
Productivity Porn - gandalfgeek
http://blog.vivekhaldar.com/post/28465017852/productivity-porn
======
Jun8
The danger of the idea posted here is that (i) it sounds very logical and
authentic and (ii) it's _sort of_ true. The idea that "If you really deeply
care about something, you will do it" is such a simplification that it borders
on misleading.

A typical example is literature. Check out Bukowski's "air and light and time
and space" ([http://hellopoetry.com/poem/air-and-light-and-time-and-
space...](http://hellopoetry.com/poem/air-and-light-and-time-and-space/)):
I've always loved this poem for explaining succinctly (and artfully) the
problem with general procrastination and excuse making:

    
    
      ...
    
      you're going to create with part of your mind and your
      body blown
      away,
      you're going to create blind
      crippled
      demented,
      you're going to create with a cat crawling up your
      back while
      the whole city trembles in earthquakes, bombardment,
      flood and fire.
      baby, air and light and time and space
      have nothing to do with it
      and don't create anything
      except maybe a longer life to find
      new excuses
      for.
    

This definitely has the ring of truth. But in reality neither novelists and
ports work this way. Many writers concede that an important part of the trade
is teaching yourself the discipline to write N pages a day (google "writer
discipline", you'll be amazed, these guys work harder than coders!)

So let me rephrase: Choosing _what_ to do, e.g. coding instead of being a
marine biologist is an act of love; consistently _doing_ good work requires
discipline, whether you love your profession or not.

~~~
brooksbp
thanks for sharing that poem

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drostie
I will upvote but I disagree. There exists a nontrivial subset of things which
I think are incredibly fun when I am doing them, which I am not normally
inclined to do. These range from practice with the Delft ultimate frisbee club
Force-Elektro to my novel to my religious writings and the code-in-progress
for my web site.

I think we are facing a severe crisis of authenticity, occasioned by the
structure of our brains as associative-memory anecdote-followers.
Productivity-porn is not bad because it's useless, it's bad _because it's
porn_ \-- it is like a Cracked.com or Wikipedia article, leading to all sorts
of other topics which suck up our limited daily attention as an occasion for a
quick release.

We need, in other words, _interrupters_ which say "stop focusing on the
unimportant and return to that which is fruitful. Stop seeking the sugar of
"now now now" and start seeking the deeper fruits.

In these regards, my most important tool is actually just the alarm on my cell
phone, which tells me at 11:30 pm that it's time to get the hell off the
internet and spend my last hour of the day either meditating or practising my
religious writing. All of the distractions should be quit at that time.

EDIT: the word "attention" above somehow didn't exist where it should have
existed.

~~~
lhnz
>> I am an atheist, but I'm writing a religion.

Sorry to go off topic like this, but I saw this on your profile and it's
interesting to me. You're writing a religion for atheists? Why?

~~~
keiferski
Not the OP, but a guess: religion is basically just a value system. In that
sense, it's no different than any other value system, other than the fact that
it includes existence of X deity.

~~~
eru
> In that sense, it's no different than any other value system, other than the
> fact that it includes existence of X deity.

While a recurring feature in practice, I don't think believe in a deity should
be a defining feature of religion. (It is probably a sufficient feature,
though.)

~~~
bgmarx
Agreed.

The word "religion" comes from two Latin words: "res" + "ligare". "res" is
loosely "thing" or can be used to refer to a concept (ie, "republic" - "res" +
"pubblica" ['thing/item/abstract concept' of the people] and "ligare" is a 1st
declension (if I recall correctly) verb meaning "to bind".

To be religious - fundamentally speaking - is simply to follow a set of rules
or an ideology; to be bound to something.

------
wulczer
As we all know, every situation in life can be exhaustively and accurately
resumed by an XKCD comic.

Here's this thread's: <http://xkcd.com/874/>

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DenisM
The rubbish like "If you really deeply care about something, you will do it"
is quite representative of this armchair psychology type of thinking. I file
this right next to "if you didn't want to be fat you would eat less, so you
just want pig out and harm yourself", "if you did not want to be an alcoholic
you would stop drinking alcohol, so you just want to live the life of an
outcast", and "if you didn't want to be poor you would just be rich".

For a more rigorous exploration of the matter I suggest reading someone who
spent decades studying the subject or procrastination, and not on his own
person, but on the persons of thousands of people so afflicted - "The Now
Habit" book by Neil Fiore. As it turns out telling someone "oh, you just don't
want to do it, that's why you procrastinate" is more likely to hinder progress
than result in change of behavior. However, there are plenty of other things
that do change behavior for the better.

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greendestiny
Liking what you do and wanting to do it doesn't make you organised and
effective. Or to put it another way my interest definitely doesn't gravitate
to the best order of tasks or let me know how far I am from doing what I want
to achieve.

I've spent the majority of my life having a certain low grade contempt for
people who are organised, because doing stuff without being organised seemed
more authentic. Well its stupid and organisation is a way of using the focus
you have better.

~~~
ivancdg
I can not upvote this enough. I've met so many artists who are passionate
about their work. But lack of organization, and lack of awareness of their
daily inefficiencies stop them from succeeding.

------
54mf
"If you really deeply care about something, you will do it."

Next time you're unmotivated to complete a task, think about why you're
avoiding it. The answer is usually fear or boredom/disinterest. If it's fear,
great, you're in a good place. If it's boredom, you should probably be doing
something else.

Sometimes I wonder if so many programmers need Productivity Hacks because they
don't really love programming, they just ended up programming because of
social awkwardness.

~~~
stinkytaco
>If it's boredom, you should probably be doing something else.

If only this were the case. So much of any work, even work you love, is
boring, menial stuff you'd like someone else to do. You've got to find a way
to power through those tasks in order to do what you love. Sometimes task
lists are a good way of doing that, at least you get a sense of accomplishment
for doing that one stupid thing you have to get out the way.

~~~
king_jester
> So much of any work, even work you love, is boring, menial stuff you'd like
> someone else to do.

The boring, menials parts of work are chores. If you are finding side projects
and hobbies to be boring and menial, then said hobby is a chore for you and
you should probably reevaluate whey you are doing it in the first place.

~~~
notJim
Side projects have chores. If you skip them and move on to the next
interesting thing, you tend to end up with a lot of half-done side projects.

------
codegeek
"So what do you need a system for? You need it for chores."

Agreed. My system is simple: Have my wife do half of the chores while I do the
rest half. If she forgets, I remind her and vice versa. We motivate each other
to do the thing we don't want to but have to. This is one area where
tools/software has not worked for me well. I got plenty of to do lists and
action item tools but i usually end up snoozing them anyway :)

------
rdtsc
"Blind activity" -- I like that term. I'll have to remember it. That is used
quite often in working environments to give the appearance of work so that
managers and peers can see it, with the expectation that come review time
they'll all say "so and so is making so much progress". In the case of a
single individual this "manager" is the perception of oneself -- so in a way
it is cheating yourself (and that's not necessarily a bad thing). However
there should be a higher level supervisor, in a way, that can detect and say
"hey, yeah, there is plenty of churn, but in the end there are no results,
something has gone wrong".

~~~
sailfast
Agreed - expressed another way by Montapert: "Do not confuse motion and
progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress."
Whenever looking at performance it's critical to ask what concrete things were
accomplished as a result of the work. (Blanket statement coming!) If you see
the words "Facilitated" and "Coordinated" more than "Built", "Developed", and
"Wrote" then that's a warning signal.

------
3am_hackernews
Unfortunately, for me, this article itself falls in the so called
'Productivity Porn'(PP) category, although I am not sure if I agree with the
PP term as described here in the first place.

------
sherwin
I'm quite interested in productivity hacks and I've adopted / created a few
systems of my own. The key insight in the OP, that you'll eventually do what
you truly care about, is one that took me a few years to realize, yet
unfortunately it's also a vast simplification.

For me, there are many tasks that I _know_ I enjoy, whose results I _know_ I
care about, yet, if left to my own devices, I don't go and do them because the
activation energy is too high. I offer two examples: running (I always feel
great afterward and I know it's good for me, yet it's a hassle to actually get
out there and run) and working on side projects (I love learning and building,
yet I don't do it as often because I get mentally blocked by how overhelming a
project is before I begin).

Previously, I would make up excuses (I don't have enough time... too busy...
much school work... overcommitted) and my personal projects languished as I
got caught up in external commitments. The biggest tip in my productivity
system is this: Every month/week/day, write down the one thing I most want to
accomplish for that time period, that I would _likely not accomplish
otherwise_. If I can accomplish that one thing, I can call that day/week/month
a successful one. I track my progress and results as well.

With this one objective system, I found myself delegating time for these
projects and implementing all sorts of hacks to reduce the energy barrier of
starting these projects.

Another way to think of this is how you structure your priorities. Instead of
saying 'I don't have time', try saying 'it's not a priority' [1]. This lets
you tell exactly what you do care about, and frequently, that set of things
you care about is still larger than the set of things you get done.

[1]
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020335870457723...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203358704577237603853394654.html)

------
alexdavidkim
I think the problem is most people need some sort of positive feedback
immediately when engaging in a new activity (programming, startups) that if
they do not receive it, their confidence never rises, and they see no reason
to enjoy the new activity. Once you can build past the initial stages of
grinding it out and gain some momentum and start to see the bigger picture, I
believe that is when most become fully engaged and passionate about whatever
"work" they are pursuing. At least this is how I feel. I'd like to know if
others feel the same way.

------
ph33r
I prefer the term: Productivity Trap... and I have seen friends fall in to it.
They will read and talk about new "exciting" GTD systems, and better ways to
organize themselves.

I've seen them switch from: 'Things' to 'Evernote' to 'Omnifocus' to 'Trello'
in the span of two or three months.

I'm all for being a more productive and organized person, but with all the
time they spent migrating their tasks/projects to different task management
systems, they could have just completed everything on their lists and more.

------
donniezazen
Every once in a while, I read post like this that reminds me of what's
important but how will I find them, if I am not addicted to productivity porn,
is out of comprehension.

------
ek
In academic research, it's often even more difficult to draw the line between
simple "activity" as Vivek puts it and actual progress. The unfortunate fact
about research is that there really is no certainty, so it's hard to measure
concrete progress. Most research is done in retrospect, so a lot of grind work
that may initially seem not worthwhile is an important step in the research
process.

------
deepGem
"If you really deeply care about something, you will do it" - this is simply
not true. If it was just 'one thing' that you cared about, then this
philosophy works but let's face reality. On any given day, we all have more
than 'one thing' that we really care about and sometimes, if you don't make a
list of these important 'todos', you are bound to forget one of those
important things.

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ivancdg
Comparing productivity porn (PP) to fast food is not very helpful.

It would be more accurate to compare PP to reading about nutrition...then not
following the advice one reads, despite being well informed.

Of course it's easier to do things when you are motivated for a specific,
deadline-based project. But there are grey areas in life, and "dips". PP is
helpful for those. Techniques learned can lead to positive action.

------
Deezul
Imagine what we might not have if everyone followed this misguided advice. The
flip side: if you're breezing through your work, maybe you're not challenging
yourself enough? You don't think searching for the Higgs boson can grow weary?
Or training for an Olympic medal? Great things require great effort.

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MortenK
Very nice article. I especially like the quote (paraphrased): "Activity is not
necessarily progress". It's this common misconception that keeps a lot of us
tied to the chairs for 8-12 hours every day, when we could often accomplish
the same in half the time.

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stinos
funny thing is, I just embraced Trello and it helped me instantly, proving the
author's point quite wrong in my case. I'm writing a compiler, and while doing
this I come up with new ideas, extra features to implement and so on, every 5
minutes or so. Instead of trying hard at the end of the day to remember all of
them, now I just write them down immediately. Those lists do not contain
chores, but things I am very happy to work on, or as the author says, care
deeply about. And now they are not just spread around in my mind but nicely
organized. Hello productivity boost.

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nnythm
I feel like a large percentage of hacker news is posts exactly like this.

"Want to be productive? Stop reading about how to be productive!"

I personally feel like Hacker News would be better if these posts stopped
being bubbled up to the top.

------
tripzilch
"It’s like a finger pointing at the moon. Do not concentrate on the finger or
you will miss all of the heavenly glory! — Bruce Lee."

I'm fairly sure that wasn't originally Bruce Lee who came up with that :)

------
toomuchcoffee
Would love to read this, but:

Web Site Blocked by NETGEAR Firewall

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its_so_on
Here's a productivity tip. If you're not feeling motivated, then motivate
yourself with a reward: after you're finished what you're trying to do now,
you get to search for productivity tips online and make your life even more
productive. Hurry, they're really good.

