
Ask YC:  Do you watch TV? - daniel-cussen
Ask YC:  Do you watch TV?
======
pg
No. I realized TV was what I would now call a "time sink" (didn't have a word
for it then) when I was about 15, and stopped watching it. I've never owned a
TV. I do sometimes watch old TV episodes on DVD though. I especially recommend
Fawlty Towers, Jeeves and Wooster, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Saint.

~~~
umjames
I wish I had that type of willpower.

My Dad always had a TV on. Looking back on it, that really wasn't good for any
of us.

How are you able to break such bad habits?

~~~
edw519
Willpower's got nothing to do with it.

That's like saying, "What? You never strike your children? You must have a lot
of willpower."

Here's what to do. Put you TV in front of your house with a sign on it, "Do
Not Take".

7 minutes later, problem solved.

~~~
Electro
At about 16, when I first got a gig writing reviews I decided TV took up too
much time. At that point I simply pulled the cable out the back of the thing
and just continued to use it to review games.

Now I simply don't have a TV, I still own one but it's in storage. I have a
small problem with DVD's, but mostly because it's rather boring eating alone,
and I barely play games on my PC anymore since reviewing them made pretty much
90% of games detestable. I literally had to force myself to play through
Metalheart: Replicants Rampage, description claimed it was like a new Fallout;
I believe they mixed up the game with the feeling of "Oh dear god, that pain
is my life draining away" of radiation poisoning.

Now I have so much time without TV that I'm going to blitz out a novel I've
been working on over the next couple of weeks. It's been a while since I tried
to get anything published, so its about time I _did_ get something published.

------
NoBSWebDesign
I work best with distractions. My favorite three distractions are music,
people (i.e. going to the coffee shop), and tv, in that order. If I'm coding
at home, either the music is cranked or the tv is on. Though, I try to watch
uninteresting shows, so that I don't get distracted. If either Discovery or
the History channel are on, I'm not getting much done.

~~~
ardit33
I used to be like you, but now I am appreciating quiet solitude.

I am most effective between 10pm and 2am. It is weird, but knowing everybody
else is going to bed, and you are coding, makes you more efficient,

I am also very efficient between 6a.m and 8-9am.

It also might be related that the background sound level drops by few decibels
during the night.

I just can't do much work during the day, unless there some other kind of
pressure (i.e. I have to finish something by that day).

~~~
NoBSWebDesign
I'm the exact same way. I am most productive from about 11pm to 4am. Luckily
my 9-5 only requires me to work "just hard enough to not get fired." I'm also
still in college, so my college roomies don't mind the music at 3am, as long
as it's not blasting.

------
enomar
It seems like questions like this are trying create some kind of Hacker
monoculture. That's lame. Watching TV doesn't make you a bad hacker.

~~~
scooter53080
I agree. This happens outside of the hacker world too. In general I find
people are very boastful about the fact they don't watch TV.

------
ivankirigin
No time. I would include DVDs of TV shows as TV. I used to watch them more.
Watching an entire season of a good show over the course of a few days is MUCH
better than serial TV.

Even shows like Seinfeld are better. I didn't realize till I watched them in
order that they reference previous episodes all the time.

~~~
azsromej
This is how I watch TV. I now find waiting a week to see a new episode of some
show annoying, more so than being a season or two behind a series.

------
rms
<http://www.thedailyshow.com>

<http://www.videosift.com>

<http://www.theonion.com/video>

~~~
carpal
I use hulu a lot too. A pretty good resource, all in all.

~~~
sammyo
Got beta invites?

~~~
cstejerean
You don't need an invite. Sign up and you should receive an email from hulu
within 2 weeks or so.

------
umjames
Yes, too much though in my opinion. I really only watch 2 types of shows:
sports and cartoons/anime.

I should be able to cut down on sports. It's easier if you're engaged in
coding to forget to turn a game on.

The cartoons I watch all are shown on Cartoon Network. Since I've seen most of
the Family Guy episodes, that's easy to skip. The anime is harder. I find the
stories much better than other programs on television.

I recently found a place in NYC that sells some popular anime on DVD imported
from Japan. That allows me to get huge chunks of the series in one shot, as
opposed to 1 or 2 episodes/week on TV. For example, I bought the entire Death
Note series 2 weeks ago. It came in 3 containers with 3 DVDs each.

Since I don't live in NYC, I don't have to worry about frequenting there too
often.

~~~
NSX2
Well, I live in NYC area and I think I know what store you speak of - in the
Village, correct?

Perhaps I shouldn't tell you about "certain" well-developed import sites where
you can get a copy of just about anything that comes out of Japan in any
version you can dream of ...

And I'm sure you know of Anime Network, all anime, all the time.

Now, be strong! Don't google these things! You have work to do and can't be
distracted!

~~~
umjames
The store I'm talking about is actually in Chinatown. I've been to Mondo Kim's
in the Village, and their anime section (all half of one side of an island)
left something to be desired.

Is there another store in the Village that I don't know of?

Don't worry, I know about Anime Network, and I purposely don't get it.

I won't google anything either.

~~~
NSX2
Well I actually forgot the name, but I'm pretty sure it's not Mondo Kim.

It's like straight out of a movie where you find this old, eclectic store and
it has all these buildable, multi-scale Gundam models, etc.

I try not to go becuase the first time I went it was like, "Dragon Ball Z -
the Uncut, Unedited version" and it was like, "WTF? There's an edited and an
unedited version"?

Basically everything they have makes me realize just how much I haven't seen
... by the time I got done with my wish list I had like $15,000 worth of anime
I really, really wanted to see.

That's when i realized I lost control, walked out and never came back.

But if you want to chase the anime dragon, let me know - I"ll ask around for
you.

But I don't take responsibility if you walk into the anime den never to see
the light of day again ...

~~~
umjames
Thanks, that would be great. I know it's not the Tokyo Toy Store on St. Marks
Place. They have a lot of action figures (mostly Asian) but no anime.

I don't travel to NYC often, so I'm not worried about being there constantly,
and I definitely don't have the kind of money to splurge on a lot of anime. I
know I'll be OK.

------
edw519
No.

The only thing I ever watched was football at the local Pittsburgh Steelers
bar. Until I did the math for the Monday Night game against the Dolphins on
November 26. 206 minutes elapsed time. 60 minutes football clock time. 8
minutes actual football being played. 3 points scored (with 17 seconds left).
7000 commercials.

Funny how much more valuable your time is when you're doing a start-up.
Spending 4 hours to see 8 minutes of content is no longer an option.

On the bright side, I have 7 months before next season to find a 12 step
program.

~~~
jimbokun
Living in Pittsburgh, I don't see myself being able to give this up _. Sunday
lunch at my parents or in-laws, with the game on, is an entrenched family
tradition. Formula 1 or Calcio when the Steelers aren't playing (my father in
law is an Italian immigrant, if you hadn't guessed).

I have surprised myself, though, by totally forgetting about some weeknight
Steelers games this year. I guess that's progress. Your analysis of elapsed
time is sobering.

_For those of you who haven't lived here, the Steelers are basically the
city's religion. pg would understand what I mean:

<http://www.paulgraham.com/gateway.html> (grep football)

------
samson
Asking me if I watch TV is like asking me if I go to the theater to watch new
movies. The answer is NO to both (90% of the time), but that doesn't mean I
don't consume some of the content through other methods (I download it).

Meaning I won't just drop everything I'm doing on Thursday night to watch
Lost, but I'll perhaps catch it on a Saturday afternoon when I have the time
or feel like taking a break from my work.

------
apgwoz
Unfortunately yes. I find myself watching HGTV and other home type shows to
get ideas for the time when I actually own a home. I don't have Tivo, so it's
normally back to a book or papers during commercials. I'm also a big fan of
comedies like Scrubs, The Office, 30 Rock, Family Guy and The Simpsons. I seem
to find long marathons of Law & Order as well...

------
carpal
Not really. I cancelled cable about 6 months ago, and I haven't looked back.
The writer's strike helped a bunch, though.

I'll tune in to broadcast TV to occasionally watch Jeopardy while eating
dinner, or to catch a new episode of House (pretty much the only show I watch
regularly).

------
jimbokun
I'm a Lost addict. And now Heroes.

I find one of the most edifying things to watch (as TV programs go) is the
Charlie Rose show. He basically invites interesting people and lets them talk.
Much better than the chopped up sound bites that pass for interviews on
American "news."

------
raju
I actually watch some, and it increases during winter. I think it has to do
with SAD (considering I am not used to the weather, especially the bleak 4
months that we see here in Columbus, OH). The only show I follow is House (and
now Sarah Connor Chronicles) but I am at a point where its sucking up a lot of
time. I am going to cut the cable, and go DVD shopping. And of course,
commerical free shows are so much better.

Most of my TV watching happens in the background, while I am surfing the web
or catching up on my RSS reader, but its still a lousy habit

------
vasudeva
A few years ago, the girlfriend and I spent some time carefully building and
configuring a MythTV box, which was fun. Then we proceeded to not actually
watch any TV. 6 months later, when we realized we were only keeping the cable
subscription so that our Myth project wasn't purposeless, we cancelled it.

We still watch a decent bit of downloaded TV content -- we'll sit down and
watch entire seasons in a few evenings. We watch nothing in 'realtime' and we
see zero commercials.

(I actually miss commercials and wish people wouldn't cut them out of what I
download.)

------
mixmax
No - I have never owned a tv, and probably never will.

Seems like a waste of time to me.

------
mynameishere
No, and it's given me lots of extra time to concentrate on my drinking habit.

Actually, there was a period in my life when I had neither TV nor a computer.
I'm not sure what I spent my time doing...

------
dkokelley
TV came with AT&T Uverse (FiOS) so that I'd have a decent internet connection.
Fortunately it also includes a DVR so I can watch my shows when I'm too beat
to get any real work done.

Honestly though, for the first 14 years of my life, we didn't have TV. My
younger siblings have had TV for all the life they can remember, and I can
tell there's a difference. When I was younger I spent my time doing much more
productive things... like building a battlebot. I never got to play it though.

------
wallflower
I stopped watching TV when I moved to the city. Season 2 of Lost was the
hardest show to give up. Now I spend more than the time I spent watching TV
commuting to the suburbs.

------
a-priori
Yes, sort of. I don't have cable or anything, and I only follow House
(downloaded). My girlfriend and I have also been watching Star Trek (first
TNG, now Voyager).

~~~
aleclair
WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU ME?

------
maryrosecook
I gave up TV and computer games about two years ago. The first was easy, the
second was harder. The way to do it is just to have a lot of creative projects
on the go. In my case it was a start-up and a band, but it could be anything.
As soon as you start creating, you get way more sucked in than you ever do
with TV.

The only tricky part is finding something to keep your mind occupied when
you're eating. Reading leaps to mind.

------
dmoney
I stopped watching a lot of TV when I went away to college (didn't have one in
the dorm room the first couple years). After I graduated and moved into my own
place I never bothered getting cable hooked up, but I still use my TV for DVDs
and games. The kind of addiction some people have to TV, I have to the Web. I
think that and not getting enough sleep reinforce each other.

------
bouncingsoul
I gave up TV a few years ago, and now I physically can't stand to watch it.
It's the ad segments that interrupt the programming – I cringe at the thought
of how many hours and hours of worthless ads I've had pumped into my brain.

That said I do like some shows now (The Office, Stella, and Peep Show), but I
absolutely will not watch them in that life-wasting show/ads/show/ads/show
format.

------
sammyo
Didn't have one for several years and got out of the habit for awhile. There
is some great drama and comedy and if you keep it to 2-4 hours a week I think
it's as valid as any other entertainment. The only reality show that's not
crap is Project Runway, all the contestants are real entrepreneurs, and just
enough non-stupid-ass-silly stuff slips past the producers.

------
davidw
Bike races (classics, Giro, and Tour). After years of being deprived of
cycling coverage in the US, I am a slave to the black box during racing
season. Well, not really, but I do enjoy it, and I'll haul the computer in
front of the tv to keep track of the action while I work.

I've also been watching Doctor Who on BBC world, even though it's from several
seasons ago:-/

------
Alex3917
I occasionally watch The Daily Show because I like being able to visually see
the stuff I read about online. I also watch DVDs on my laptop, and
occasionally box sets of TV shows.

If I don't get enough work done though for more than a day or two I start to
feel physically unwell, and watching TV and playing videogames beyond a
minimal amount triggers the same feeling.

------
rcoder
I've been following the new Terminator TV series, and still tune in to the
local public broadcasting channel for a while when there's a good documentary
or news show scheduled, but network TV in general makes me twitchy and angry
more than it relaxes me.

If I had cable, I'd probably watch it, but that seems like as good a reason as
any not to get it.

------
juanpablo
No. But sometimes I watch some new TV series on DVD. In 20 years will be
something called 'TV' or just 'The Internet'?

------
cousin_it
No. Also, I try to never read newspapers or anything written by journalists.
It's basically all lies made to evoke "feelings" in you. There's no shortcut
to the truth, no alternative to actually learning the facts and the most
extreme and sincere arguments for every side, and choosing for yourself.

------
tjr
I often watch television whilst eating dinner, at least a few times a week,
and generally watch a couple movies each week (either broadcast on television
or on DVD).

Otherwise, my viewing is sporadic, and when it occurs, usually consists of
some older programs on DVD, or C-SPAN, or (this year) campaign news updates.

------
pmjordan
Our MythTV ( <http://www.mythtv.org/> ) setup didn't quite survive our recent
international move, so we're not watching much. Not that we watched much
before - there's not much good stuff on. We'll see what happens when I get
around to fixing myth.

------
hhm
Mostly, I don't. I was watching almost 0 tv when somebody gave me some Lost
Dvds and then I started seeing that. But apart from Lost, I don't see tv. I
don't like it... it's very, very boring.

But I like going to the cinema (and I like seeing good movies on tv when I'm
on the mood, but that's not usual).

------
brk
Sometimes for background noise/information. I watch very few TV "shows", and
what I do watch is usually coming off of Tivo.

Other than 1 or 2 shows I watch with my wife, most of my personal preference
is for something that is at least mildly interesting/informative (Myth
Busters, etc.)

------
mrtron
Yes, why do you ask?

Not a great deal, mostly sports, and it is more of background entertainment
than my focus.

------
bayareaguy
Our family collectively watches about 20 hours of television a year. We only
use it when we're all together and some relatively rare event is going on. My
wife is a big Tom Petty fan so we had the Superbowl on this year for about 3
hours.

------
hollywoodcole
Whats funny is...I have a TV which I use to output my computer too and watch
tv shows on.

------
ericb
Rarely, but I've been watching the Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles. I love
robots.

~~~
Readmore
great show, especially since the storyline is mainly about AI development.

~~~
ericb
Definitely. I think the twist will be that the Turk becomes an AI on the side
of good. The turk inventor's last name IS Goode, after all. Just speculating.
Also, I like that the terminator's name is Cameron, after "James Cameron" I
imagine.

------
icky
Lately I've been busy and have accidentally not watched TV in a while. Lots of
DVDs, though, and a couple trips to the movie theater.

Right now, I'm watching the BBC's "Little Britain" on DVD, though I don't
count anything on DVD as television.

------
thorax
I watch video podcasts. If you haven't started watching GigaOm, I highly
recommend it. It was really bad at first, but some of the VC/CEO/founder
interviews they've done are absolutely stellar stuff that have taught me a
lot.

------
jey
Only show that I watch on actual TV is The Daily Show. Sometimes when I'm
bored I watch lectures/talks/documentaries on the web.

www.ted.com has good short talks (10-20 mins) that can be good to watch when
taking a break, or eating, etc.

------
asmosoinio
Currently, yes, maybe a few hours per week or so. But soon, thanks to our
powerful government, they will stop broadcasting analog TV in this country
(Finland) and my home will be TV-free. Sweet.

------
axod
Only when it's not US TV :) Seriously, TV in the US is absolutely nothing like
TV in the UK. It's sometimes nice to have on in the background watching some
classic comedy or music tv.

------
ejs
Maybe an hour a week tops, have never been into it as I find tv far too
boring. My biggest time sink is exercising though, which I probably do just as
much as most people watch tv lol

------
intellectronica
No - haven't owned one for many years. Occasionally I download or get DVDs of
very good TV shows - I watched the Sopranos, for example, and made myself a
re-run of Twin Peaks.

------
babo
I was 13-14 when gave it up for good, saved me a lot during the years. Now we
are a family, living happily without turning it on, it's reserved for DVD's
and SuperMario only.

------
ardit33
No. Have a HDTV air antena for my tv, but the reception is not that great. I
use the TV only to watch the ocassionall rented movie.

Usually I am in front of my computer most of the time.

------
gibsonf1
No. I do watch dvds and Joost occasionaly though. Joost is especially good for
on demand video - just make sure you don't have any memory hogs running when
you use it.

------
rams
I haven't had a TV set now for two plus years. But you need to really have
some effective alternatives, otherwise you end up wasting time on something
else.

------
edu
I watch House MD (usually I first download the english version of each
episodee, see it, and then watch it again in spanish on TV) and Formula 1
races.

------
Xichekolas
No. Although I do still watch movies at home, and occasionally I'll get into a
series and watch it on DVD. Don't have actual TV service though.

------
jyu
I watch with Hulu a fair amount, does that count? Great UI, pretty good
selection, good quality, and few ads.

------
fortes
Don't own one, but there are a few shows I'll watch online or at a friend's
(30 Rock, the Office, etc).

------
dpapathanasiou
Only a few shows that I record with my MythTV (commercial auto-skip is a great
feature).

------
jgrahamc
Yes. Once a week we sit down and watch the latest two episodes of 24 on
Canal+.

------
dmix
No, I haven't watched TV in years.

I do watch South Park, The Wire, and Entourage via torrents.

------
CoreyKossack
In the past I watched TV a lot, but now only watch sparingly at night as a way
to relax and get myself off the computer. :)

Beyond that, I do watch a lot of TV/videos online.

Corey Kossack President Club E Network <http://www.ClubENetwork.com>

------
nickb
No. Haven't watched TV in over 4 years. It's a giant waste of time.

------
dkberktas
simple, no tv in the room, wait for the season final of the series like lost,
heroes, battlestar and get the whole season from torrent, watch them all non-
stop : )

------
andreyf
No. Don't own one, don't ever intend to.

------
joeguilmette
i dont watch tv, i download it :V

------
bgutierrez
No. Now I read Hacker News.

------
alaskamiller
hulu.com and adultswim.com and joox.net

------
merrick33
The Wire, Lost

------
Prrometheus
Mixed Martial Arts

The Wire

Other Sports

------
curi
TV contains lots of information about our culture.

~~~
Hexstream
Trying to learn something worthwhile with TV is like trying to get rich with
the lottery.

Sometimes you do indeed learn a little something/get a little cash, but at
least 99% of the time you're wasting your fucking time/money.

And if you still manage to be lucky enough to learn something/win cash, it's
still not very edifying (I'd rather make a million by myself than 30 millions
with the lottery).

~~~
curi
hexstream and jward,

i was suggesting you can learn about the target audience, by watching TV. this
works even if the content is bad. like our culture or not, i'm interested in
what it's like (which is important to know, if you hope to improve it).

for me at least, tv is not dangerous. i don't drool, i don't buy stuff b/c it
says to, i don't like stuff b/c it says to, etc

