

Stop stealing - johns
http://www.47hats.com/index.php/2008/07/28/stop-stealing/

======
helveticaman
If you are wondering whether you should read this, keep in mind it's not about
piracy. It is interesting and worth the read.

I felt weird reading this--I caught myself red-handed, surfing away because I
didn't feel like going to bed. I was stealing from myself alright. I hadn't
felt that weird since I saw a 3D rendering of a brain and realized I was
looking at myself.

~~~
rbanffy
I once proposed our team all had brain-scans to put them as our portraits in
the "about us" part of the site.

~~~
Tichy
Then the competition could just clone your whole team ;-)

------
Prrometheus
If there were a way I could change my behavior, I would. But, like an addict,
I am stuck in my ways despite the best of intentions. These articles never
help. I know the problem. I just wish I had a solution.

~~~
ajross
That kind of justification behavior ("I can't change") is a classic symptom of
addiction, actually. So clearly you're right. The solution is to work on
changing it.

~~~
wheels
Working on it is important, but learning to work with it I find more valuable.
If you still suck at something in your mid-20s, chances are you're stuck with
it. Find work arounds. Like so many of the pseudo-self-help articles popping
up here lately, this seems to get the chain of causality backwards -- people
don't goof off because they're founding startups; goof-offs tend to make good
to be good startup founders. The link between impatience, hyperactivity and
entrepreneurship is no coincidence.

------
swombat
My Dad has this expression that he repeated to me over and over when I was
younger and I was wasting my time playing games, watching dumb shows on TV,
etc.

He called it the "brain-hours", and said you only have a limited number of
those in your life, and what you choose to spend them on determines your life.

~~~
jrockway
_He called it the "brain-hours", and said you only have a limited number of
those in your life_

Exactly. That's why it's not a waste of time to watch TV, read forums, and
play video games. The number of "brain hours" per day is less than the number
of hours your're going to be awake. You have to fill that time with something;
Twitter is just as good as anything.

Now if you're feeling creative, productive, and wide-awake, it would be a
shame to waste those hours on something not creative. Which is why I am
closing this window right now. There are a few libraries I want to write
before the end of today :)

~~~
swombat
An interesting side-note... my own observation this time - I've noticed that
the more time you spend creative, productive and wide-awake, the more your
daily supply of brain-hours expands.

~~~
jrockway
Yes, I agree. I can easily be sleepy all day if I don't make an effort to do
something productive.

------
dandelany
When I do this at home, I'm stealing from myself. And it feels terrible.

When I do this during the day, I'm stealing from ------ Inc., and it doesn't
feel nearly as bad!

~~~
Chocobean
wait till ----- Inc. finds out. =D Then you can feel terrible full time!

------
wynand
I am not sure I like his line of reasoning. I have a manic depressive friend
who starts overly intense reform missions from time to time (to correct all
the perceived flaws in his life). The tone of this article reminds me of this
friend.

Yes, a lot of us slack off quite a bit, but Bertrand Russell rightly pointed
out in "The Conquest of Happiness" that one needs to be able to enjoy idleness
to be happy (and what point, pray tell, is there to life if you cannot be
happy?).

This should not be a justification for too much idleness, which is an evil of
the same degree as the puritan anti-idleness espoused in the posted item.

------
Tichy
This reminds me a bit of the time thieves in the book "Momo". On the one hand
he has a point, on the other hand, having no idle time is probably bad, too.

------
endlessvoid94
So we should work harder and be distracted less.

But YC is a cult (heh). We should WORK less, according to the top link on HN.

o_0

------
orib
Let me be the first to say "WTF is this guy rambling about?"

He doesn't seem to be talking about piracy... he seems to be talking about
instant messaging. Mental breaks from the work we're doing. Not sitting and
watching compiles scroll up the screen. Not sitting blank-faced and burned
out.

So... theft? Huh? Maybe I need more caffeine, but you can color me confused.

~~~
webwright
He's talking about the fact that independent workers (MicroISVs, startups,
freelancers, web workers, etc) are, unlike normal salaried workers, are
stealing from ourselves when we goof off a lot. Needless self distraction is
like stealing money from yourself.

On the salary side of the fence, you're increasingly seeing people who are
tasked with a fixed list of stuff to do rather than punching a clock for an
even 40 hours a week. In this setting, needless self-distraction is like
stealing free time from yourself.

Of course, the definition of "needless self distraction" is sticky. But no
matter how you define it, you probably do it too much (and so do I!).

