
Life is Short - janvdberg
http://paulgraham.com/vb.html
======
jacquesm
If you can't see past the link to the other essays here please try to isolate
this one for a bit, especially if you're young and you don't have kids yet.
This essay is rich in realizations that come with age, and in some sense I
would have potentially gotten a lot of mileage out of it when I was 20 or so
(but then I would probably have lacked the background to fully comprehend it),
and even more when I was a young first time father.

One gem in here that has not been high-lit by other commenters in this thread
that stands out for me because that's one that I did figure out very early on
in life (and this served me very well) is this one:

"As I've written before, one byproduct of technical progress is that things we
like tend to become more addictive. Which means we will increasingly have to
make a conscious effort to avoid addictions—to stand outside ourselves and ask
"is this how I want to be spending my time?""

Please do ask yourself that question often, and if the answer is 'no' or
'maybe' then simply don't and save yourself a lot of grief and regret in the
long run.

~~~
egroat
> when I was 20 or so

Ok. "20 or so" describes me. And things aren't going so well.

Out of uni, and life feels pretty empty. Family has fallen apart, friends are
friends of convenience, work is very intense - perhaps too much - and
everything is going into keeping going. The brave face, making sure I eat,
making sure I run, cycle, climb.

The dreams I had even six months ago, feeling ever more impossible. The lure
of things I found rewarding in the past - computer games, novels, reddit,
hacker news, debating - proving substanceless, insufficient.

The games and the websites are addictive.

> is this how I want to be spending my time?

No. But the truth is I do not know how else to spend my time.

I feel like I should find another job. Move to a different city or country.
But I don't know how to do these things. I do not know if these things will
help. I have a feeling the problem is me.

So when I am trapped in an empty bed, in a house of people who 'get on', in a
city that is ok. I read the novels, I play the games, and I click the links. I
try and forget I am here, living in bullshit.

~~~
m0nty
I'm a bit reluctant to post this, because nobody here is going to be able to
fix your situation for you, but a few thoughts. As someone pushing 50 this
year, if I had your freedom to just do anything, I'd be off in a heartbeat.
Off to another part of the country or a different country entirely. Making
that 5,000-mile bike-trip or just walking off somewhere with a back-pack and
some camping gear. You might say "it's not that simple", but maybe it could be
if you thought about it for a while?

Remember that wasting time at 20 seems OK, wasting it at 30 will make you
nervous, and if you're still doing it at 40, you'll wonder where all the time
went. It really happens surprisingly fast - at 29, you feel young, but a short
decade later, you'll fret about being "too old" (which is an illusion, but it
takes a while to know that). Don't worry that you'll mess up your career or
anything else by taking some time to do something adventurous. Pretty much
whatever you do, you'll look back and thank yourself for stepping out rather
than hunkering down.

BTW, as for "work is very intense" \- it probably isn't worth it. I burnt out
once after a few years of very intense, very committed work. I wasn't better
off at the end of it and nobody says "thank you", not sincerely anyway. And
after you leave, the waters close around you and it will be like you were
never there. So if you're not enjoying it, maybe it's the kind of bullshit you
can do without?

~~~
cconroy
`I burnt out once after a few years of very intense, very committed work. I
wasn't better off at the end of it and nobody says "thank you", not sincerely
anyway. And after you leave, the waters close around you and it will be like
you were never there.`

Wow that imagery is powerfully sad. Corporate culture and its structural
constraints makes monsters of all of us.

~~~
m0nty
> Wow that imagery is powerfully sad

I didn't mean it to be ;) I'm an optimist at heart, honestly, and I'm not
sitting here feeling I've wasted my life or anything. But there are some
things I wouldn't do again if I had my time again, and working hard for
unappreciative, self-centred people is one of them.

~~~
jacquesm
> working hard for unappreciative, self-centred people is one of them.

That's a bit of a luxury, you don't always have that choice but on the whole I
agree with the idea. I'd re-phrase it to don't work for assholes if you can
avoid it. I'm fortunate enough now that this is a rare occurrence but even now
every now and then a deal goes by that is financially too sweet to let go and
I still take them. Last year this happened once, the previous 3 years not at
all. So unless you're totally secure in your finances keep that door open a
crack.

~~~
m0nty
It's interesting you say this, I currently have four weeks to run on a very
well-paying contract which I chose to terminate. The money's been nice, and so
are the people I work with, but I have enough in the bank now where I can take
a chance on doing something different without risking financial hardship.
Let's just say that, after two heart surgeries last year, I don't mind taking
the risk that my plans fall over and I end up going back to an IT gig sometime
in the indeterminate future :) In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the sense of
possibility and freedom.

~~~
jacquesm
That's a reasonable middle ground. But it does show clearly that those
'annoying but high paying jobs' have a place in the armory.

Good to see you on this side of the line after two heart surgeries.

------
jfaucett
This article resonated a lot with me. It verbalizes what I've been trying to
do over the past year or so with my own life. For me a lot of the BS
elimination on the first pass was just getting rid of distractions and
interruptions, so I cut out the phone/email/chat, etc all during my working
hours except for certain times, like 10 minutes after lunch and just before
the end of the day. The noise was all driving me insane.

The next step was to remove things from my life that cause stress and are not
worth the effort because of the BS they involve. Whether that's just life
situations or clients it has been very refreshing.

The next step was to kill a lot of tv/movies, and most of my free time
internet usage.

Finally, I started steadily filling in the new time gainings with things I
really care about and the personal sense of well-being and accomplishment has
improved drastically.

So I have no intent of doing anything other than continuing to go down this
road, I've gotten in better physical shape, better health, enjoy life more,
have learned a new language, visited many new places, my stress level has
dropped by at last 200%, its been a very positive journey so far.

~~~
iDemonix
I'm trying to achieve currently what it seems you have already achieved. The
problem is I cut everything out, but then there will be a moment at work where
you're waiting for something (in my job for example, waiting for RHEL to
install), and you decide to glance at Facebook. Then you do it a couple of
times. Then you get home and decide as it's raining you won't go cycling. It
all builds back up and I'm back to square one.

It feels like trying to kick smoking. I have a list of stuff I want to do (fix
up my motorbikes, finish my 'day van', get back in to DH mountain biking) and
a list of stuff I do (video games, drink, NetFlix, Reddit), and I always seep
back to the latter one.

Might give it another go soon, life is short after all.

~~~
jfaucett
I think the biggest thing is to start very small. Seriously, very very small.
I had for years done more or less what you describe. So I finally just decided
to start super baby simple and have one tiny little goal and accomplish it.
For me it was hard to eliminate looking up my news sites when I had a free
minute or two. Eventually, I just deleted my bookmarks and edited my
/etc/hosts and that did the trick for me.

But I didn't try to cut out those distractions and start a workout routine at
the same time.

Also I didn't try to start anything else until the last goal had become kind
of routine (like brushing your teeth in the morning).

There are still many things on my list to see and do and there's still stress
in my life, but I feel with this method of one micro step at a time you slowly
chip away in unnoticeable steps until now for me a little over a year later
you've made a big noticeable dent.

oh yea, I finally quit smoking too :)

EDIT: most of my goals also had to do with eliminating stress. For instance,
my "learning the language" was to just turn on the radio and listen to
interesting talk shows in swedish and occasionally look up words, all which
was very relaxing for me. My exercise is swimming which is super enjoyable for
me and something I always look forward to (even when I didn't have the time to
do it). I don't know what it would be like if you do not actually look forward
to or enjoy your goals...

~~~
greggman
Does that fact that you're here on HN suggest that it's not quite working?

I ask because HN is my biggest time sync. It's the thing I grab whenever there
is a moment of free time and even when their isn't. I type it into my browser
without even thinking about it.

I banned it once with /etc/hosts and that lasted about 3 months or maybe it
was 6. I'd still read on my phone but that wouldn't happen except out and
about or at bathroom breaks.

Then at some point I turned it back on. When it got bad again I blocked it in
/etc/hosts. But, it's available in a VM. I'd hoped that would be enough to
discourage me but it's not. Instead my habit now is to launch the VM. It is
slightly better than unblocked because I still type it into my main browser
and the block keeps me off until I eventually use the VM

I'd guess I spent 2-4 hours a day on it. I woke up a 8:30 today. Other than a
shower I've been on HN. It's 10:10

~~~
mbrock
Virtue ethics could be a useful framework for thinking about it.

Alasdair MacIntyre in _After Virtue_ talks about the concept of a tradition as
forming a narrative backbone for a person's life and actions. Conversation is
also crucial, and traditions can be seen as extended conversations. I suggest
that Hacker News is a place where such a tradition is constructed and
maintained. It gives rise to an "imagined community" [2] of this _profession_
of startup development (which is tied into the tradition of open source
hacking in interesting ways, sometimes conflicting).

In that sense browsing HN is not merely a bad habit. Maybe the negative
tendency is to become a more passive participant, or just gossiping all day.
Ideally the site would feed into a larger pattern of creative action, instead
of only providing some click buzz relaxation. So we could think about how to
use the conversation to give wind to our sails, so to speak—or just how to be
more active in the actual tradition, not just the discussion surrounding it.

That's a big discussion and I've already spent an hour writing this comment,
after deleting a long and boring explanation of the MacIntyre book's thesis...
So I'll just say that Cal Newport's new book _Deep Work_ was pretty inspiring
for me, and it's a quick read.

I think you could formulate a dialectic where deep work and community
conversation feed into each other. It's like how books are the deep artifacts
that conversations can orient themselves around, and the books themselves are
like concentrated results of sometimes decades-long conversations.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Virtue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Virtue)

[2]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagined_community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagined_community)

[3]: [http://calnewport.com/books/deep-
work/](http://calnewport.com/books/deep-work/)

------
japhyr
My father's death taught me to finish the things I start. He was a software
engineer in the 70s and 80s, and he taught me how to program when I was a
little kid. When he died in 2011 I went through his computer, looking at the
projects he was still working on. It was profoundly sad to think that these
projects were frozen, that no one would ever use them. The experience of
looking through his unfinished projects led me to make the transition from
hobbyist programmer to professional.

It was hard to stop playing with a bunch of different projects and make myself
focus on one single project, but in the end it has been extremely satisfying
to finish what I start. I wish my father was still around to see what I've
done, but I might never have finished anything without the lesson of his
passing.

~~~
kjhughes
Your father's still around, recognizing the value of completing projects, and
sharing inspirational stories with us. Thank you for your post.

------
wallflower
"You’re still young and healthy. Maybe that’s why you don’t understand what I
am saying. Let me give you an example. Once you pass a certain age, life
becomes nothing more than a process of continual loss. Things that are
important to your life begin to slip out of your grasp, one after another,
like a comb losing teeth. And the only things that come to take their place
are worthless imitations. Your physical strength, your hopes, your dreams,
your ideals, your convictions, all meaning, or, then again, the people you
love: one by one, they fade away. Some announce their departure before they
leave, while others just disappear all of a sudden without warning one day.
And once you lose them you can never get them back. Your search for
replacements never goes well. It’s all very painful—as painful as actually
being cut with a knife. You will be turning thirty soon, Mr. Kawana, which
means that, from now on, you will gradually enter that twilight portion of
life—you will be getting older. You are probably beginning to grasp that
painful sense that you are losing something, are you not?"

From 1Q84, Haruki Murakami

~~~
shorttime
Book description for those that may be interested:

“Murakami is like a magician who explains what he’s doing as he performs the
trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers . . . But while
anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream, it's the rare artist, like
this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves.” —The New
York Times Book Review

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and
begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has
entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for
‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer
named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up
with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life
begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single
year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever
closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious
religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a
reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously
ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard;
and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to
rival George Orwell’s—1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking
yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of
imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

------
numlocked
And for a completely different perspective, we have Kurt Vonnegut:

[Vonnegut tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope] “Oh, she says
well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a
hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear
her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good
time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see
some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the
thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t
know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And,
of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people
don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals. You know, we love
to move around. And, we’re not supposed to dance at all anymore.”

~~~
erikpukinskis
The best computer software is the kind that reminds people to dance and shows
them some steps.

Vonnegut, like so many people, imagines computers can only suck the life out
of things. I suppose we deserve that reputation, since so many of us write
software that does.

~~~
jaredklewis
I don't think Vonnegut meant "dancing" in a particularly figurative way. I
think he means it in the sense of physically moving your body. Computers are
great in my book, but I agree with Vonnegut that usage of them tends to result
in less physical activity.

~~~
erikpukinskis
I didn't mean it figuratively either!

------
xenadu02
I'm a more productive engineer now that I have small kids than I ever was
before. I don't have time for bullshit. I don't build my own PCs, I buy Macs.
I don't waste time building some over-architected nonsense on a side project,
I ship the MVP. When I do take time away from my kids I maximize it by
learning three or four new technologies, patterns, or libraries at once.

When you realize how short time really is you ruthlessly cut bullshit.

~~~
sigmaml
> I don't have time for bullshit. I don't build my own PCs, I buy Macs.

It is sad - and disgusting - to see this degree of arrogance in bluntly
categorising those who use (or build) PCs (and not Macs) as indulging in
bullshit!

I am happy that you have found a useful computer in Mac. At the same time,
though, please realise that hundreds of millions of computer users choose
otherwise too. And, please do not conclude that they have time for bullshit
just because of that!

~~~
nulltype
I'm pretty sure bullshit is relative. I think cooking and driving are both
bullshit, but there are tons of people who love both of those.

~~~
tluyben2
You are missing out by not cooking.

~~~
Kiro
Why is that? I'm cooking all my meals but think it's the worst choir of all.
Complete waste of time.

~~~
tluyben2
Cooking can be creative and relaxing. I don't find it all too different from
coding which I also like :) But yeah it's relative but the worst choir... You
clean yourself? I cannot imagine you find it worse than cleaning which is
mindnumbing crap. Maybe cooking can be as well if you cook more or less the
same every day or cook something uninspired?

I guess you are both very young; I used to think eating was a waste of time in
my 20s. I was dreaming of having a nutrition drip so I didn't have to waste
time cooking or eating. But nothing beats cleaning or doing laundry imho.

------
anunumoose
Mr Graham, I respect you and you've accomplished more that I will in my life,
but I sincerely hope that this essay against "bullshit" and "arguing online"
isn't you declaring that you'll be "bubbling" yourself after your last essay
was met with wide disagreement.

It's possible that sometimes, no matter how smart you are, your experiences
have been limited in a way and you're missing a part of something everyone
else sees. And if thats the case, it's not something to be afraid of or to
shut yourself off from.

Anyway good luck!

~~~
vcarl
I read some "rebuttals" to the previous essay, and while there were definitely
some valid points brought up, a lot of them seemed to me to have
misinterpreted a lot of what was said. PG tweeted about feeling like a lot of
his side of the "debate" was pointing out that he hadn't said something. [1]

[1]:
[https://twitter.com/paulg/status/688044252744527875](https://twitter.com/paulg/status/688044252744527875)

~~~
drhayes9
From PG's essay "Economic Inequality": "Most people who get rich tend to be
fairly driven. Whatever their other flaws, laziness is usually not one of
them... Variation in productivity is far from the only source of economic
inequality, but it is the irreducible core of it, in the sense that you'll
have that left when you eliminate all other sources."

This feels like the heart of that particular essay and displays a rather
breathtaking misunderstanding of poverty, its causes and its inhabitants. This
blames poor people for being poor.

How am I misreading this? I don't feel like I'm cherry-picking, I feel like
I'm finding the theme of the text. If that's not it, then what is its theme?
Its central idea?

From later in the same essay: "Louis Brandeis said 'We may have democracy, or
we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have
both.' That sounds plausible. But if I have to choose between ignoring him and
ignoring an exponential curve that has been operating for thousands of years,
I'll bet on the curve."

Again: this sounds like PG saying "In the choice between fostering political
power in people at large and concentrating money in the hands of those who
already have it, I'll choose the latter." What's there to misinterpret?

I thought this essay, without context, was very sweet. Life _is_ too short.
But read as a non-response to critics of the "Income Inequality" essay it
takes on a callous tone.

~~~
prostoalex
I read it differently.

He suggests that social mobility is highly correlated with non-laziness
(whether expressed through hard work, not hard but smart work, natural
curiosity, drive to tinker with stuff, or ability to deliver on a project
started without letting the inertia set in).

That does not mean that poverty is correlated with laziness.

The only logical conclusion that follows is that laziness is not highly
correlated with social mobility, e.g. people who are poor _and_ lazy have not
statistically been exposed to much social mobility.

------
talsraviv
> The "flow" that imaginative people love so much has a darker cousin that
> prevents you from pausing to savor life...

I'm glad he pointed out this seemingly small detail. This took me a very long
time to understand.

EDIT: It reminds me of another great post by Paul Buccheit. It's so important
to have the 'heroes' of startup culture explicitly spell out these values:

> I worry that perhaps I'm communicating the wrong priorities. Investing
> money, creating new products, and all the other things we do are wonderful
> games and can be a lot of fun, but it's important to remember that it's all
> just a game. What's most important is that we are good too each other, and
> ourselves. If we "win", but have failed to do that, then we have lost.
> Winning is nothing.

[http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.fr/2012/03/eight-years-
today.ht...](http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.fr/2012/03/eight-years-today.html)

------
RKoutnik
It's said that growing up is watching your heroes become human. I'll admit pg
was (and still is) one of my heroes and the prime reason I moved across the
country to join a startup. While I never got into YC, my (short) life is much
better for that move. Yes, the scales dropped from my eyes as I realized just
how unglamorous startup life can be and the unfailable pg started to, well,
fail.

On the other hand, there's something about the following sidenote that is
_profoundly_ human but works quite the opposite of the painful shock implied
in my first sentence:

> I chose this example deliberately as a note to self. I get attacked a lot
> online. People tell the craziest lies about me. And I have so far done a
> pretty mediocre job of suppressing the natural human inclination to say
> "Hey, that's not true!"

This is almost universally true. It is incredibly reassuring to know that even
the greats struggle with this and antagonists pursue us through all walks of
life. I'll admit, I've held back from publishing articles that all of my
reviewers liked because I worried about the inevitable negative backlash that
comes with standing for anything on the internet. Maybe one day I will
publish. If so, this essay helped a great deal in getting me there.

~~~
oskarth
> While I never got into YC, my (short) life is much better for it.

This is tangential to your point, but beware of sour grapes. It's an easy trap
to fall into.

~~~
RKoutnik
Oh, I fell for those sour grapes _hard_ (and might I say, you're absolutely
right). It's trivially easy to find "think"pieces supporting any opinion under
the sun, making my insistence on declaring grapes sour even easier.

It was used against me at one point, someone invented a personal connection to
pg that just so happened to hit all of the right nerves. He was trying to get
me to quit my job to work for him. Almost worked, save for a stroke of luck
(pg mentioning this guy had ~5% of the credentials he claimed). It's
unbelievable just how many bullets I've dodged over the years...

------
the_watcher
This is probably my favorite thing pg has ever written. He's right in so many
ways, but my favorite is just his reminder of "don't wait."

~~~
silverlake
This is my least favorite. I respect his advice on startups, but little else.
This sounds like the stuff Oprah used to say.

~~~
Svenstaro
Which freely available works on this matter would you recommend reading
instead? I'm interested in seeing what kind of philosophy other people prefer.

~~~
akkartik
[http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.1.one.html](http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.1.one.html)

(I'll throw in, with all humility, my philistine take on philosophy:
[http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/09/09/geopolitics-for-
individ...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/09/09/geopolitics-for-individuals).
It was inspired partly by Paul Graham's previous
[http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html](http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html),
which IMO is far superior.)

------
jroseattle
Life seems _really_ short as soon as kids enter the picture. The best line I
ever heard about kids and life was this:

 _With children, the days are long but the years are short._

These days, I find myself trying to find the "work/life balance", which is
really just me managing the ebb-and-flow of time between work and family. What
I've learned in that process is that while work provides some satisfaction
that meets an internal need, it will never ever hug me back.

Take time, hug your kids, leave your work every now and then. The years won't
seem so short that way.

------
sjg007
Obligatory: [http://www.theonion.com/article/open-minded-man-grimly-
reali...](http://www.theonion.com/article/open-minded-man-grimly-realizes-how-
much-life-hes--19273)

~~~
dennisgorelik
Bingo:

\---

While Richman has vowed to cease being open-minded to absolute horseshit,
acquaintances reflected on his approachability.

"I love Blake," coworker David Martin said. "He's such a good listener. A lot
of people are closed-minded and self-absorbed, but Blake always makes an
effort to hear where I'm coming from. The world could use more people like
him."

\---

------
fizixer
Life is too short to not be involved in and/or contributing to anti-aging
research in any way.

If Wright brothers (and other flight enthusiasts around that time) had not
taken the initiative, academics, pundits, and "experts" had it settled that
heavier-than-air flight is impossible.

It had to eventually happen because technology is inevitable, but we might
have conquered flight in 1953 instead of 1903.

In the case of anti-aging, such a difference means you either die or barely
make it past the last generation to die.

~~~
copperx
Surely you mean cancer research? It is much more likely to kill us all than
old age.

~~~
fizixer
Why do young people not have cancer? (save for rare genetic forms).

~~~
erikpukinskis
Some cancers are the result of damage. I.e. asbestos in your lungs. Children
just haven't punched enough time on the clock to have as many of those
experiences. By the time you are old your probability of exposure to at least
one of those experiences gets pretty high. That's not aging doing the deed,
it's living.

Also, some cancers take time to develop, which would make for fewer diagnoses
in childhood.

~~~
fizixer
Well, one of the least ambiguous definitions of aging is "accumulation of
damage at the microscopic/cellular level", that includes both accumulation of
foreign matter over time (e.g., accumulation of asbestos particles, or
cholesterol) and accumulation of damage due to matter or othewise (e.g.,
damage accumulation due to daily asbestos exposure without asbestos actually
accumulating). So you essentially supported my point.

If you have a different meaningful definition of aging I'd like to know.

------
kyaghmour
The vast majority of humans on this planet do not get to choose where they
spend their time; surely Paul realizes this. Instead, children making clay
bricks and parents sending their children off away to work as maids (or worse)
do so because they need to survive first and foremost.

I have four children of my own and I'm sceptical of the proposed idea that
somehow life is best spent by maximizing time with them. Don't get me wrong,
the best moments in life are with my children. Still, one's contributions
during our brief passage in the form we like best (walking and free thinking
humans) surely should aim to contribute far more than the self-gratifying (and
possibly narcissistic) time spent with one's children.

In short, if you do have the luxury of choosing where you actually spend your
time, make sure you're giving far more back to the rest of this race than to
yourself.

------
math
I lived in Sydney for 8 months and Brisbane for 4 years. When thinking back,
both feel like a distinct part of my life to a surprisingly equal extent.
Maximizing the number of distinct phases in your life seems to me to be
important in making it seem longer.

~~~
erikpukinskis
This rings very true to me.

It points at another approach to getting the most out of life: change as much
as you can. Maybe once everyone in your family had had a few of those magical
Christmases it's time to look for something else fun.

------
jzwinck
> _One great thing about having small children is that they make you spend
> time on things that matter: them. They grab your sleeve as you 're staring
> at your phone and say "will you play with me?" And odds are that is in fact
> the bullshit-minimizing option._

This also has a darker cousin for some parents: since spending time with one's
children is always a viable and valuable option, spending time without them
becomes difficult. People without children often notice that most of their
parental friends disappear. This despite the prior protestations of many that
"We'll still do things after we have kids."

Undoubtedly some parents work more efficiently than their childless selves
(this is also motivated by a desire to earn money to support the kids). But
can they socialize more efficiently too, in particular with people who don't
have kids?

------
dennisgorelik
> When someone contradicts you, they're in a sense attacking you.

Not really.

Contradiction means pointing to possible holes in our assumptions. So online
discussions - are a way to test our assumptions and learn.

Online discussions is a playground for training our decision-making skills.

Of course, we should maintain a healthy balance between learning in online
discussions, other ways of learning and actual decision-making (work). But
that healthy balance should probably include more than zero time in online
discussions.

------
vdnkh
I'm (only) 23 and I've felt this for a while. I've been trying to leave my
small no-name company for a higher calibre job in NYC for a few months now. I
guess I'm lucky because I know what I want - but I need to wade through
_extreme_ amounts of bullshit to get there. I'm very efficient with my time
but if I made every second worthwhile, I'd go nuts. Sometimes BS time
(videogames, the pub, etc) are necessary.

~~~
NhanH
> I'm very efficient with my time but if I made every second worthwhile, I'd
> go nuts. Sometimes BS time (videogames, the pub, etc) are necessary.

Be careful with equating "unproductive" and bullshit. Society at large only
cares about your productivity, and there is always pressure for you to do
"productive" thing that advances some imaginary life ladder.

From your POV and benefits, all those productive things might all be bullshit.

~~~
sotojuan
Yeah. I don't consider playing video games for an hour or so to wind down
"bullshit", provided they do not stop me from achieving my daily goals.

Not only are "unproductive" activities like film, video games,
socializing/hanging out very enjoyable for me, but the most interesting people
I've met do a lot of them. All in moderation.

~~~
mercer
A few years ago I finished my studies and became a freelancer. It took me
until this year to realize that in the effort to 'value' my hours, I forgot
how essential and valuable it is to spend time doing things that are relaxing
and that might seem unproductive at first sight.

It reached a point where I would often work in the weekends, forego any
vacation, feel guilty about the hours I did 'nothing' (out of sheer
necessity), and sometimes even apply a little too much pragmatism to my
friendships. I'd ask myself if the interactions were useful or somehow
furthered my personal development or career, and forget that, while this is
not an unimportant question, the value of a friendship can be the time spent
enjoying each other's company.

This important realization came after I had worked a lot, built a relatively
stable career with enough clients and a good portfolio, saved up enough money
to allow me to not work for at least a year. I had reached my goals, so to
speak.

But instead of stopping work and doing things I always put off, or creating
things I'd been wanting to create for a long time, I ended up with a (mild)
burn-out and a severe existential crisis: now that I had nothing to really
worry about, I had no clue what to do with that freedom.

What _am_ I, and what do I enjoy doing, after years of neglecting to explore
this?

Currently I'm working on finding more balance, and savoring the little and big
things in life. But even now, I need to make sure I have some work because
when I stop, my mind just kind of panics from the freedom I have. So I'm
taking it one step at a time.

Picking up gaming again has been one of those things I savor again.

------
pcote
The downside to "don't wait to do the things that matter" is what to do when
you empty that bucket list early. I've covered the geeky bucket list stuff.
(making video games, blogging, open source contribution, IT jobs, BS in CS,
ect.) I've covered the more stereotypical bucket list stuff too. (Skydiving,
performing onstage, time with friends, writing the novel, marrying the right
girl, ect.)

At this point in my life, there's nothing new that interests me that hasn't
already been done. It's made life pretty boring at this juncture. I've lived
out all my dreams and now it's all just like "Okay, now what?"

~~~
jmorrow977
For starters, have you visited every major city in Europe, including
historically famous cities, sites of historical battles, capitals of smaller
countries? Sampled the local cuisine in each? Tried the local hobbies? Danced
in a local club? Walked the Via Appia in Rome, visited the site of the "300
Spartans" battle against the Persians?

For closer to home, assuming you don't want to travel the world or you've
already done that, I personally don't think I'd ever get tired of just
enjoying life. Going to my favorite places, watching the city below from the
top of a large hill, alternating favorite restaurants, continuing to spend
time with friends, reading new books, and continuing scientific and
intellectual pursuits.

If you want to discuss this further feel free to email me at
jmorrow977@gmail.com.

~~~
pcote
As I said, "things that interest me". Social clubs, traveling, and world
historical landmarks are great if that's what interests you and I'm happy for
people who enjoy those sorts of things. Learning new things is one thing we
can both agree on as always being worthwhile.

All that being said, the best "new thing" I can think of is finding creative
ways to serve others using what I know about. My blog is one such way though
there are no doubt others as well. Giving to the world is a pretty good way to
beat back boredom.

------
zallarak
Marriage definitely made me prune bullshit from my life. I can only imagine
what children would do.

I would include Anger as a subcategory of bullshit. It promotes irrationality
and the after effects hamper you. In the renowned book "Emotional
Intelligence" the author says that the best thing to do when angry is to focus
on controlling it. The more it grows, the harder it is to escape.

~~~
simonswords82
I've been married and divorced. Now with a new partner who I've been with for
nearly a decade and we've got a kid. I'd say the pruning of bullshit from
marriage is about 10% of that for having children!

------
jondubois
I think the problem is definitely finiteness (not length).

I don't understand it when people talk about 'squeezing everything out of
life' \- As though you could extract real lasting substance/meaning from it. I
don't believe it's possible to "Make the most" out of life - It all adds up to
0 in the end.

"Squeezing everything out of life" implies that you're literally taking the
juice out of life and storing it somewhere safe/permanent - In reality, it is
like squeezing an orange and then putting the juice back inside the orange.

------
ajeet_dhaliwal
I think that the death of a close loved one is a prerequisite to truly
understanding how short life is. Having children helps too but I don't think
it is enough on it's own. I do absolutely agree that children are the best at
focusing us on what is important.

I have known how short life is for a long time but I encounter people on a
daily basis, most far older than me who don't seem to realise it or if they do
are acting irrationally. When I see them wasting their time on things that are
clearly not important it doesn't bother me too much because it is their time
to choose what to do with but what does make me angry is if they try to
involve me in the 'bullshit' too, to use the term used in the essay. At work
this can range from petty disagreements or the colleague that creates
busywork. I wonder how many people start startups recognise life is too short
compared to those who do not, it would be interesting to find out.

------
petercooper
I think Seneca said something on the topic that meshes even better with HN and
the startup way of life than this essay:

 _The state of all who are preoccupied is wretched, but the most wretched are
those who are toiling not even at their own preoccupations but must regulate
their sleep by another’s, their walk by another’s pace, and obey orders in
those freest of all things, loving and hating. If such people want to know how
short their lives are, let them reflect how small a portion is their own._

------
azakai
> In middle school and high school, what the other kids think of you seems the
> most important thing in the world. But when you ask adults what they got
> wrong at that age, nearly all say they cared too much what other kids
> thought of them.

That doesn't mean they were wrong when they were kids.

On the one hand, we want to believe the adults because they have perspective
and experience. They were those kids. But on the other hand, we should also
believe the kids because they are actually living it.

------
arbre
Quote from the dalai lama: Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he
sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to
recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does
not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present
or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having
never really lived.

~~~
eswat
That quote is not actually from the Dalai Lama, or at the very least there’s
enough evidence on the interwebs to suggest this is the case
([https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/525471-man-surprised-me-
mos...](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/525471-man-surprised-me-most-about-
humanity-because-he-sacrifices-his)).

------
unclebucknasty
In a very real sense, though, isn't it all bullshit? I mean, it depends on
whether you choose to accept or reject the current Matrix as normative human
life, but there is an argument to be made.

For instance, it is kind of funny to say this or that company is more or less
bullshitty, when the whole structure is such that requires the masses to work
for _some_ company, else essentially be deprived of the resources required for
their subsistence. So, most people will have to earn their subsistence by
participating in a scheme that allocates more to someone else's subsistence.

Maybe it's the best we can do, but on that scale, the bullshittiest company of
all is only marginally more bullshitty than the least.

------
hellofunk
>And while it's impossible to say what is a lot or a little of a continuous
quantity like time, 8 is not a lot of something. If you had a handful of 8
peanuts, or a shelf of 8 books to choose from, the quantity would definitely
seem limited, no matter what your lifespan was.

But not if you had 8 private jets, or 8 cars, or 8 houses, or even 8
telephones. This is a rather arbitrary statement.

~~~
veidr
So true! For instance, if you had 8 pathologically pedantic Internet
commenters, you would end up with 8 comments just like yours.

~~~
hellofunk
Thank you for that lovely contribution.

------
jrapdx3
Good timing on the topic, I mean "how short is it?" when it comes to life
duration. I'm at a stage of slowing down, cutting back after working for
decades "at the front line". Like everyone says, it all zoomed by so fast.

Or did it? I think it reflects the point of view, when we're involved in work,
all the details to take care of, we feel overwhelmed, busy, time isn't rushing
by at all. But once it's history, the past, all of that is suddenly doesn't
exist, it has no reality and it is packaged up in memory as though it was just
a brief moment. Kind of like closing a menu what's there is hidden, except
we're not reopening it, at least not the same way ever again.

Time is relative, as Einstein said, it goes quickly sitting next to a pretty
girl, but a boring lecture drags on forever. The epochs across the lifespan
come and go, and I think we judge the duration of experience by its currency
because involvement with events in real time gives the sense of time. The
meaning of a "long" or "short" time is anchored in such reality.

Anyway I've been thinking for a while that what's important is not how much
time we have left to live. After all that's not something we can actually ever
know. What matters is what we do with the time we have. I'd surely agree we
can't afford to waste it on irrelevancies, pipe-dreams, or bitterness. Far
better to do what we can, when we can do it.

------
keerthiko
> It is possible to slow time somewhat.

pg mentions this, but what he says after is not even the best advice in this
same essay for it. The real insight is here:

> The "flow" that imaginative people love so much has a darker cousin that
> prevents you from pausing to savor life amid the daily slurry of errands and
> alarms.

The way to slow time down is to break all your routines, and never be in a
flow. Have no typical days. Don't have a schedule. Don't have a favorite
restaurant, a default outfit, or hang out with the same people more than once
or twice before seeking new people. This is nearly impossible for most people
to do, because doing these things SUCK. And time is slowest when everything
feels like it sucks.

I only know this because this was what my life was for 2 years when I was on
the road as a digital nomad. It sucked, but was the most rewarding period of
my life as well, because it truly was time slowed down. I learned and
experienced such a larger spectrum of things in the same time frame than
anyone I knew, including myself from any other time frame.

I don't endorse it as a long-term way to live life, but I highly recommend
everyone spend at least a year of their (preferably younger, pre-family) adult
life living thus to learn truly how much can be fit in a human life if you
frame it right.

------
vinayak147
An experience feels meaningful only with respect to others that don't. If it
wasn't for bullshit we would never know what to cherish.

The bullshit and cherishable also seem to frequently reverse roles. Many
things that seem like noise today, may return to foreground with profound
meaning later.

I wonder if perhaps nothing is bullshit or meaningful after all. Experience
simply plays this game of light and shadow to keep us entertained.

~~~
Nagyman
Bullshit :)

You can have no crime and still know that which is crime. I understand what
you're saying though. The meaningless can become meaningful with chance, the
right connection, or by repetition. Some view video games as wasted time, but
how many gamers met their significant other or became a programmer in such
situations?

------
resca79
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be
trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's
thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner
voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and
intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything
else is secondary.

Steve Jobs

------
blakethorne
"One heuristic for distinguishing stuff that matters is to ask yourself
whether you'll care about it in the future."

Great advice. But I sometimes struggle with this as it requires a bit of
forecasting (you need to put yourself in the 'future' mindset before deciding
if you'll care -- this can be hard).

My heuristic is this. It works about 95 percent of the time.

Ask yourself: What motivated the person who made this?

If the answer is, simply, "anger" "money" "boss made me" "had to hit my
quarterly numbers, or some similar reason, you're probably better off skipping
it.

You want to look for the answers that are more genuine: "love" "practicing a
craft" "desire to build something."

This generally helps me decide if something is worth putting in my brain (or
my body). It helps me avoid M&Ms (junk food) and to guilt-free enjoy my mom's
homemade cookies over the holidays. It helps me avoid clickbait and spend time
reading quality essays.

------
oli5679
240 comments so far (mostly debates amongst strangers) on an essay
recommending never to debate online with strangers....

------
sanderjd
> There has always been a stream of people who opt out of the default grind
> and go live somewhere where opportunities are fewer in the conventional
> sense, but life feels more authentic. This could become more common.

That part really struck me. I've long thought that the most incessant effect
of the student loan phenomenon is that debt _indentures_ you to working a
conventional job in a country at a similar level of economic development as
the one where you have the debt. You can't just "drop out" and go live
somewhere cheap in southeast Asia where it doesn't take much income to live,
because your debt payments are not adjusted for standard of living imbalances.

This is probably obvious to everyone, but I think it's worth noting that it is
something holding a _lot_ of people back from doing a lot of what is suggested
in the article.

------
omarish
Loved this article. It really reminded me of some of Seneca's writing,
specifically _On the Shortness of Life_:

> Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure
> to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it
> is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when
> it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we
> perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing.
> So it is—the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have
> any lack of it, but are wasteful of it. Just as great and princely wealth is
> scattered in a moment when it comes into the hands of a bad owner, while
> wealth however limited, if it is entrusted to a good guardian, increases by
> use, so our life is amply long for him who orders it properly.

------
EugeneOZ
Great post, thanks. Today I also was thinking about how it sucks to getting
old. I'm 32 but I see how I'm getting older, my friends getting older and
youth looks much brighter :) Value your life and time, young people, enjoy
your bodies, don't risk your health, make more love, travel more :)

------
salmonet
I've noticed that recently pg's twitter has a lot of comments that you would
see on a typical stay-at-home mom's Facebook wall. It's refreshing to see
someone with the financial opportunity cost of pg opt to stay home and hang
out with the kids.

~~~
fegu
While his opportunity cost is higher, he has the luxury of having "enough",
i.e. being financially independent. His focus on reducing bullshit in life and
spending more time at home would not be possible to the same extent without
the bank account. What we see here is the typical thoughts of a middle aged
man who has already made his fortune. Nothing to see, move along.

------
reasonattlm
Life is short. So why not do something about that? Are we not meant to be the
very essence of creation? Is this not an age of revolutionary progress in
biotechnology?

Just this past week I helped out a young company whose founders are working
toward clinical translation of a method of clearance of senescent cells, one
of the very first actual honest-to-goodness narrow focus rejuvenation
therapies to emerge from the labs. This is something that works to repair and
reverse a form of tissue damage that contributes to near all age-related
disease.

This is far from the only approach to human rejuvenation presently under
development.

But, you know, life is short, so pay attention or not, up to you.

~~~
jk4930
Love your website. Keep up the good fight. Thanks.

------
datashovel
My take on this is the essay exposes a pretty significant flaw in the human
condition. The more capable a person is to ignore the bullshit (ie. enough
money to retire comfortably immediately) the less likely they should be doing
so. And yet having the ability to "ignore the bullshit" is an integral
component of what we've all come to recognize as "living the dream".

In way too many cases the "bullshit" exists because too many capable people
are ignoring it.

That is unless "bullshit" is defined as all things that don't matter to
anyone. In which case why would we assume anyone is focusing on those things
anyways?

------
gyardley
Life is short when your life is good.

Make too many bad decisions (or have too much bad luck) and it turns out life
is really, really long.

------
gpsx
Life is too short for us individually. But I think it is interesting that life
is probably just the right amount of time for us as a species, that is if
evolution has successfully selected our proper genetic lifespan. If
individuals live longer then the species evolves slower and it can not adapt
as well. Evolution is measured in generations, not absolute years.

Of course the optimal lifespan will change over time. Today we aren't really
facing so many physical survival challenges, but if we extend life longer then
we may slow down our speed of innovation.

------
hownottowrite
Last two sentence contain all that's important here.

"Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor
the time you have. That's what you do when life is short."

------
seansoutpost
Paul,you don't know me. But this could not have been more perfectly timed.
Thank you, so much.

~~~
artursapek
I'm somewhat active in the Bitcoin community. Are you the person who runs the
bitcoin-friendly homeless shelter? Do you suffer from people writing bullshit
about you, too? I imagine you might, in your position.

------
lifeisstillgood
> We had the best time a daddy and a 3 year old ever had.

A couple of years back I was working remotely in UK for US clients - so my day
started later. Which meant I woke up with the kids, fed them, played with
them, walked them to school.

My abiding memories are cuddling a child in an arm each watching early morning
TV before starting the day.

We should all be so lucky, except it's not luck - it's consciously as a
society designing work around community and family not the other way round

------
FatalBaboon
It is funny how one of the top comment is a very long debate about how this
article is good or not, completely missing the point.

The sooner you realize life is short, the more you will make smart use of your
time.

The same goes for faith: the sooner you realize there is no life after death,
the more you will make smart use of your time. Your brain runs out of
electricity and fluids, and poof you go.

~~~
ue_
I disagree on the point about life after death. I don't think that having
faith that there's something _after_ necessarily leads to valuing your time
less _now_. Especially when you don't know what's in store for you next - a
good existence or a bad one. With that kind of uncertainty, I'd certainly
value the time I have now - at least I _know_ what it's like now.

There are also two ways of thinking about what's "smart". For the faithful,
the smart thing to do is racking up merit (or studying or whatever) for your
future rebirth or heaven etc.

For the materialistic people, the smart thing to do is to enjoy the time you
have right now by doing what makes you feel good.

Both groups of people think the other is being silly, foolish or something
else.

~~~
FatalBaboon
For the faithful, racking up merit, studying etc are indeed noble pursuits no
matter what. But I was more speaking about all the time spent in churches,
praying etc in the mislead hope of having eternal life.

------
pasbesoin
People telling me to stick it out. Wait for things to improve. Wait until grad
school. That the onus was _always_ on me to adapt to the system and its
(their) practices.

Worst. Advice. Ever.

If I have one thing to contribute, one iota of value to extract and pass on
from my life, this may be it.

P.S. Substitute "extortion" for advice, in many circumstances, for a sense of
how it really worked.

------
tmsh
This is the best essay I've read since the Addiction one. Cheers.

------
mikemajzoub
From one stranger to another, thank you for posting this essay. I'm at a bit
of a crossroads in my life, and your essay came at just the right moment.
(This is one of the reasons I love the internet.)

If anyone wants to use IoT data, personal search queries, etc., to build a
recommendation engine that increases the probability of 'reading the right
thing at just the right time in life', I'd sign up for it! For subtle/complex
things, this seems like an overly-intimidating task, but to get started on the
project, someone querying illness, loss, etc., might benefit profoundly from
this. You'd be essentially be creating a 'skewed Google' that returns what the
user _needs_ rather than what the user _wants_ at the moment. (That said,
don't pursue such a project at the expense of spending time with family... :)
It's a tough balance to strike, isn't it?)

In peace, Mike

------
p4wnc6
Some practical ways that readers can implement this advice:

1\. Don't work for a start-up, since they don't impart salary-winning
experience to you, they don't pay you or provide reasonable benefits, and they
also don't allow you the freedom to work on big ideas that they usually
promise. The lines used to sell naive engineers on working in start-ups are as
paramount to life's-too-short-bullshit as anything can be.

2\. Don't agree to work in Agile/Scrum-like one-size-fits-all software
management environments. Almost every single aspect of these systems is
bullshit and will waste your time and break down your morale while draining
away your productivity in the best years of your life.

3\. Don't work in open-plan offices or even offices that merely have cubicles.
It's been settled for a long, long time that even in dense urban areas,
providing private offices for individual knowledge workers is extremely cost
effective for businesses, as productivity, work-place cognitive health, job
satisfaction, moral, etc., all go up substantially. Generally the only reasons
for open-plan offices are (1) bullshit trendiness in which an organization
performs a shallow copy of some other organization, (2) hyperbolic focus on
short-term costs, which means you should be thinking that the upper management
doesn't know what they are doing and are bullshitting you -- it's similar to
seeing a company stop providing free coffee as a money-saving tactic. It's
bullshit -- coffee is so cheap and the productivity and good will it brings
are so valuable that it's virtually never a reasonable plan to cut it; and (3)
environments where upper management get off on surveillance and cognitive
manipulation, and so it becomes a company cultural value to cram everyone into
big rooms where you function more like a piece of office furniture than as a
worker.

Personally I would also add that life's too short for enterprise C++ and Java
(the languages themselves are quite fine, but anyone telling you that some
legacy system couldn't have been maintained and incrementally brought into a
better state by 2016 is, once again, bullshitting you and see you as nothing
but a glorified code janitor).

I think if I could give any advice to young developers, it would be that if
they want management types to respect them throughout a prosperous career,
they have to avoid the bullshit of the items above. If you let a manager or
executive bullshit you by duping you into working for a start-up, by getting
you to agree you are a child whose own creative thinking about problem solving
can't be trusted and so Agile/Scrum cookbook management is needed and you must
play your part, or by getting you to agree that your natural inclinations for
privacy, clarity of thought, protection of productivity and time, should all
be sublimated so you can be a "team player" by wearing headphones that cost
more than your employer's 401k matches for the year so you can just barely
function 10 feet from a foosball table, you've already lost, and it will take
years to undo the damage.

~~~
ajeet_dhaliwal
I haven't done 1 but I have experienced 2 and 3 at tech companies. The
scrum/agile and open plan office stuff is so bad for me that it's been all the
confirmation I need to know that I need out as soon as possible into something
else - life is definitely too short for that.

~~~
p4wnc6
And only by insisting on this stuff, confidently and for very rational
reasons, together as a community of engineers and developers, during
employment negotiations, will we ever start achieving wider spread adoption of
healthy, employee-affirming and humanity-affirming behaviors by organizations.

------
xCathedra
A lot of these points sound similar to the famous resolutions of the young
Jonathan Edwards. I try to make a habit of reading them at least once a year
for many of the points Paul mentions in this article.

[http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWF...](http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy4xNTo3NDoxLndqZW8=)

a few examples: "6\. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live."

"9\. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the
common circumstances which attend death."

"52\. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they
were to live their lives over again: resolved, that I will live just so as I
can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age"

------
codeshaman
One added word entirely changes the rationale of "life is short" for me.

"This", meaning "current".

Add the belief that there is another (form of) life after this one and
suddenly the equation changes:

This life is short. But then there's another one coming.

The scientists in us agree - of course there is no evidence of life after this
one, despite the messages transmitted to us from our ancestors - in the form
of stories, traditions, superstitions, beliefs, religions. Depending on who
you ask - we either go to a place were we stay forever (heaven/hell/spirit
world) or we come back to life as another being or life form.

But the body dies and rots away !

Technically the body has died many times during it's lifetime - cells die and
others are created - or rather - create themselves according to the
instructions in the DNA.

The DNA is the one that moves forward through time, all the other pieces of
our bodies rot away. But not the whole of it, just 50%. Half the DNA vanishes
into void.

But "I" will no longer "exist" !

That's a belief. And also quite vague, because - who/what is this "I" ? Is it
my body, is it my brain, is it something which lives inside the body/brain, is
it all imaginary ?

Well, think about anyone - someone who's not near you right now - who is
he/she ?

Right now, he/she is a thought.

Isn't everyone, dead or alive, just that - a thought ? Isn't "I" a thought
then ?

If so, what is life then ? A story ?

Your story.

"Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all
the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short,
therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he
dwells." \- Marcus Aurelius

------
xlayn
I've thinking about the entry... and every once and then you think about it;
and realize: it's about choice...

What will be the best use of your time?

When someone ask for the best flavor of linux, or program, or car; depending
on the forum you may get the answer "that depends on you", and you may read a
lot of different opinions on why people think their version is the best "for
them".

With that comes a small problem: deciding the best use of your time, plan for
the rest of your life may be incredibly complex.

An alternative B plan could be planning around: "What I don't want on my life"

-I don't want to be in the middle of traffic because is less time with my family...

-I want to spend less time on the internet to go the gym.../I want to stop being a gym rat to learn something on the internet

------
AYBABTME
I love this essay, and I love the mindset of being aware that your life is
limited and your time should not be wasted. I find it is avery enabling
realization. A personal favorite quote of mine:

    
    
          "Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly 
          granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. 
          It is time now to realize the nature of the universe to which you belong, 
          and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand 
          that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your 
          enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again." 
    
        Marcus Aurelius (Meditations 2:4)

------
BatFastard
Life is too short to be in a hurry

While that seem contradictory, it is not. When we are in a hurry we make
unneeded mistakes, we don't enjoy the process of what we are doing, and we
don't do things that reflect our true selves.

------
sireat
"Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor
the time you have. That's what you do when life is short."

As a 40+ parent, I savor the time with my children, parents and friends and I
prune the bullshit in work down to minimum.

The big problem: How do you choose what matters if nothing matters on the
grand scale?

Life is so short that at 40+ you realize you will never get to do even 0.1% of
your bucket list. So which rock do you push uphill?

In other words at 20-30 you can be adventurous and make mistakes. At 40+ you
have promises to keep and miles to go before you sleep.

------
wellpast
> The "flow" that imaginative people love so much has a darker cousin that
> prevents you from pausing to savor life amid the daily slurry of errands and
> alarms.

A similar thought scares the shit of me. I can code for hours on end (in the
"flow") toward even perhaps the most trivial ends established by my employer.
On the one hand, you could say I'm doing what I love in life. On the other,d
darker hand, it seems like I'm squandering so many hours of my life playing
this (effective) video game where I code for points (money).

------
cmacole
This was a really powerful essay. Don't know if using "8" is a good way to
measure if there are not a lot of something. 8 light-years is pretty far and 8
tons is pretty heavy. But overall, great insights.

My favorite: "One heuristic for distinguishing stuff that matters is to ask
yourself whether you'll care about it in the future. Fake stuff that matters
usually has a sharp peak of seeming to matter. That's how it tricks you. The
area under the curve is small, but its shape jabs into your consciousness like
a pin."

------
dantheman
I really liked this essay. I've been spending a lot of my time dealing with
bullshit, and it's exhausting. Essays like this provide me a reminder to step
back and re-evaluate -- is what I think true, has the situation changed, have
I changed. What should I do next.

There's a lot written on how to live a great life, but in the end more and
more I think, you live great stages in life. At any stage, you optimize for it
and with an eye for being prepared for future stages.

------
thebear
Somewhat unbelievably, I still have that 1960's jeans jacket with the patch on
it that says, "Do it today, tomorrow it may be illegal." And, all hail the
Internet, that thing can still be bought online:

[http://www.holidays.net/mlk/store/Old-60-s-70-s-Protest-
type...](http://www.holidays.net/mlk/store/Old-60-s-70-s-Protest-type-Patch-
Do-It-Today-tomorrow-It-May-Be-Illegal_272105666913.html)

------
jmcmahon443
Mr. Graham:

I believe you meant "ensure" not "insure" here:

"Indeed, the law of supply and demand insures that: the more rewarding some
kind of work is, the cheaper people will do it."

Thank you.

------
FreedomToCreate
Wonder what he thinks when he was investing in OMGPOP, Reddit and 9Gag. How
many hours have those sites clocked off of peoples lives. Don't get addicted
:)

------
victor22
Great essay. I've always tried to get out of bullshit with some complex
thinking, but at the end of the day, most of it could be avoided faster if
preceded by a simple "Is this bullshit?" question. For example, I just
realised I wasted 1 week of my time with meetings with an "investor" I knew
was bullshitter, because I didn't want to ask myself this question.

------
simula67
What if bullshit leads to doing well in things that you care about ? For
example, I don't like posturing, building portfolio on Github etc, but if it
leads me to getting a better job at a place I can solve complex problems
thereby becoming a better engineer, I would like that very much.

------
orthoganol
This could be a strong argument for and against doing a startup: For - act
today on your dream, which uses a startup as its vehicle; Against - sacrifice
years, maybe a decade+, of your short life, because you thought it would make
you rich or is considered prestigious in your circles.

------
beeboop
Absolutely my favorite post of his. Rings so true for me right now. Writing
this comment is "bullshit" but it makes me feel better to express my
satisfaction with reading this post. I need to connect with people more and
spend fewer months and years of my life in isolation.

------
blinkingled
PG says Life is Short. There are still 101 people arguing^W discussing it - on
an online forum no less ;)

~~~
heraclez
This

------
GlennS
The original (or is it?) 'Ars Longa' is a nice, short read. Worth a pause:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_longa,_vita_brevis#Transla...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_longa,_vita_brevis#Translations)

------
nthnclrk
Rather than engage in the mindless and genuinely inconsequential debate
regarding the previous essay, I'd like to bring some attention back to the
fact _this_ essay is a genuinely fantastic piece of very clear, appreciable
thought.

------
SimeVidas
Don’t know about life, but my attention span is too short for long posts.
Thanks Reddit.

------
transfire
I've been saying this for years... Seems to me we should all drop everything
else we are doing and start working on age-extension technology. Once that's
solved we will all have plenty of time to do anything else we want.

~~~
xiaoma
And how many more years will you wait before you do that? How many more years
_can_ you wait and still be able to make a difference?

------
SixSigma
Not only is is short, it's not very wide either - Steven Wright

------
xjay
Life is short if your ego is high. Life is long if your ego is low.

------
known
Sounds like
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reminiscence_bump](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reminiscence_bump)

------
rdiddly
Know what's funny, life is short, and life is too short for a lot of the crap
you'll spend your life doing, but you'll do it anyway because... that's life!

------
jasonwen
I never wanted to have kids, maybe I'm too young for that. By reading this it
definitely made me a step closer to be open to have kids in the future. Thank
you for that.

------
rajacombinator
Good essay, one of the few recent PG ones I've agreed with.

------
EGreg
I wrote something about this very topic years ago:

[http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=49](http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=49)

------
chrisweekly
Beautiful post.

As a father of young children, and a cancer survivor, these words resonated
more with me than anything I've encountered on hn in a very long time -- maybe
ever.

------
ianamartin
Am I the only person on HN who doesn't have this problem?

Other people's bullshit has never bothered me.

I regularly just turn my phone off and pick up the pieces when I feel like it.

Maybe that comes from my musician background. I don't know.

Or maybe I'm just the most inefficient person in the world because I don't
give a shit about anything. I just do what I think is necessary when I think
it's needed.

I think I'm a fairly productive person. I get things done. But I don't worry
about it much.

I spend most of my thoughts and energy on my family and my girlfriend, not
work.

Okay, that's not fair: I spend quite a lot of time reading books.

Is this a real problem? Or is it a straw man?

------
VieElm
This is article is contradicting itself although it may not be so obvious. I
imagine dwelling on regrets can be classified as a bullshit activity. It
certainly does for me. I am sure you can infer the rest of my argument.

Just do the best you can with your time. If you become unhappy with how you
spent it you can use that to inform you on future decisions but you can't
change the past.

The pain of having missed significant time with someone you care about is
severe, but it is also a thing you can't change.

I am not saying pg is wrong, I am pointing out a problem.

Life may be too short to worry about how you are spending your time.

------
brhsiao
Out of curiosity, what does the vb in vb.html stand for?

~~~
foysavas
Most likely, 'vita brevis'.

~~~
brhsiao
Thanks!

------
zhte415
20 years is 1% of the time since the Bible was written to today.

Life is short, so is history, and the impact we can make is enormous.

------
huuu
In another related thread I posted: Cut away branches that suck energy but
don't bear fruit.

For me this is my bullshit filter.

------
rbrogan
Life is short, art long. If you cannot escape the bullshit, you might at least
make an art of bullshitting. ;)

------
snarfy
This article assumes the purpose of life is accomplishment. Don't forget to
stop and smell the roses.

------
elwell
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the
human heart."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

------
vasilipupkin
fantastic essay. I would just add that life is too short but it is also in a
sense very very long. Lots of new chapters and new windows open even as old
ones close or narrow. It seems like two entirely contradictory ideas, but I
think they are both true at the same time.

------
statictype
Great piece. This may be the first pg piece I share with my non technical
friends and family

------
somberi
Blake's take on this:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

------
ilyaeck
Live is too short to read this article in full :)

------
falsedan
so… he's not dying?

------
AbdulBahajaj
e

------
heraclez
Off HN I go?

------
dang
We've closed this thread to comments by new accounts because of trolls.

If you have a new account and want to comment here, you're welcome to email us
at hn@ycombinator.com.

------
xyzzy4
On a zoomed-out log scale of significance from 0 to infinity, bullshit
activities would rank almost equally important as non-bullshit activities. So
just let life happen. Nothing you do is extremely consequential or important
regardless.

If you're stuck in traffic, you could've been reading a book. If you were
reading a book, you could've been cleaning your room. If you were cleaning
your room, you could've been working on a side project. If you were doing
that, you could've been working on a better side project to get rich. But that
would be less important than curing cancer, which is less important than
curing old age. However, even curing old age pales in significance to the fact
that entropy will dissipate all energy in the universe. How are you going to
prevent that? And what if there's multi-verses that need to be fixed too
somehow. You didn't fix the past either. Maybe you should've worked on a time
machine instead of solving entropy problems. And what about all those people
in poverty getting malaria because you were working on some b.s. problem?

It never ends. You could go crazy dwelling on this stuff too much.

------
alexandercrohde
Summary:

\- Poses the hypothesis that "Life is short"

\- Proposes an 'objective' basis for this feeling: some of his most meaningful
life events happen 8 or less times

\- Transitions that the shortness of life justifies avoiding "bullshit," while
acknowledging that's a loaded term.

\- Proposes examples of "bullshit," traffic jams, unnecessary meetings,
bureaucracy, and arguing online.

\- Suggests arguing online is an example of a habit that is addictive, yet
bullshit.

\- Defines bullshit as things that won't matter to you in the future upon
reflection.

\- Proposes ways to avoid bullshit

\- Proposes a way to savor time

Analysis:

\- I'm not sold on the metric of measuring something by how much we value it
upon reflection.

\- I don't think the premise "Life is short" needs to be established to
justify "avoid bullshit."

\- The argument is fairly loose in that 99.9% of our lives are bullshit by his
definition. Is 99% of sex bullshit?

Interesting piece, smarter than your average bear.

~~~
alexandercrohde
I'd be curious to understand the downvotes. I felt I gave this essay a very
objective treatment.

~~~
dang
Probably because HN threads are supposed to be conversations and that kind of
summary interrupts a conversation.

~~~
alexandercrohde
That theory wouldn't explain why all of my other such summaries have done so
well though.

------
nice1
I do not always agree with PG's essays, but this one is spot on. Identifying
BS is the major task we all face, and having children is a big help - this has
been supremely true in my own life. Granted, this does not solve specific
problems, but it gives a sense of direction. Without it we are cannot see the
forest for the trees.

------
55acdda48ab5
> Life is short, as everyone knows

I've never got this sentiment. Life is the longest thing anyone has ever done.
Life is long, very long. I think back ten years ago and it seems like an age
ago. It was. I'm early 30s and I feel like I've lived a long life; seen a lot
and done a lot and had my kicks. That I've maybe got another full 60 years if
I play my cards right is amazing to me. It seems like eons.

The only funny thing about time I've noticed is that as you age (and if you
read) the past gets closer and closer. When I was a kid finding out people
were born in the 1940s was amazing. _SO_ long ago! Now Napoleon's reign seems
very relevant and modern to me.

------
ebbv
This is the first pg essay I have read and fully agreed with at the end
without reservation. Good advice.

------
crimsonalucard
You as pg's wife have vested interest in pg's reputation as your well-being is
intrinsically tied with his reputation and well-being through marriage. Your
words are not totally empty though as it is still supporting evidence, it is
just not solid evidence and it is not something I will totally accept, unlike
the op.

The probability for this essay to pop-up right after PG started a fire with
his economic essay is just to small for there to be no connection. Could be,
that this essay is in itself bullshit. People lie to themselves to hide truths
that are painful but self evident. I think this essay could be such a lie.

~~~
geofft
I am no fan of pg's worldview but I think there are less conspiratorial and
more good-faith ways to attack it. I genuinely accept what jl said, but _even
if I didn 't_ this just isn't a point worth pressing (unlike, oh, "you have
presented no evidence that increasing economic inequality is inherently
necessary to the social good which you wish to do, as opposed to simply a
convenient approach with externalities you could avoid but don't care to").
Whether or not this essay is self-deception, if he does not believe that it is
and cannot be convinced that it is, there's nothing productive in arguing
further and certainly nothing productive in doing so aggressively.

~~~
crimsonalucard
Sure. What is productive or nonproductive is your opinion and I can partly
agree with your opinion. However, I'm not on HN to be productive (who is?).
I'm just here to introduce my thoughts in a way that I perceive logical.

Also please note that although I was obviously disagreeing with paul on
economic inequality I was not explicitly debating the topic. I was simply
pointing out potential bias of a post made by a biased source and the possible
validity that this recent essay was in response to the backlash caused by pg's
economic article.

Additionally, I spent deliberate effort to craft my post in a way to avoid
aggression as much as possible. I specifically stated that jl's statement can
be classified as supporting evidence but it's still biased evidence and that
it needs to be taken into account.

>I am no fan of pg's worldview but I think there are less conspiratorial and
more good-faith ways to attack it

Your OP was a conspiratorial attack. I am just defending your original
opinion.

------
plasticchris
Life is very long - TS Eliot

