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Aunche|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChildOfChaos|3 years ago|reply
I love the basic productivity advice that I believe comes from Jung that he quotes, which is basically, figure out something worthwhile to do, go do it and then figure out the next worthwhile thing to do, complete forever. Something simple about that.
Jung points out that this is also a natural way of being, in that sense you are living from your true sense of self as you are deciding what is important moment to moment and actually living your life, rather than trying to make it fit some predetermined idea of what you think it should be.
I'm trying to get more into this mode of thinking / being.
[+] [-] AlbertCory|3 years ago|reply
https://narendragoidani.medium.com/but-i-have-something-he-w...
[+] [-] thenerdhead|3 years ago|reply
I read this story in Jack Bogle's book called "Enough". I had no idea where I came across these other words until now, but I did use them as a intro page in my book because they were so fitting at the time:
Enough — What an eloquent word.
Enough — What a potent word.
Enough — An underused word, maybe.
Thanks for sharing.
[+] [-] rustybelt|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vuciv1|3 years ago|reply
As someone in the tech industry, it's easy to get caught up in the productivity treadmill, trying to maximize every moment of our finite lives. But this article is a stark reminder that there's more to life than just work and chasing success. Instead of focusing solely on efficiency, we should actively choose what truly matters to us, like personal connections, health, and happiness.
Chile has taught me that embracing a slower pace and appreciating the present can lead to a more fulfilling and content life. It's a lesson we can all benefit from, especially in our fast-paced, efficiency-obsessed world. Let's not forget that life is a series of choices, and it's up to us to prioritize what truly matters.
[+] [-] coxomb|3 years ago|reply
I detest laziness. There's only so much 'Netflix and Chill' a person can do, and after lazing around, I actually feel drained, rather than energized. You would think that laziness gives you energy, but it saps it instead. I guess this is because we're all human in the end, wired to be productive and working on at least one problem.
[+] [-] EngManagerIsMe|3 years ago|reply
I was productive, insofar as I pursued an interest, but I was not productive in the "producing salable work".
I think there's a universe where lazy can mean different things for different people. For some that's lying on the couch, others might read or write or pursue art and music.
[+] [-] StrawWoman|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pitched|3 years ago|reply
But saying that the solution to productivity is… productivity… is just as bad as telling people to meditate instead of taking time off work. Probably true! But very unhelpful.
[+] [-] SMAAART|3 years ago|reply
Living a simple, minimalist or quasi-minimalist life, devoid from consumerism can increase one's quality of life by an order of magnitude.
[+] [-] raarts|3 years ago|reply
Efficiency is good for me. I can do more.
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] zanderz|3 years ago|reply
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic
One of Max Weber's theories is that working ever harder for more material gain once basic needs are met is not a universal part of human nature but more a cultural artifact of a certain time and place.
Not a message usually impressed upon us these days.
[+] [-] ouid|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cmrdporcupine|3 years ago|reply
Two kinds of regret: 1. Regret making a mistake. Making mistakes is part of existence and learning. Regret is a natural consequence of messing things up. Moving on from the regret is also part of the learning.
2. Regret for losing something we love, or for loving something we can't have. This can be problematic, if not framed correctly. But also something we learn to move beyond. But it's also, again, part of the richness of a life well lived -- to make or seek attachments and feel regret when they're lost and to constantly re-evaluate. We lost my mother in law to cancer 11 years ago. I often feel regret for not making better moments with her before it ended, and so on. That regret is just part of the nature of having love and attachment in my life. Giving it up would make me a poorer person.
We will potentially all leave this world with a sense of loss or regret. If I didn't, I would worry about what kind of dissociated detachment I was carrying with me.
I don't know, maybe I will live a rich full life and die after I'm just tired of living, with no sense of loss?
I'm an organism that feels both joy and suffering. I try to minimize the latter in favour of the former. But there's no formula to avoiding suffering that doesn't involve joyless detachment. It requires intellectual and emotional effort to analyze and deal with every situation. That's just part of the story.
[+] [-] alexp|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ClumsyPilot|3 years ago|reply
Children?
[+] [-] rnmp|3 years ago|reply
[1]: https://www.bleep.is/blog/why-i-made-an-anti-productivity-ap...
[+] [-] mkoubaa|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fasterik|3 years ago|reply
With this one sentence, the whole dichotomy proposed by the article falls apart. It all depends on what gives your life meaning and what your goals are. If you primarily derive meaning from having experiences with friends and family, then it absolutely makes sense to devalue productivity. If you primarily derive meaning from creating artifacts that will survive for a long time and provide benefit to humanity, then it's hard to see why you shouldn't optimize for productivity.
A lot of the anti-work, anti-productivity discourse seems to revolve around this assumption that some things are more meaningful than others independent of individual preferences. If people really value competence in a certain domain and "getting ahead" is important to them, what ground is there to stand on to say that they're wrong?
[+] [-] 8note|3 years ago|reply
You are still devaluing productivity because this is actually an agility problem. Optimizing for productivity doesn't necessarily make you any progress towards creating long lasting artifacts, and instead will draw you into doing infinite work before making any progress on those artifacts
The key is to be agile and ensure that your productivity furthers the things you care about. Your speed towards irrelevant items is irrelevant, but there's an infinite number of irrelevant tasks to complete.
[+] [-] potatoman22|3 years ago|reply