
Do whatever you can't stop thinking about - a7b3fa
https://shime.sh/do-whatever-you-can%27t-stop-thinking-about
======
deepGem
Being totally honest here. I don't find any work that I totally can't stop
thinking about. There is always something that I need to get done that I don't
relish, that I don't enjoy.

Here's how it goes - there's an idea that you think is really nice, you start
talking to people then you are hit with reality - no one gives a shit about
your idea. Some do, but most of them are like meh. There comes the first punch
and you either think they are all dumb or ascribe some positivity to what
others are saying and start talking to more people or start working on a
prototype. Then you realize you have to build a front end. Welcome to front
end hell. You have no fucking clue how CSS has evolved over the last 6 months.
The npm package you thought was useful is now outdated or not maintained. So
by now you are more or less exhausted. What started as a fabulous idea in the
head has now boiled down to 'shit let me get done with this CSS crap and move
on'. At this time, I don't even want to think about CSS, let alone HTML. Rinse
and repeat this until you find success.

At least, this has been my experience.

~~~
technothrasher
It sounds like you're too goal oriented. Leisure activities can be simply
about enjoying the activity and don't have to lead to anything. If you like to
work on an idea, work on it. When you're annoyed by having to put a front end
on it, just don't. You've played with your ideas, you've hopefully learned
something and enjoyed passing the time. Now you are free to drop it like a hot
potato and move on.

I spend my work time on embedded engineering. I like it well enough, but it's
stressful because there are goals to be met and drudge work to be done. But I
spend my free time working on classic sports cars. I fix what I want on the
car and if I'm tired of it, I just get rid of it and move on to something
else. No goal, no stress, just enjoyment.

~~~
jlelonm
Not who you replied to, but you described me to a T.

Problem is - I have no idea what to do about it.

It's so hard to do anything fun in my free time because the moment I think
about doing / starting something, goal oriented t thoughts follow, which means
stress follows.

I wish I could just go into "kick the can" mode whenever I wanted and turn off
the part of my brain that wants to see results, progress, and checkmarks.

~~~
CptFribble
It takes practice like anything else, but one trick I found is to pick
something that you definitely won't ever want to make money or a career from.

Maybe you have absolutely no desire to be a painter or artist. Pick up a
pencil and just doodle for 30 minutes. Get some cheap paint and a small canvas
on your way home from work and just spend an hour going for it.

Maybe you've always wanted to try fencing. Find a place and take a couple
classes just to see what it's like.

I'm also like that, anything I start as a side project almost immediately
becomes "if I don't change the world with this, why am I wasting my time?" So
I had to start doing things that I know will never amount to anything, and
specifically tell myself "This will never matter." When you can accept that
you're spending a little time on something that's just for its own sake, then
you've done it - you're experiencing an honest-to-goodness leisure activity.

~~~
9588
i created and abandoned a project gathering developers not to do anything.
people odly understood :) there was going to be a yearly newsletter that was
never send out and participants were free to do other equally unimportant
things together using the name of the org (that was never picked) overal it
was a hilarious experience. most of the work was in assuring people they would
not be contacted for anything.

------
ulisesrmzroche
More productivity porn. War on leisure! Only this one particularly bad because
it’s trying to say “no pain no gain” is a lie. That if the gains come with
pain, the gains must not be worth it

He’s not strong enough to squeeze the orange (rails contributor life perks) so
the juice must not be worth squeezing

Basically, that hard work ain’t worth it. Fun Uber Alles

But it’s like, the process of building a sexy body is not easy or fun. It’s
gonna be at least a year, maybe more, till ppl start wondering what you look
like shirtless. you’re telling us the Payoff isn’t worth it?

Becoming a rails contributor was a worthy goal, no one said it would be fun.
plus, what about when your personal project gets bigger, you don’t like
maintenance work? You can’t be a developer. Developers maintain software.
Youre going to work on toy software and tutorials all your life?

You should enjoy your leisure time and you should not shy away from hard work
and you should take care of your health above everything else. This guy even
dropped a humblebrag about neglecting his personal life.

Some rich ppl wake up early. That had nothing to do with their success. Hard
work doesn’t determine success either.

Basically what I’m trying to say is feeling productive will not guarantee
success. Productivity is the new prayer

~~~
eshyong
Except that's the opposite of what he's saying. Instead of valuing feeling
productive, he now values feeling energetic and excited every day. I think you
may have missed that part.

Not everyone wants to get swole or be a rails core maintainer.

~~~
ulisesrmzroche
He did want to be a rails maintainer. Did you miss that part?He wasn’t willing
to do the work for it. So where’s the lesson? What are we applauding?

Changing goal posts is cheating yourself. Self discipline a sin now?

It’s the American stigma of failure, deeply flawed national trait

The argument is that hard work saps energy and can damage your self esteem so
therefore it’s evil. No matter the benefits, they’re not worth it if they
don’t come easy.

This is like bizarro Silicon Valley

~~~
jakemal
No he didn't want to be a Rails maintainer. He wanted the improved job
prospects of being a Rails maintainer but didn't have real interest in
developing the product itself.

~~~
eshyong
Yep that's what I took away from it too.

------
tenaciousDaniel
My problem is that I get excited about different things with far too much
frequency.

This past week I've become obsessed with a video game idea. The week before I
was obsessed with a design app that I'm working on.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I do that too. The top slot in my mind flips between ideas on a weekly basis.
Last week it was a videogame. This week it's worldbuilding. Next week it might
be something for the job, or it might be an Emacs mode, or who knows.

One thing I've noticed though - regardless of whether or not I do something
about my current top most exciting thing, these things _come back_. The same
videogame idea has been visiting me regularly for the past six months. This
means that even if I lose steam after a few days of working on something, it's
not work lost - I'll probably resume it for a bit a few weeks or months down
the line.

On top of that, I've learned to not consider any hard intellectual work as
wasted. Things I've researched for random harebrained ideas I later flaked on
often find a way to become useful in my dayjob, or a different harebrained
idea.

~~~
zhdc1
The last point needs to really be emphasized. I've had a couple of pretty
major career breakthroughs over the last year simply because stuff I worked on
in the past suddenly became relevant to my research.

I've also noticed that I become a lot more committed to a project when I bring
other people on board.

~~~
weaksauce
a lot of the things you do aren't useful in and of themselves but lead to new
opportunities as you expand your skillset.

------
surfsvammel
“Because every minute spent doing something other than what you love most
today is a minute you’re more likely to regret when you’re 80.”

I think the opposite is true. Most things that I hated doing when I was 20,
I’m today at 49 happy that I did. Workout, do the homework, even my military
service. Many things I loved doing in the moment, play video games all through
university, for example, I’m not so sure about.

~~~
qplex
I'm absolutely glad that I did things _my way_ instead of succumbing to some
general false conceptions of "doing the right thing".

This includes things like skipping military service and basically living as an
outlaw for many years because of that.

I've also played a lot of video games and consider that time well spent.

------
BossingAround
Seems like the author did X one time, and he felt great about it, so he
decided to write an article about the life-changing experience of X. It might
be true, but from only one data point, can you really say?

> I wasn’t tired, I was excited afterwards. I've neglected my other habits
> because of it.

Let's see how you feel after cranking out your 10th side project after working
8-hour-or-more days. Who knows, you might absolutely _love_ it, and decide to
start a second business while working.

You might also discover that your partner is starting to feel neglected, your
apartment is a mess, and you have gained 10 pounds, because exercise is not
what you love.

Either way, I would not recommend the approach described in the article.

------
Dansvidania
What a simplistic way to put things in.

You need to do a lot of things you do not love before you have the skills, the
vision and the attitude to actually do what you love, and accomplish the goals
you want to accomplish...

As a millennial, I think this kind of attitude is the problem with our
generation. I mean both simplifying things into instagram-quote-sized senteces
like "always do what you love" and also convincing ourselves that if you are
not doing what you love, you should be doing something else.

Maybe we should focus more on how to be able to still motivate one-self to do
things you do not love so much, but that are necessary.

Often, things that I really do not want to do are necessary for me to achieve
things I really want to achieve.

Articles like this, and the beliefs they seems to want to propagate, are
probably a big source of depression and failure in young adults (and not so
young adults) these days.

~~~
LoveMortuus
The following quote helped me a lot: "The professional knows that the mundane
physical act of sitting down and starting to work, sets in motion a mysterious
process that produces inspiration.

The amateur waits for inspiration, the professional knows that it will come
after he starts.

The professional therefore acts in the face of fear, when the amateur fears a
big creative endeavor he waits for the fear to disappear, the professional
knows this will never happen and starts anyway."

Basically, what it says is that you'll never feel like doing something that
you don't want to do, and that's exactly the reason why you should just start
doing and get it over with. That's my opinion

~~~
ellius
"The War of Art," if anyone needs a source.

~~~
jolmg
Thanks for that. Could you help me with something? I'm reading the foreword of
that book right now from Amazon's preview, and it says that it's the 1st of a
set of 3 books. I found the 2nd, "Turning Pro", on Amazon, but I can't find
the 3rd, "The Higher Realm". Was that book renamed to something else after the
foreword was written, or has it still not been published, or what could have
happened to it? Do you know anything about that?

EDIT: Hmmm... On checking the foreword again, I see it says that book one is
actually "Defining the Enemy". I'm starting to think that these 3 "books" are
actually sections of the physical book. I guess the physical book "Turning
Pro" of the same author might be completely unrelated to the equally named
book two the foreword mentions. That's pretty confusing if true.

~~~
beardbound
I have that book on kindle and just checked the contents. You’re correct. The
book is split into three sections called books.

------
pdimitar
Gosh, the dismissiveness of the average HN comment in this thread! I am
surprised.

Whatever you might think of the author's age or number of data points or
whatever other platform you choose to berate him on, he still has a very solid
argument: there are things that simply exhaust you when you are doing them.
That's a fact.

Haven't you all ever experienced this?

And no, I never grew to like doing the dishes or cleaning the apartment. At
40, I still need some good music and a hole in the schedule of both me and my
wife for us to actually not grind our teeth while doing it. So yeah, please
only talk for yourself, guys.

~~~
tluyben2
> I am surprised.

I think this all turns to reddit (the comments are very much Reddit like)
because this is the 20billionth article about 'following you passion'
basically. And this title really seems to annoy people who have seen it all
before; most people cannot just drop everything and do whatever. No matter if
you are thinking 24/7 about playing in a bluesband; most (by far and wide)
people cannot and will never be able to do that unless they win the lottery.
And then you have all the negative thoughts; the anxiety attacks and the
cravings that you really should not give into... It is all not so surprising
response wise, but I thought it would just drop out and be dead before this
went so much Reddit. That usually does not happen.

~~~
pdimitar
> _I think this all turns to reddit (the comments are very much Reddit like)
> because this is the 20billionth article about 'following you passion'
> basically._

Sure, I get that, but this bring the nuance of the point of view of a working
programmer.

For a long time I had a hustling voice inside me that was very toxic and
insisted on me working on things it thought were useful but I hated doing
(sadly I was used to hate doing everything in my life back then so I couldn't
tune out the noise and pinpoint any particular problem). Took me like 10 years
until I finally said "f that crap" and just started working on whatever I
found interesting. Almost immediately, I felt better (even with a health
condition that I now have to actively fight to cure).

So okay, we've all seen such posts and maybe we grew cynical about it but
anything that adds a bit of a further nuance might help others reduce the
toxicity in their lives by at least commanding some happiness in their leisure
time.

> _And this title really seems to annoy people who have seen it all before;
> most people cannot just drop everything and do whatever. No matter if you
> are thinking 24 /7 about playing in a bluesband; most (by far and wide)
> people cannot and will never be able to do that unless they win the
> lottery._

Not many have the chance to make a U-turn late in their careers, true. The
eternal pessimism and cynicism don't help as well though; and they might even
set your brain up on a path where it doesn't actively look for opportunities
to give you a better life. Depression in general desensitizes you so if you
can avoid that you're already ahead compared to many.

> _And then you have all the negative thoughts; the anxiety attacks and the
> cravings that you really should not give into..._

Here I can agree (if I got you correctly) -- giving in to fantasies is very
toxic and makes your landing back in reality extremely painful. But we
shouldn't cut it off entirely; some day-dreaming helps us push forward.

------
speedgoose
It's a terrible title for people who can't stop thinking about bad things,
such as suicide or smoking as mentioned by other in this thread.

~~~
teekert
Yeah, whenever I get this advice I always answer (stole from some comedian):
Great! But where do I get a Camel, a Midget and a Clowns-costume?

------
jotakami
I used to constantly read articles like this about how to get motivated to do
all sorts of things I thought I needed to do. Then I was diagnosed with ADHD
and found a suitable medication.

------
jsjddbbwj
When you're quitting smoking, that's exactly what you have to do: light a
cigarette!

------
a7b3fa
I found this article really useful. It's important to note that the author is
explicitly talking about what you do in your leisure time, not what you do for
work.

I have often found myself trying to start side-projects that I didn't really
care about, because I had some abstract, perhaps irrational idea that I
"should" be working on this particular thing. Usually it's something that will
teach me a new skill.

Recently, I've gotten a lot better about evaluating whether or not something
is worth doing in my free time, but I still don't really have a good criterion
for when I should pick one thing over another: When should I spend my free
time learning about X, and when should I learn about Y instead?

One suggestion may be to pick whatever is the most useful or the most likely
to help you earn money in the future, and indeed this is more or less the rule
I have been using in the past.

I posted this article because I thought it gave some remarkably actionable
advice for picking between different side-projects, namely:

> _The basic idea of personal energy management is that you should focus on
> increasing your personal energy and lifting up your mood in your leisure
> time, instead of working on things that drain your personal energy. Hobbies
> should lift your mood, not drain you. This makes you better perform all the
> other tasks._

This is a different outlook from what you usually hear, but it makes a lot of
sense to me when presented in those terms.

------
danschumann
Caveats being: every inspiring side project eventually becomes the draining
monsters that cause us to find new side projects. The true key to happiness is
to constantly pursue it, because there is no key, there is only chase. Sure,
spend time on inspiring things, but also be able to sit down with a check list
and do stuff you've been putting off, and be able to take a project from
inspiration build out, to checklist maintenance, in good spirits.

------
saagarjha
This ends up becoming “work on small side projects and distractions all the
time, to the detriment of everything else” for me.

~~~
js4
Nothing wrong with that.

~~~
saagarjha
I have responsibilities :( Thank goodness I don’t have a full-time job at the
moment, but I’m fearful of what I’ll do once I get one…

------
dm319
This caused me a brief moment of reflection. I realised I can't stop thinking
about riding my motorbike and trying to have sex with someone.

~~~
maneesh
Like...at the same time?

~~~
dm319
Oh no. I blame you for this.

------
mlthoughts2018
The only thing I think about is leisure time, vacation, indefinite amount of
time in front of me with no obligations, commitments, or constraints to
acquire resources that meet my biological, psychological or social needs.

Any behavior that I engage in that has productivity as a side effect that I
rely on, ie to be paid money or to retrieve food or to nurture relationships,
even if that productivity is not a conscious focus or stress, is inherently
upsetting and painful to me.

If I had complete financial and commitment freedom, I literally would not do
anything (and that sounds amazing). I know myself well and have introspected
on it very much, and truly I would not do anything if I could. I would just
sit there like a bump on a log and watch nature. I would not spend time with
people. I would not busy my mind on any kind of puzzle or reductionist
exploration of nature or myself. I would just sit there for years and years
and years. That’s all I want to do.

------
seattle_spring
"Doing what you can't stop thinking about" is exactly the reason we have
unemployable 25 year olds with $275k in student loan debt from private art
schools.

------
deltaveedaddy
Yall, let's be real.

Realizing your dream into reality will entail hundreds if not thousands of
hours of suffering, in some form or another. It will cost you, there ain't
nothing coming to just drop your dream lifestyle into your lap. Even if you
have skin in the game, you will lose battles and you'll be forced to remember
the war, you'll be tested boundlessly, endlessly.

That being said, whatever you are fixated on, that may be a good place to
discover what direction to work in. If you dream of writing a groundbreaking
video game, I can promise you that you'll spend a lot of time coding it all,
but you must also consider your rent, your car note, your family, etc.

It ain't simple, but you CAN dream your dream. And if you feel, you SHOULD.

------
lazyant
"I decided to work on a side project last weekend." not to be an idiot but
author should wait a few months before writing any strong conclusions; if he's
anything like me he may get bored of the side project in a few weeks. There's
nothing wrong with that, we had our fun and learnt stuff but this "follow your
passion" theme is framed the wrong way imho.

------
dorkwood
This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I think there's a
distinction between "do whatever you can't stop thinking about", which I
believe to be good advice, and "find your passion", which I believe to be
well-meaning but ultimately misleading advice.

Something like "find your passion" implies that you have a single passion
hidden away inside you that you need to unearth. Once you find that thing --
knitting, sailing, whatever it is -- then you can do that activity for the
rest of your life and be happy. This, in my experience, is wrong.

If rather than searching for your passion you instead focus on following your
curiosity, you give yourself permission to play. This may end up leading you
from domain to domain, but you'll find yourself energised and intrinsically
motivated to do the work. This is the feeling I personally try to cultivate.
It lifted me out of a depression 10 years ago and has seen me grow my skill
set considerably since then.

I think the problem with this generation is not that they don't want to do
hard things, but that they've lost touch with what they're even curious about.

------
xwdv
Everyone is going to be shit talking this article because it’s just so
horrible and bad advice, so here’s my two cents:

A mind shouldn’t be what controls your life, because really your mind isn’t
you. Your mind is mostly noise and chatter and sometimes we observe that and
think we must do what our mind says, but it’s not true. We must do what we
must.

The way to live is to discipline yourself to do the things that must be done.
This requires pulling in context from the world and people around you. You
know what you have to do, so _do it_ , and lay down whatever excuses or
distractions your mind is thinking about. Let instincts and intuition guide
you, not “thoughts”. They are not the same thing. Iron sharpens iron.

I didn’t think much about this post, I just posted it because I knew I had to,
so I did, and now I will probably never think of it again. That’s how it is.

------
coolyd
I love this. Reminds me of other articles about "flow" when you are so engaged
you lose track of time.

This happens for me when solving hard problems. I can't stop thinking about it
and work from the moment I wake up to when I go to bed. It looks like hard
work, but it's energizing.

~~~
BossingAround
I like what Uncle Bob said about "the flow" (or "the zone"):

> Here’s a little hint from someone whose been there and back: Avoid the Zone.
> This state of consciousness is not really hyper-productive and is certainly
> not infallible. It’s really just a mild meditative state in which certain
> rational faculties are diminished in favor of a sense of speed.

~~~
rtkaratekid
I mean this is true. But it does feel good to be in flow and it’s undeniable
that if engaged in physical activity it’s beneficial.

------
teekert
My problem is that I get excited about my current job (at a very large
company). I'd love to do my current job, but my way. Open source part of the
work, run Linux on my development machine, focus more on the tech, less on the
market analyses (we did them but management is not buying in, while I am a
firm believer myself). I love to build my own front end, with modern
technologies. Too bad the company does not appreciate side projects that
potentially compete with them. I understand it of course, I have 0 risk and
get to do what I like and they pay me quite well. Sadly I can't afford risk
right now. I'd love to start working 80% and spend 10-20% doing it fully my
way, and alone, at least at the start.

~~~
js4
How can you reduce risk?

~~~
teekert
Find a job with steady contract that does not mind side-projects? I've tried.
It's not easy. But I have my eyes open ;)

------
p0nce
Alternative: stop thinking about what you can't do

------
z3t4
When I must work on something I dont want to do its like the solution to all
world problems reviel themselves. My brain goes like this: Should I cure HIV
and cancer, build a FTL and anti-gravity engine, or should I do this thing I
dont want to.

------
leonroy
I obsess about some real nonsense, from buying a Leica to moving to San
Francisco and building a startup there. I mean sure, they're not impossible
but they take money, planning and no small amount of sacrifice.

Maybe it should be do whatever you're most scared of. Obviously if it's
driving across Syria might want to give that one a miss but I mean more if
it's public speaking attend a Toastmasters, if it's job interviewing stick
your CV up on Hired and attend at least one interview, if it's selling do some
prospecting on LinkedIn or it could be that hairy bug on your backlog which
you keep putting off.

------
simonblack
That _sounds_ like it might be a good philosophy, except that it runs afoul of
our normal, day-to-day living and the social mores we live amongst.

What if you can't stop thinking about 'that tall, slim blonde from
Accounting'? The #me-too crowd will have something to say to you if you decide
to go and 'do' her.

What if you can't stop thinking about how to commit the perfect murder? Same
problem. The cops would soon have a few questions for you.

Note that the two examples I have given you above are also perfect examples of
'side projects' and have nothing to do with your day-to-day job. <grin>

------
pansa2
> Never work on anything you would regret looking back on your deathbed and
> spend as much time you can on doing whatever you can’t stop thinking about.

What if the thing “you can’t stop thinking about” would lead to regret later?

In my case, the project I really want to do right now is to start a blog and
write about video games. But, I worry if I look back on this time later, I
will regret spending time writing about what others have built when I could
have been building something myself.

So, I’m trying to balance my time between the writing, and also a programming
project that isn’t as enjoyable, but which will hopefully be more fulfilling
long-term.

------
frfl
If the author is reading this, please make your font higher contrast (darker
color), it's barely readable in good lighting conditions

~~~
overcast
11am, plenty of natural light, and a calibrated desktop monitor. Looks
completely readable here.

~~~
frfl
Yes, but not everyone has perfect eyesight and perfect monitors or perfect
lighting conditions. Thin font, plus a 5:1 contrast ratio (text #606f7b to
white bg) isn't ideal for reading.

Original vs higher contrast, objectively, one is easier to read
[https://i.imgur.com/kDMPhfx.png](https://i.imgur.com/kDMPhfx.png)

~~~
overcast
Strange, mine looks like the one on the right, except a shade darker and
without the horrible aliasing. That one on the left looks like your display
has the brightness maxed out. I agree people should be more conscious of
typography legibility, but what you're seeing on the left looks like there is
something wrong with your display. Viewing on my iPhone 11 Pro is crisp and
dark as well.

~~~
frfl
Interesting.

But that image I've attached is a software screenshot, not a picture of my
screen, so calibration should have no effect when you view it on your screen.

Maybe it's just superior macos/ios having font/color rendering and not the
display itself.

Edit: Opened it up on Android, it's better there than pc for sure. Might just
be font rendering on on system that's crap.

~~~
overcast
Yes, Windows font rendering is famously bad compared to MacOS. Though the
color should not be affected like that.

------
beamatronic
I can’t stop thinking about Coronavirus

------
drbojingle
I get where the author is coming from but it's a message that can easily be
said wrong. I don't obsessive people, drug users, impulsive people or people
with anger issues should do whatever they can't stop thinking about.

------
bravoetch
How about learn to manage your mind so that your life is enriched from within.

------
AzzieElbab
Most people can't stop thinking about instant gratification of some form

~~~
zhdc1
This is a good point. One thing that has helped me is removing other sources
of instant gratification, such as social media and television, that condition
me to expect an instantaneous high whenever I do something.

------
tuckerpo
I constantly think about taking a 6 month sabbatical and writing a game engine
or hobbyist OS for fun, but it seems unrealistic financially.

------
mateuszf
Suicide?

------
HellDunkel
To start doing what you can‘t stop thinking about is play. To finish all the
things involved that you hate to do is work.

------
agentultra
I wish more people, ultimately everyone, was privileged enough to think like
this and act on it. If I didn’t need to provide for a family I’d probably
study pure mathematics and work on developer tools for writing, checking, and
proving mathematical models of software systems. I would probably also read a
lot more and spend a year or two now and again writing. Or I might spend it
becoming a cabinet maker and getting better at fiddle so I can join the jam
down at the pub.

However modern capitalism isn’t structured in a way that enables most people
to think this way. Many people don’t have time outside of work to think of
anything but their dependents and getting enough sleep. Many more have it much
worse: working in Bataou or in a Foxconn factory; any hope of a life writing
the next great novel or chasing proofs is not even a possibility.

If you do have the privilege though: use it as much as you can. We never know
where the next breakthrough comes from. And maybe think about the layers of
people, processes, and externalities that have come together to put you where
you are.

~~~
m463
That reminds me of the opening to The Great Gatsby...

 _In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I
've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that
all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."_

------
tiborsaas
Great advice, but I'm hesitant to enter the adult entertainment business yet
:)

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mikestew
The author is quoting someone else: _“Because every minute spent doing
something other than what you love most today is a minute you’re more likely
to regret when you’re 80.”_

Depending on how literally one takes that, you’re going to be one sorry
motherfucker when you’re old. I _like_ taking a shit, but I don’t love it. But
I gotta do it, my Yelp review on “taking a shit” notwithstanding.

Personally, I quit being so spoiled that every moment must be filled with
things I “love” and have a “passion” for. Oh, I pursue those things. But I’ve
also learned to love the mundane. There’s more to washing dishes than you
think.

But enough shit talking the post, the take away stands: if you’re not being
paid, select your activities carefully. I would add that one select from those
one is willing to commit to, if only for a little bit. Keeps you from being
flakey: “do not love, next!”

~~~
Wowfunhappy
> But I’ve also learned to love the mundane. There’s more to washing dishes
> than you think.

When I was looking for an entry-level New York studio apartment four years
ago, one thing I absolutely insisted on having was a dishwasher. Screw the
overall size of the kitchen or the square footage of the apartment, or even
whether I had a stove or an oven—I needed a _dishwasher_ god damn it!

My parents and a lot of my friends told me I was being silly. Washing dishes
doesn't take that long, they said, and dishwashers take up a lot of space
you'll want to have in a tiny kitchen.

Every day when I use my dishwasher, I'm glad I didn't listen to them. I _do_
have exceedingly little space in my kitchen, but I don't mind, as long as I
don't have to wash dishes.

My point here is, there's a lot of ways to cut down on mundane tasks, and it's
really worth prioritizing that effort over other concerns.

~~~
jfkebwjsbx
Washing dishes takes no time.

If you were single, it definitely takes less time than putting and maintaining
the diskwasher.

~~~
danShumway
Really?

Because I'm single, and I've done both, and the dishwasher is very clearly
easier and faster to me. Maybe you have a secret dishwashing technique that I
don't know?

A decent dishwasher doesn't require much maintenance at all. And the very,
very little that it does is generally a more interesting use of time than
washing dishes is anyway. But I started using dishwashers maybe 5-6 years ago,
and I can count on one hand the number of times I've needed to mess around
with fixing one.

~~~
leetcrew
I'm single, and the only problem I have with dishwashers is that it takes
about a week for me to actually fill it with dirty dishes. by that time, there
tends to be a gross smell whenever I open the door. I also have only one of
certain utensils that I need to use more than once a week. I know dishwashers
are pretty efficient and it's probably less wasteful to just run a half full
load than to clean plates by hand, but I have an irrational opposition to
doing this.

~~~
Wowfunhappy
Yeah, you need to just go ahead and run the dishwasher.

You're not being wasteful: when the dishwasher is full, it doesn't work as
well. Which means you need to pre-rinse dishes, which wastes water versus just
running the dishwasher more often.

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droithomme
_> Do whatever you can't stop thinking about_

Hm, so that means I should live in an underground bunker with filtered air,
hydroponics, and a decade long cache of provisions until the pandemic passes.

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HugoDaniel
Boobs ?

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spurdoman77
So, cocaine, hookers and booze?

~~~
tus88
But only in that order :D

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omeysalvi
So... premeditated murder?

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purple-again
Suicide...thanks for the daily push to do it. Not today.

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clouddrover
I try. Regrettably, my wife very much can stop thinking about sex. It's like a
superpower.

