
I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 - fergie
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/i-thought-i-would-have-accomplished-a-lot-more-today-and-also-by-the-time-i-was-thirty-five
======
bstar77
I was incredibly driven about 7 years ago... I was a founder of a startup and
had really lofty aspirations. I told my wife that it was very possible that we
would be millionaires by the time we hit 40.

Fast forward to today and that did not happen. The startup is no more, but
mainly due to burnout. We made money and did well, but not well enough. I
never made my millions, but did have a substantial aqui-hire opportunity that
I turned down that would have almost gotten me there.

Once that part of my life played out, I decided to make a 180 turn... I'm not
working to exhaustion anymore and take a tortoise approach to my career. I've
found that as long as I'm consistent and have my eye on my goals, it doesn't
matter how hard I work outside of my day job. I just need to be consistent and
take advantage of bursts of motivation.

I've accomplished a surprising amount with this approach. I'm not stressed, I
have the best quality of life that I've ever had and work is generally fun.
This is what my goal should have been from the beginning.

~~~
ChrisMarshallNY
I like that. Thanks for sharing it.

I'm 58. I spent over thirty years, writing and managing software projects that
other people generally didn't use well (or mishandled while developing). It
was frustrating, but they paid the bills, so there wasn't anything I could do
about it.

Since leaving my last job, I started to look at working, and _immediately_ ,
and with _extreme_ prejudice, slammed into the notorious ageism in tech. It
was a real shock, as I had always been treated with a fair degree of respect.
That is no longer the case. Respect seems to be a virtue that no one
practices, anymore (I'm not talking about "worship." I'm talking about simple,
basic, courtesy and respect; like I give to others).

I had saved up a fairly substantial war chest, so I just decided to give up on
looking for work, and have been spending my time since then, writing _a lot_
of open-source code[0], and learning the latest stuff in the way I want.

Best decision I ever made. Too bad. I'm pretty good at what I do, I would have
worked for a lot less than most (see "war chest," above), and would have been
happy to take on riskier work with startups and whatnot.

[0] [https://github.com/ChrisMarshallNY](https://github.com/ChrisMarshallNY)
(and almost every green square will take you to an open-source repo, where I
am the sole author, and you can view the checkins)

~~~
frogpelt
It's not just in tech.

You hear responses from younger generations like "Ok Boomer" to their elders'
opinions and it is so cringe-worthy.

I don't think everything my parents taught me was perfect or even always
correct but there's an irreplaceable amount of wisdom that comes from being
alive twice as long.

~~~
McSwag
Every time I hear that phrase I get the cold chill down my spine. It just
feels so disrespectful and visceral.

I’m in my 30s and was taught to have basic respect for others. People think my
generation is entitled. Man our generation has another thing coming.

~~~
WizardAustralis
Im in my mid 30s, I liked OK Boomer as a meme to let lose some emotion steam
but then folks started to take it a little too seriously.

To dismiss ideas outright on age alone is just stupid.

~~~
rumanator
The idea that "ok boomer" is supposed to be dismissive of opinions and
personal assertions based exclusively on age is a red herring.

It makes as much sense as asserting that the "Karen" meme is dismissive of
women.

That was never the point, was it?

The "ok boomer" meme is dismissive of ideas that are forced onto others based
on absurd appeals to authority and in spite of their lack any substance or
support or rational basis. We're talking about the type of arguments that boil
down to "shut up you little brat I know better than you just because."

~~~
RobertKerans
Sure, that's the original context. It's just that "ok boomer" is very often
used to dismiss an older person [older than the person responding] asking
someone to do anything (or giving advice in anything). Just as "Karen" is very
often just a coded "bitch", used when an woman [older than the person
responding] asks someone to do anything

~~~
rumanator
It's extremely disingenuous to try to assert that the "ok boomer" meme is used
to dismiss questions or requests or opinions made by older people, or that the
"karen" meme is used to dismiss questions or requests made by women. Its in
fact a gross misrepresentation of what those memes are and have always been.

~~~
RobertKerans
No it's not -- it's not my fault people are misusing the memes! They
definitely are heavily used to dismiss in the manner I've described _as well
as_ being used in their correct original context. You might not like that
people aren't deploying the internet memes the way you think they should be
deployed, but it's definitely not disingenuous to point out that's what's
happening. It's dismissive and mocking (for good reason!) but it's also
something that's blown up, and when that happens the original intent and
subtleties get rounded off or lost, so in many cases it's now used in any
context, not just the ones where it was originally totally applicable.

------
voidhorse
Funny piece. It can be so easy to waste time when we have the internet. I
think the most dangerous distractions are the ones that _feel_ productive but
don’t actually work toward your goals. For example, browsing hacker news. Such
an activity is useful every now and then, but at least for myself I often
scroll around only to realize later that it was a massive waste of time I
could’ve spent working on something I care about. I think the brain justifies
it since hey, at least I’m “learning” something (not really).

Even something like an addictive videogame is designed to make you feel
productive by giving you levels to progress through etc—fundamentally I think
we all have a desire to produce, it’s just easy to spend time putting that
energy into the wrong forms of productive activity, since these are usually
easier and less isolating than actually producing crafts or products.

~~~
papito
People are now terrified of putting down a screen and being left alone with
their own thoughts for more than 30 seconds. It's horrifying what's bouncing
around up in that dome, and having to process it.

But this is exactly what we did before. We got _bored_ , we were wasting time,
we were experimenting, and that's how great ideas came around.

~~~
tayo42
Idk if it's just terrified, but I think we're addicted. This probably sounds
ridiculous but I recently blocked some apps and sites on my phone and actually
felt a little off for a day, like my sleep was weird. I think there was a
slight withdrawal from the constant bombardment of stuff. It is helping kill
my Facebook habit. I don't even really like the site, I just check it
impulsively. It's weird.

Reddit is another one, the infinite scroll I think is addictive. Trying to
kill that habit. But there is useful information on there so it's hard to
disable it completely.

~~~
jeffnv
What information on reddit is useful?

~~~
NegatioN
Devils advocate: reddit can be just as useful as HN (or more so) if you only
interact with subreddits you have a deep connection to.

I used to often see niche, really interesting stuff on there, although I
haven't used it much lately. The Frontpage is pure garbage though.

~~~
craigsmansion
No need for infernal advocacy here. Reddit is to some extent the unfortunate
heir of newsgroups, as well as many independent forums, so of course there is
going to be a lot of interesting and useful information on it.

The thing I imagine that gives some people such a negative view is coming in
contact through the brand "reddit" and being dumped into large controversial
sub-reddits straight away.

A lot of people bump into a particular sub-reddit through a search result and
have no idea of the dumpster fires elsewhere on the larger "reddit" site.

------
PragmaticPulp
I've been mentoring CS college students and new grad SWEs for a while. It's
shocking to see how many of them perpetually feel like they're overwhelmed and
short on time, yet they can't account for where they've actually spent their
time. It's not uncommon for new grad SWEs to complain that an 8-hour work day
is somehow consuming 100% of their weekday hours, leaving them without any
time to do anything else. On further investigation, they're just being pulled
into Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, TV, and video games for far more time than
they realize. It's almost like those activities are subtracting 6+ hours out
of their day without them realizing it.

Nobody likes to be told that they're wasting their free time, but I've had
mild success encouraging people to use basic time tracking utilities like the
Screen Time feature in iOS. It's eye-opening to watch people estimate their
daily screen time around 30 minutes and then be shocked when their reports
come back at 2-3 hours or more.

Of course, some amount of leisure activity is necessary throughout the day.
It's important to not shame people for spending time on things they enjoy
(Hacker News, video games, Reddit, Twitter), but it is important that they can
be honest with themselves about how much time they're spending on those
activities.

Measuring time spent in leisure activities is the only real way to start
closing the feedback loop. Structured procrastination (Spending 5 timed
minutes out of every 30 minutes on leisure activities, aka Pomodoro technique)
is a good way to start getting a handle on this.

~~~
asw12az
While some of what you are writing is probably true, a work day (especially
pre-COVID), really takes up a lot more than 8hrs. If you live in a city and
want to live somewhere affordable, you're often looking at 1hr+ of commute
each way. You have to get up a little early to prep for the day. Some jobs
don't count a lunch break towards your 8hr day, or expect you to stay later,
so you end up working more like 9hrs. If you factor in ~30-60mins chores that
you do after work such as cooking/cleaning its easy to take up ~10-12hrs doing
_work type_ stuff.

So, if you're getting a full 8hrs sleep, how much time does that leave you on
an avg work night to do things that _you_ want to do? Like 4hrs? And do you
really want to spend all those 4hrs being productive? People need to relax and
unwind at some point. If you follow the pomodoro technique and use 5min for
leisure every 30 mins, you end up with only ~40mins of "leisure" in that type
of day.

What if you want to do things like spend an hour working out at the gym /
looking after physical health? What if you are single and want to spend some
time dating? It quickly drains away at any time you would have to spend on
your own personal projects, interests, hobbies.

~~~
andreilys
_“ If you live in a city and want to live somewhere affordable, you 're often
looking at 1hr+ of commute each way”_

Here’s a suggestion: don’t live an hour away from work?

With more companies going permanent remote, I find the whole concept of
commuting for 2 hours round trip a day unimaginable. Especially for those of
us working in Tech that don’t need a physical presence to deliver results.

~~~
asya999
Pre-COVID that was the reality for many. But even post-COVID, certain types of
commutes can actually help mentally "separate" the work time from home time.
Working at home it's a lot harder to "go to work" and/or "leave work behind"
when you "come home".

A friend used to say that majority of people who work from home fall into one
of two types of people, the kind that never go to work or the kind that never
come home.

~~~
cmorgan31
Yep it’s especially prevalent in salaried technology leadership positions. I
know some colleagues work from home without too much difference in
productivity and stress. Unfortunately, I am the other side of that coin
because I have to constantly remind myself to be disciplined. If I am left to
my own devices I will be so absorbed in the work aspect and enjoyment of
little wins that I won’t leave enough mental bandwidth for my personal
relationships. I prefer the office to work from home assuming the hours are
flexible. The location change is very key to my ability to mentally and
emotionally disconnect from work.

------
abootstrapper
Everyone here is reading this article as a cautionary tale on procrastination.
To me it’s about the unrealistic expectations we place on ourselves. Maybe
that’s due to our fake meritocratic society, or comparisons made on social
media, or our parents expectations.

I thought I’d be a millionaire by now, changing the world for the better, with
a Wikipedia page and a yacht. But what I really want now is to put down the
measuring stick, and be ok with being me. It’s time to stop beating myself up
for not living up to the absurd expectations I set for myself as a child.

~~~
puranjay
I thought I'd be a millionaire by 30 too.

But I hit 30 last year and found that what I truly wanted to do was make
music, write, and spend time with my family.

I don't advocate mediocrity, but everyone doesn't have to be a high achiever.
It's okay to live a fulfilling life doing what you like, even if it doesn't
make you rich or earn you Wikipedia entries.

~~~
oblio
That's not mediocrity, that's a happy life...

------
umvi
Paradoxically, when I had all the time in the world I frittered it away on
video games and the internet.

Now that I have multiple kids and my time is extremely constrained, I am very
efficient with my time usage. I listen to audiobooks while doing the dishes. I
plan in my mind exactly which programming tasks I want to accomplish as soon
as the kids are in bed so that I can do them quickly and still have time to
spend with my wife.

~~~
renjimen
I’m very nostalgic about the countless hours I frittered away on video games
and the internet as an adolescent. Part of me thinks it made me the person I
am today, who I am proud of. I recently joined a Counter Strike team with work
and had some of the most fun times I can think of recently. I compare that
with the time I put aside to learn 3D modelling, which was fun in its own way
but required more self motivation and the satisfaction took a lot more time to
achieve. It made me question what society accepts as a valid way to spend
spare time, as well as the purpose of how we spend our spare time.

~~~
core-questions
> It made me question what society accepts as a valid way to spend spare time

Well, to be brutally honest with you, it's one thing for you to be proud of
yourself for playing video games, but why would anyone else see that as
something pride-worthy?

Typically, one takes justifiable pride for accomplishments that stand up to
external scrutiny. That usually comes in the form of the accomplishment having
an element of sacrifice, of pain and difficulty, of opportunity costs paid,
and of a result that stands on its own as something not everyone can do. I am
proud of some of my adventures; proud of some of my work; proud of some of the
artistic things I have created. None of them are extremely amazing in the
grand scheme of things, and I don't let any of it get to my head, but they do
give me stories to tell at the bar that aren't dismissed with a wave of the
hand as being frittered-away time.

Video games, on the other hand, are not exactly grand sacrificial effort. I
can't imagine telling someone I was proud of myself for spending a few hours
killing orcs on a screen while eating processed snack food alone in my
underwear.

> as well as the purpose of how we spend our spare time.

It's only "spare" if you've really satisfied yourself in your best judgement
of what you could otherwise be doing.

I like to put Slack and Laziness on a continuum. Laziness is putting things
off, avoiding important tasks, pawning them off on others, rationalizing why
you shouldn't bother, finding easier ways out even if the end result isn't as
good, cutting corners. From the article:

> I was supposed to renew my car registration today. I haven’t opened the Web
> site.

That's classic laziness. Sure, the consequences can be dealt with later, a day
or two without driving won't be the end of the world, but it also took about
as much effort to write this self-effacing article as it would have to just
renew the insurance and move on.

Slack, on the opposite side of the spectrum (and before the word was co-opted
by a program that ironically takes up all possible Slack), is free time that
you carve out of the world with your actions. Slack is arranging things so
that you have time to relax, time to "surf down the luck plane" that you have
created for yourself, so that you can allow things to proceed knowing that at
the end of the slope, you're not actually in a worse off position than when
you started. Slack is paid vacation time, where laziness is unemployment.
Slack is a glass of wine at the end of the day, laziness is beer for
breakfast. Slack is sitting in the hot tub after you work out, laziness is
sitting in the bathtub after you eat a microwaved dinner. Slack is posting on
HN on a cloudy Saturday morning while the kids (with breakfast in their
tummies) watch a bit of TV, laziness is posting on HN when you're supposed to
be writing a program at 3:00 on a Thursday afternoon.

Video games are something you can do in your slack time, or they're something
you can do because you're lazy. That's the difference between a healthy hobby
and a damaging addiction.

~~~
DoreenMichele
My sons always said "Video games are our only education" because of the many
times I was astonished they knew some obscure historical detail and they had
learned it from a video game.

My oldest, who is math challenged, was livid when I finally successfully
explained to him what Algebra was and he went "I've been doing that for years
while playing video games!!!" He's still mad about it and it's probably at
least two decades later.

 _Well, to be brutally honest with you_

I read somewhere that "people who value brutal honesty value brutality more
than honesty." As someone fond of the saying "I'm too truthful to be good," I
took that to heart.

~~~
renjimen
I’m pretty convinced that some games have made me smarter. It sounds daft, but
I remember completing The Witness and felt like I had transcended somehow.
Still haven’t found the right way to put it on my CV

------
mistersquid
Personally, the unquestioned Ethos of Productivity characteristic of early
21st century Western Society is much more dangerous than the distractions
which can sometimes fill unstructured time.

The psychological rigidity and social sacrifices required of always being
productive (with little to no unstructured leisure time) actively harms
individuals and the societies in which they are embedded, perhaps to the exact
extent they increase tangible and intangible forms of wealth.

~~~
13415
I have a feeling this is even more damaging for Millenials, because they
constantly compare themselves with the rest of the world. In a sense, even
leisure has turned into competition.

When I was in my teens a long time ago I did sports and learned classical
guitar. If I had seen the acrobatics you see daily on Reddit or the "casual
home musicians" on Youtube, I'd probably have given up all my efforts.

Doing a backflip seems like the normal thing any guy should be able to do
nowadays.

~~~
PragmaticPulp
I read this a lot online, but strangely enough I see the opposite in practice.
Young people who grew up immersed in social media are primed to recognize the
difference between a rising social media star and the norm. It's the older
people who associate any degree of notoriety with ultimate success who
struggle to understand the difference between a super star and someone with a
lot of social media followers.

> If I had seen the acrobatics you see daily on Reddit or the "casual home
> musicians" on Youtube, I'd probably have given up all my efforts.

But you wouldn't give up your efforts if you attended a concert of a famous
musician, would you? Seeing a video with a million views on YouTube is a step
below being a famous musician to young people.

If anything, seeing people gain small degrees of fame and notoriety without
going all the way to the top of their field is even more motivating for young
people. Seeing different levels of success drives home the point that success
isn't binary, it's a spectrum.

~~~
nelsondev
I don’t think the feeling of inadequacy from seeing those more successful is
generational.

I think it’s more a reflection of the guilt you harbor at that time, e.g. if I
just spent a weak procrastinating, I’ll resent successful people more than if
I spent a week productive.

To your point of internet and social media increasing the spectrum of success,
I definitely think music industry is a great example of that.

------
gstipi
I love life. I'm 37.

Being alive in itself is truly remarkable. I've made great friends. I've met
people who ended up disappointing me greatly. I've married a smart, beautiful,
ambitious woman twelve years ago. We've went through exhilarating ups and
soulcrushing downs.

I've worked for a startup, which almost went under several times. I've worked
for a corporate thresher which sucked life right out of me.

I've worked on niche projects in my spare time, which so far have amounted to
nothing.

I've had panic attacks. I've experienced months of mania and perceived
greatness.

Life is a present which keeps on giving. I'm grateful. Accomplishments are a
matter of perception, experience in itself is utterly exhilarating to me.

I love life. I'm 37.

~~~
vishnumohandas
This is the best thing I've read today. Thank you. :)

~~~
gstipi
Thank you, I would love to read your perspective if you feel like sharing!

~~~
vishnumohandas
I documented my perspectives a while ago here:
[https://vishnu.tech/posts/surviving-
depression/](https://vishnu.tech/posts/surviving-depression/)

------
jgilias
This resonates a lot.

One of the greatest realizations I've had is that there really _is_ no other
time than the present. The future never _is_ , neither the past, it's only the
present. So, if all we have and can interact with time-wise is the present
moment, then everything you _can_ actually do can only be done at each
particular _now_.

So, if you want to learn French, or Lisp, or riding a dirt bike, you can only
ever actually _do_ it, at some particular _now_. The trick then is to try and
make sure somehow that for each particular _now_ , you always have a clear
idea of what it is that you should be doing. Otherwise you risk falling into
the procrastination trap that can last as long as ones lifetime, as the
article brilliantly demonstrates.

~~~
sanmon3186
You pretty much summarised “the power of now” by Eckhart Tolle.

~~~
jgilias
Haven't read it. Should I?

------
TaupeRanger
From Taleb's "Antifragile":

"Abundance is harder for us to handle than scarcity.If tired after an
intercontinental flight, go to the gym for some exertion instead of resting.
Also, it is a well known trick that if you need something urgently done, give
the task to the busiest (or second busiest) person in the office. Most humans
manage to squander their free time, as free time makes them dysfunctional,
lazy, and unmotivated - the busier they get, the more active they are at other
tasks."

~~~
CarelessExpert
> the busier they get, the more active they are at other tasks.

Wow does that ever ring true for me right now...

Over the last couple of months I've had some major work items at about 80%
complete but just couldn't find the motivation to push them over the line. I'd
have free time but I'd always waste it.

A couple weeks ago, an exec came to me and a couple of colleagues and asked us
for a major assignment to be complete in two weeks. At first I balked but
after thinking it through I saw an obvious path and bore down.

The work was fast and furious and with the deadline looming I put in late
nights and used all my free time to get the work done.

It was incredibly satisfying!

But a weird thing happened: I suddenly got motivated to finish those other
assignments and knocked off a number of them in short order.

Somehow I've gotten back into the mental headspace of just knocking tasks off
my to-do list and I find the momentum keeps me going. I always knew that about
myself--my productivity has always been very spikey--but this experience was
truly eye opening.

------
k__
I'm 35.

When I look at the people I follow on social media, I feel bad, because
they're much nore successful than me, often even much younger too.

When I look at the people I meet in my daily life, I'm doing quite okay.

I haven't set an alarm for work in years, can buy what I want without too much
consideration, mostly work when I feel like it, and the work I do is often
interesting.

~~~
vmception
And what kind of success do you think those younger people on social media
have? Can you give an example of what you look at? Is that success something
you want?

~~~
k__
Don't know really.

They got thousands of followers, people actually engage with them, their
opinions are valued, etc.

~~~
vmception
Ah yeah opinions being valued is a good one

I dabbled in thought leadership for a while, with a PR agent, and its nice to
have a voice and really awesome google results but I didn’t/don't like being
considered like a journalist on rare occasion

In unrelated anonymous profiles (lifestyle/wealth/meme/model pages) I have
used followers and engagement as currency. As in used to obtain goods and
services. Its great because you never spend it and it works worldwide.

But I prefer just having access to experiences without undermining my ability
to obtain goods and services, food and shelter in the future. I mostly have
that, and there is very little limitations I will consider in achieving that.
It sounds like you have that.

------
dmje
Here's what's astounding to me: scrolling through the responses here on HN
shows an almost total focus on money and career. I read the piece and thought
about life and personal ambition. That's kinda interesting.

Anyway, fwiw: I'm 47, living by the sea in the most beautiful bit of the UK,
and running a successful micro business which works with non profits.

I've deliberately chosen a path over the last decade which is about family,
and I say no to any business which would cause high levels of stress, no
matter how lucrative. I only work with people I like. I say no to lots of
work. I've deliberately taken the choice to not grow staff or move into an
office, even though we have the financials and potential to do so.

Why? Because life is about more than work. I've got two teenage kids. I see
them for hours every day (not 20 minutes which I read recently is the average
US dad daily contact time with his kids). I get to surf with them, to eat with
them, to be with my wife, to read, to play piano and do hobbies.

Do I put some money aside? Yes, a bit. Is it enough? Who knows, and who cares.
I'll work until I'm 90 if I have to so I can continue to have this quality of
life with my family and the environment around me.

I'm incredibly, incredibly lucky - there's no doubt I've had a great path
through life so far. But if I'm able to offer advice now it appears I'm an old
git (and yes, the speed with which life happens is as per the article, it's
terrifying!) - it's this: live your life. Live it and be poor. Take every
single chance you can to be with your friends and family. Say yes to work that
makes you happy. If it doesn't, find something else. In your 20's you'll want
to eat the world. Do it, while you have the energy and appetite, but know that
when you get older your tastes are going to change. Slow down, and accept that
most of the best things in life aren't work, aren't money, and don't require
either to create meaning.

Be in your life.

~~~
novaRom
You are too optimistic for a man in a world ruled by populists and monopolies.
And environment around you is changing. You still may enjoy it, will your
children have that possibility?

~~~
maccard
It sounds like they're doing all they can to ensure their kids enjoy it. Sure,
the world might be very different in 15 years time, but there's almost nothing
they can do about that. Assuming they have enough money to get by, it sounds
like he's spending time with them, which is the most likely thing that their
kids will miss when the world changes.

------
didibus
I think there's a cultural aspect at play.

I come from a place where success is measured more by the amount of
experiences you've lived and the fun you've had, then the money you've made or
the social status you've achieved.

I like to use New Orleans motto as a way to describe it: Big Easy.

A good life is one that was easy going, lade back, where you've enjoyed the
company of others, where you've explored the wonders of the world, and that's
that.

It's the opposite mentality of: "What's my purpose?". You're not here to do
anything, you're here to enjoy your stay. You're not here to make things,
you're here to enjoy what's already there.

The irony is that adopting this mindset and living this way is actually
surprisingly hard. Seems the body naturally leans towards anxiety, like we've
maintained in our DNA fears from our evolution, constantly looking behind our
shoulder, feeling the need to get on with it, be on top of things, etc.

Anyway, I am having the opposite reaction. I feel like getting closer to my
35, I feel like I've done everything. Accomplished all things that mattered,
and like there's nothing more to do, now it's just routine and repetition.
I've been there done that, seen everything, tried everything, so I don't get
that excitement out of "undiscovered territories" anymore. And I'm working to
adapt to this, be happy with the mondaine.

~~~
adamcharnock
I'm pleased I'm not the only one! I'm 35 shortly and I feel very content with
what I have done so far. Here on out feels like icing on the cake.

I always found the "what's the meaning of life?" question to be a nonsense
one. I suspect encountering The Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy at a young age
was part of the reason for that. There is so clearly no reason other than to
enjoy it as much as you can. But I thin most of it is likely down to having
parents that loved me unconditionally regardless of my achievements (which
actually seems to be rare).

Do what makes you happy, let boredom be a motivator.

PS. Related comment of mine from a while back:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23061260](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23061260)

------
johnwheeler
One key to a good life is low expectations. Most of the people I know who are
unhappy thought they were going to be more than they are now, and some of them
carried the naive arrogance around with them all their lives until reality
smacked them upside the head.

~~~
ISO-morphism
I really like Happiness = Reality - Expectations.

Advocating for low expectations is usually criticized as laziness when
targeted at oneself or pessimism when targeted at others. But I think that
criticism happens when we conflate expectations and aspirations, when we set
our target as our baseline.

On that note, exercising gratitude (counting your blessings) is a wonderful
tool for teasing apart expectations and aspirations. Acknowledging that
something you have is good enough to make you happy implicitly informs you
that expectations have already been exceeded even if you aspire for more.

------
alexmingoia
Accomplishments should serve self-esteem. I want to be proud of what I did.
You really only need one endeavor, and it doesn’t need to make money. It
matters not whether your accomplishments are numerous or lucrative, but that
your accomplishments make you feel good about yourself.

Where people lose their way is playing games they can’t win, or that they
aren’t proud of. A common example is a career doing work you’re not proud of,
that you get no respect for. You may “win” but you don’t feel any better. Or
you spread yourself too thin preventing any meaningful accomplishment.

When I was a 9-5 software engineer I had low self-esteem. I was making great
money, had a good job, but we weren’t creating software I was proud of.
Meanwhile, I fell in love with and mastered a sport outside of work. The pride
of mastering something I and others cared about and respected made me feel
better than I ever did at my job. I realized then I should be chasing
accomplishments that I can be proud of. That I should focus on doing less, and
only doing what I derive my self-esteem from. I realized I didn’t need a fancy
career or lots of money, I needed to do something I was a proud of.

I think a lot of people are doing something they really don’t care about, and
justifying it to themselves because it’s lucrative, or a “good” job, or other
people tell them to be proud of it but they personally aren’t.

------
seveibar
This essay expresses the futility of ambition against distraction as well as
the unproductive cycle of comparing yourself to others as a means of
understanding your potential. I have certainly felt this way, and I imagine
many do.

I take comfort in the idea that the world (and our lives) are constantly
rocked by random circumstance and opportunity, and while there is a lot one
can do to maximize our realized potential, we can't be completely responsible
for our fulfillment.

~~~
throw_this_one
You’re saying that comparison steals us of the natural energy of curiosity and
“just doing it”?

~~~
CarelessExpert
Succinctly put! I can't count the number of times I've considered starting a
project or something and thought "Nah, those guys did it better, I'll never be
that good, what's the point..."

Or: why we spend too much time focused on goals and accomplishments instead of
effort, perseverance, and the joy of the journey.

~~~
throw_this_one
Yup.

Actually for me it’s mainly the fear of doing something trite, that’s already
been done a million times. I always think “oh what’s the point, this has been
done before”.

But I’m starting to think that everybody hits that stage. People great at what
they do hit it, keep pushing out of either strong will or just curiosity, and
end up making it (or a facet of it) their own.

------
zrm
We recently had a big wind storm. Trees down everywhere, power went out. Fine,
whatever, start the generator and it's back to being Tuesday.

Wasn't just the power, also Comcast. Fine, whatever, tether to my phone. Wait,
no service. Cell tower was out too.

Had no internet at all for four days. I think I got more done in that time
with a flashlight and pen and paper than I do in a typical month.

~~~
cercatrova
What kinds of stuff did you accomplish? I do most work on the computer, with
the internet, so just wondering what I could do if I had neither that was
still productive for that type of work, like for example programming.

------
intrepidhero
For me, thinking about what I didn't accomplish today is the first step on a
short road to depression. Better questions to ask are: 1\. Did I see or hear
something beautiful. 2\. Did I eat or drink something that nourished my body?
3\. Did I have a thought that buoyed my spirits? 4\. Did I have a pleasant
interaction with a fellow human/animal? 5\. Did I help someone?

Journey before destination and all that.

I'm not a great person and I have chosen not to aspire to do great things,
though I admire people who do. I aspire to an ordinary life lived in
contentment. One where I bring some good into the lives of people around me.

~~~
joelbluminator
If only more people had this life philosophy...

------
superasn
Funniest thing I read all day. But coincidentally I was reading this book
earlier called Chasing dalylight. For those who don't know, it was written by
the ex-CEO of KPMG and how he spent his life doing things like taking 36 hour
flights from NY to Australia just to get 30 minute facetime with someone
(iirc) and he was hoping to retire peacefully with all his money when he was
diagnosed with brain cancer and given 5 months to live.

Really interesting book about how we waste away our present for future that we
may never get.

------
dmreedy
I've been thinking a lot lately about a line from the movie _Master and
Commander_ , a euology (though perhaps not much 'eu' about it) for a dead
character.

"The simple truth is, not all of us become the men we once hoped we might be"

Spoken by a character who very much has. I don't really have much comment
beyond that.

~~~
joelbluminator
Well yeah, good movie. The simple truth is almost all of us short fall of what
we wanted to be in some ways.

------
juniper_strong
I used to read the New Yorker, years ago, I don't know what changed, me or
them. Much of what they publish now comes across as self-pity, I don't have
time in my life for that.

Same as McSweeney's, I used to read it and I thought it was funny and now I
read it and it comes across as self-pity.

Give me decorative gourd season any time, but pieces where people complain
about the things they haven't done aren't worth my time.

Something new, please.

~~~
yepthatsreality
If you haven't read the article, you're hitting on the tongue-and-cheek-ness
of it.

~~~
juniper_strong
I read the article.

Nope.

~~~
yepthatsreality
“Nope” as in you don’t understand the tongue-in-cheek or because you refuse to
acknowledge it because you don’t find the bit interesting?

------
yowlingcat
I know that this is a genre of American millennial/Gen X mid-life crisis
clickbait, but it reminds me a lot of journal entries I wrote when I was not
very invested in the present moment. I'd either look forward into the future
or backwards into the past. But eventually I got tired of doing that, of
measuring accomplishments, of basically robbing myself of the joy of
experiencing life. Some of this can be attributed to time and life experience.
Some of it maybe can be attributed to me not handling American cities so well.

The most important change started when I began to travel. Just spending a bit
of time in Europe showed this neurotic American with overachiever tendencies
so much about how to _relax_ and live a little. It was a complete shock to the
system, and in a very good way. It forced me to address -- at that moment --
how would I live life and enjoy it if I didn't have my career and
"accomplishments" and lived in a society where most people derive fulfillment
outside of that? I began to realize that my life was full of many proverbial
Michelin-star rated meals that I was wolfing down like a burger -- that's no
way to go about things!

Being back stateside, I guess I appreciate that even more because I once again
recognize how very much abnormal that is in much of the country. I have to
catch myself because it's so easy to slip back into keeping up with Jones who
live inside my head.

------
cmukka
It seems really bad that I relate to parts of this even though I am still not
25. I mean things are good with me, I am grateful for everything I have. But
once in a while I just feel really empty and that I could be doing way more
that I am doing right now rather than lazing around. We are a weird generation
for sure ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

~~~
jermeh
I definitely am in the same boat as you. My day to day life is great - good
job, financially stable, good relationship, even play in a couple bands (when
there's not a pandemic inhibiting us from peforming).

But there constantly feels like something is missing. Most days I have 4-6
hours of time that is spent doing near nothing. In the back of my mind is
always "I should be doing x project" or "I should be practicing y skill" and
then I end up feeling guilty just for relaxing.

I always go back and forth between "It's totally okay to be lazy. You have a
life that affords it." and "If you want to be truly great at something, you
need to work for it." The challenging part seems to be finding the healthy
medium between the two, which is about where the author feels too, I think.

~~~
jpxw
You need to relax. Don’t burn out

------
jonnycomputer
This is amusing. But I wonder when it was that using curse like "fuck" became
acceptable in publications like The New Yorker. I feel like it must have been
in the last 10 years. Maybe fewer, like the last 4 or 5. I still don't
approve. Of course if they are used just like any other words, then their
taboo shine diminishes, and then the difference doesn't mean anything.
Language is like that. But _there_ has been a shift.

~~~
altitudinous
Yes, I do agree, use of the word feels lazy, poor form. There are trendy stand
up comedians and trendy authors who base their entire brand on the use of the
word. It is a desperate fall back position.

------
altitudinous
I'm in my 50's and I read less now, it's because writers are now younger than
me and they tell stories I've already lived. I suspect all older folk might
feel the same? Writing is for the young? Being published is for the young?

~~~
everybodyknows
Authors your age are still writing. Highly recommended:

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/24/cicadia](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/24/cicadia)

~~~
neonate
That story is about teenagers, which kind of reinforces the GP's point. It's
good though!

------
DelightOne
[https://github.com/golang/go/blob/dev.go2go/src/cmd/go2go/te...](https://github.com/golang/go/blob/dev.go2go/src/cmd/go2go/testdata/go2path/src/chans/chans.go2#L35)

A general question. Is there a reason to add those arguments instead of just
using them directly inside the goroutine and so passing the arguments
implicitly?

~~~
jamespwilliams
I think you posted this comment on the wrong post, but anyway:

In this case, no, and it's actually slightly inefficient to pass those
variables as arguments, because a copy of the argument has to be made. This
copying matters more if the argument is a big struct or another large value.

However often it is useful to use arguments, for example when calling a
goroutine in a loop. For example:

    
    
        for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
            go func() {
                fmt.Println(i)
            }()
        }
    
    

vs

    
    
        for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
            go func(i int) {
                fmt.Println(i)
            }(i)
        }
    

have different behaviours, because the first receives the (changing) `i`
variable itself, whereas the second receives a copy of `i` at each iteration.
The second behaviour is often the behaviour we actually want.

Something like

    
    
        for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
            i := i
            go func() {
                fmt.Println(i)
            }()
        }
    

also works as expected.

~~~
DelightOne
Ah I didnt realize I had the wrong post open, it was supposed to be on the Go
Generics examples post. Thank you that makes sense!

------
psim1
I read this and remembered a plan I had journaled when I was 30 years old. I
was working in a stratified IT department that I liked pretty well and had
mapped out a plan to be at director level by age 40. I left that organization
at age 33, took a short term position and then one I liked even better,
putting me in a lead role that could have led to something director-like. Then
the company laid off most of my team and I took off. Now I am in an individual
contributor position again and have just turned 40. Many times, life works
against plans and it's better not to get too attached to them. Other things
are accomplished in the meantime that may not look like much but in the bigger
scheme, are quite meaningful.

------
ldd
I just wanted to make it to the top of Hacker News. I submitted plenty of my
projects, but none hit the mark.

So hopefully once before I turn 35 I have a project that makes it to the top.
But if not, eh. I'll be al right.

Just like the dolphins in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

------
josh2600
I am constantly amazed at what caused progress in my life. Sometimes it is
working to the bone. More often it is knowing when to press and when to let
things breathe.

One of the most powerful lessons I’ve internalized in my life is that
negotiations are often won in the silence between gambits, not in the offers
themselves.

Sometimes letting things take the time they need makes them go faster than
trying to rush.

------
jjk166
Plutarch tells the story of a roman quaestor who, at age 31 came upon a statue
of Alexander the Great and wept, for at the same age Alexander had forged an
empire while he had accomplished nothing. That quaestor was Julius Caesar.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I'll print this out and frame it, to read as I listen to
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taupuK6oND4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taupuK6oND4).

And I'm not being that sarcastic here. In the sense of what Plutarch wrote,
Elon Musk does make me sad. I suppose every one of us can find someone who's
miles ahead in achieving the same dreams as one has.

------
lazyjones
We are not productive for 2 reasons:

1\. our methods of learning are wrong, we learn best by asking others and
experimenting, not by reading reference texts or passively attending lectures.

2\. we lack the skills and tools to get things done, especially in IT our
tools are mostly junk and the skills required to do the job change
continually.

If you disagree, tell me why artisans are so productive.

------
vp8989
The malaise of the over-educated median person who has not yet come to terms
with what they really are.

------
firefoxd
I recommend: On the shortness of life, by Seneca. I thought time management
was a new problem because of the internet, hustle mentality, motivational
porn, bill-gates comparison and whatnot. Here is a book written in the BC era
for those struggling with just that.

You can aim to be the best at something, but you can settle at being good
enough with the result.

------
kjgkjhfkjf
It's funny to see this in The New Yorker, because I was under the impression
that The New Yorker was an elite publication where all writers aspired to be
published.

Perhaps this is supposed to be the joke, since the article is labeled as
humor, but I don't think that being a writer, even in the New Yorker, has the
same prestige nowadays that it used to have before media became
"democratized", so the joke is actually quite sad.

Realistically, the author probably should have been smart enough to realize
that careers in the arts are the domain of the idle rich, and learned how to
code.

------
todd8
I'm a bit uncomfortable giving advice. I'm skeptical of the survivor bias that
provides people on the cover of Fortune magazine the platform to opine about
how to be a success. Nevertheless, I'd like to encourage others no matter
their age to find a path in life that make them happy.

At 38, I started what became a very successful company; it ended up being
publicly traded. I could just as easily have done the same thing at 48. Think,
work hard, and know that you can recover from setbacks, in my opinion they are
likely to be numerous.

One of my friends is _very_ successful. He had to drop out of high school
because it was too difficult for him, but he worked hard and learned as he
worked and now runs his own large successful company. He's a great guy with a
great family; from walking though his factory with him it's apparent that he
likes and is liked by the people that work for him and with him. I wish I
lived in a house as beautiful as his, but I don't begrudge him his success--
he's an amazing guy that did it himself.

I sometimes wonder if it was just luck for me. Perhaps, but I didn't have some
wonderful mentor or rich parents. I just decided that I would try different
approaches until I built a happy life for myself.

------
pftburger
I am continually annoyed that I can’t compete with VC Funded startups with 20
to 50 employees in my spare time after work while maintaining a healthy social
life.

As ridiculous as that sounds I mean that seriously. I can’t shake the feeling

------
picodguyo
Funny and all too familiar, especially during Covid. For a 700+ page take on
this theme, check out The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. If you finish it,
you'll at least feel like you accomplished something worthwhile.

------
jugg1es
If I had a day like this guy had, my personal neuroses would look to blame
something external for my own malaise. I'd be blaming the 3 waffles (and the
accompanying blood sugar spike/crash) as being the source of my lack of
ambition. I'd eat a couple eggs the next day to see if that changed any thing.

------
sneak
“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell
you different.” —Kurt Vonnegut

------
IAmGraydon
There’s a difference between what you think you want and what you really want.
I think people generally work toward what they really want. If you aren’t
progressing toward your goals because you’re busy doing other things, you
really want those other things more.

------
altitudinous
A writer is having a mid-life crisis?

------
WD-42
Well you got published in the New Yorker, so there’s that.

------
ak39
Another note from the underground. The problem is, like Dostoesvky wrote
through the mouth of the Undergound Man, the human requires pain and misery in
his daily existence in order to have a default want-to-live or want-to-thrive
instinct. The lack of misery will banish us to these endless ruminations of
self-hate from our lack of desire to live like the "men of action" (Sanjay, in
this case) we obssess about. My kids call it "FWP".

It's a tragedy that can be fixed by tragedy. Often the tragedy is self-
inflicted. Just to want to live! on our own terms.

It's a mess.

------
komali2
Man, hits home. 2020 is a bad year for 29, feel like the last of my twenties
was stolen from me.

I have so many things I wanna do, always wanted to do. Some of it I got done!
Like becoming an engineer, creating a decent career for myself, riding a
motorcycle. Take a step back and look at my life and it's pretty much golden,
I could coast for the remainder of it and live better than 99% of humankind
throughout the ages.

But it's not enough of course, cause I'm human and it never is. I want to
start a business. I want to read every philosophy book ever. I want to solve
consciousness. I want to be fluent in chinese, japanese, french, spanish, know
enough vietnamese to fuck with people when I'm there. I want to be a god tier
engineer, one of those strings-together-unix-tools-on-a-whim types that turns
around and shits out an android app after, I want to be able to do high level
math, I want to understand and contribute to physics, I want to invent AI, I
want to be good at chess, I want to be a decent music producer.

Jesus, look at that list. That's probably 25% of the things I really truly
want for myself. Unrealistic? Probably. But am I living up to my potential
right now? No. Absolutely not. If there's anything I've learned there's always
another level. Our ability to make the previously uncomfortable and
impossible, comfortable, has so far to me seemed limitless.

But how do I do those things? Making trello boards and tracking progress like
my life is an agile project? Looking in the mirror and doing affirmations?
Meditating? Yearly goal setting? For me the biggest obstacle is the day to
day. Time slips away just like dude says in the article. Looking at memes,
trolling Nazis on Twitter with said memes, dicking around on news.ycombinator
and justifying it by saying to myself that sometimes I learn some cool stuff
here.

Is it always going to be a battle against the distractions? Always little
tricks like uninstalling the Twitter app, logging out of it in my browser?
Having a habit tracking app? Is reaching my potential going to take a series
of millions of bandaids? That seems wrong but I don't know what else to do.

~~~
abhayb
Hey komali2, why'd you have to go and describe me this sharply on a Saturday
morning? Is it that I accidentally crowded you out at the Four Barrel pour-
over bar and now you want your revenge?

I've heard it said about running: it doesn't get easier, you just get better.
I'm beginning to think that that is true of life in general. My greatest
source of dis-ease (rather than literal disease) is the feeling that I'm not
living up to my potential. Been with me since at least third standard/grade.

While I've never been to Stockholm (heard Noma's a good local joint), I'm at
the place where I'm more afraid of getting too comfortable than I am of never
being at ease. I'm trying (and usually failing) to think of things one bandaid
at a time rather that the whole million at once. Setting my goals real low: to
suck less rather than to be good/great. Help's a lot that there's one or two
things that I legitimately feel I'm damn good at.

I'm curious, especially on the topic of stringing-together-unix-tools-on-a-
whim, have you found any little tricks that apply to that area specifically
rather than to the general concept of productivity?

~~~
komali2
Hah it's good to suffer with company.

Re unixy engineering stuff, I'm still a young engineer, the only thing I can
think of is that I learn the most when I shoehorn it in during work, if I have
time. So recently there was a fat data modification task, turn a bunch of CSV
stuff into arrays and escaped strings etc, and rather than try to figure out
how to have sheets do it which probably would have been easier and faster, I
used it as an opportunity to upskill my vim knowledge. Picked up a couple new
commands. That's only when I don't have a crazy deadline looming though sadly.

------
ouid
No matter how much I relate to the content, a New Yorker article about how
unsuccessful the author is bound to come off a little... tone deaf?

~~~
jt2190
It’s not an article, it’s satire. (Most of the commenters here seem to have
missed the joke.)

------
arsahraei
What a punch line! I couldn't stop laughing when I got to "I literally just
turned forty-two while I was thinking this"

------
rdtwo
The problem I have is that the “free” time wasted on the screen isn’t actually
free. It’s typically half committed to some activity that requires my physical
but not complete mental presence or is cut into chucks of 5-10 minutes that I
can’t transition into a meaningful activity for. I’m not really sure if there
is much that can really be done about that.

------
ca98am79
The goal of life is happiness - right? We can all agree on that. So the thing
to figure out is how to attain happiness.

What I have found is that the less you judge things, the happier you are. In
fact, the only way to be unhappy or to suffer is to judge something as bad.
Like in this article - a lot of judging of things that are "bad."

If you eliminate this one thing - judgement - then you are happy. Always. So
this is the trick for me - removing judgement from my life. Meditating has
been a good practice of it.

------
greybeard1812
Angst about what you've accomplished is about the processes in your mind --
not so much about what you've actually accomplished. For that reason,
accomplishments alone won't calm it.

In an odd coincidence, I did happen to complete my PhD before 35. I had also
learned fluent though non-native French. I had already met a wonderful girl
and had had 7 children with her.

None of that stopped me from having the same feeling that life was passing me
by. I still have it all the time. It's a feeling. It can be useful. But
feelings don't have to be rational.

I wouldn't be surprised if Musk and Bezos both look at their careers so far
and feel frustrated and impatient from time to time either. It's just how (at
least some) minds work.

~~~
dj_mc_merlin
> Angst about what you've accomplished is about the processes in your mind

Yes. All of this insecurity and fear about what one has accomplished is
nothing more than processes put into peoples' mind as children about what they
_should_ accomplish, _should_ be. What is the point of feeling sad about your
life?

More importantly, why do they feel sad about their lives? Is it truly their
decision, based on what they truly wanted, or an expectation that society
(i.e. just other people) imposed on them? I have always lived with a sense
that what I chose to do is meaningful and important for no other reason than I
chose to do it. Why does one need more of a reason in life to reach goals than
that, as long as you can satisfy your basic needs?

------
shrimpx
It’s ridiculous to think that you’ve failed unless you’re the founder of a
smash hit company, or a movie star, or a hundred millionaire, or a famous
scientist. Those are very very low probability outcomes.

The worst life to live is where you’ve sliced up your day into strict
intervals of mantra contemplation, deep work, practicing guitar, working out,
eating on a strict diet, etc., basically becoming your own slave, ultimately
to no great outcome, because it turns out those “great outcomes” are not a
function of this militaristic masochism.

------
sidcool
The wiliest addictions in life are subtle. Tobacco or alcohol at least have
the decency to warn with adverse and severe health effects, often dissuading
some from the habit.

Internet is the subtle monster. I am not literally comparing internet
addiction to the ones mentioned above. I am just saying that quitting internet
is as difficult, if not more, than quitting tobacco or alcohol, and mainly
because of its termite like nature to hollow out the mind. It's slow but
steady, as most cruel things are.

------
siddharthgoel88
With me it is not a question of what or why but how.

Conceptually, I know why I should do a task at hand and complete it. I also
know the priorities which task is more important and which are less.

The part which pulls me down each time is how to convince my brain at the
instant where it is telling me to watch that netflix trailer, mindless scroll
fb, etc. instead of the work that was needed to be done. What is the
framework/trick/technique that people use to not give at that weak moment?

------
peterwwillis
Imagine a takeout pizza restaurant run entirely by one woman. She opens the
store in the morning, receives shipments, does food prep, takes orders, makes
pizzas, delivers them, closes at night, files paperwork, and cleans up. By the
end of the day she only gets a few dozen pizzas to customers. And as she's
going to sleep, she tosses and turns, worrying that she didn't get enough
done.

Now imagine her sole task for the day was to prep ingredients. How do you
think she'd sleep?

------
aleksjess
A funny, yet a bit anxiety-fueling article about how time passes by quickly
without us noticing. I feel as if it's more about us setting our goals way too
high because of the internet, TV, and others. We see different people
achieving so much every day, although we don't notice, that it's a) different
people b) it takes them years and years and years c) they are one in a million
type of people

------
hank_z
Quite social media, or restrict yourself to check it ONLY once a day. Sticking
to this rule hasn't made me a billionaire, but I feel a lot happier.

------
andi999
To me as an armchair psychologist, this sounds more like that the author
should get a check for ADHD with depression as a co-morbitity.

~~~
afarrell
Easier said than done. The most important prerequisites to getting successful
treatment for ADHD are the abilities to:

\- Stay focused while shopping for a psychiatrist for a problem that fills you
with a sense of despair.

\- Make appointments and consistently attend them.

\- Clearly and persuasively explain to your loved ones how important it is to
you for them to fill in a description of their memories of your childhood
symptoms... and hope you weren't inattentive subtype. Spending hours reading
history books isn't memorably annoying to parents like hyperactivity.

\- Keep an organised record of the impacts of medication as you go through
titration.

\- Deal effectively with the administrative complexity of either health
insurance or a new country's healthcare system. (See
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKUdadCsuRE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKUdadCsuRE))

~~~
andi999
I agree it is easier said than one. First microstop would be trying to get a
professional diagnosis.

------
shannifin
I can definitely relate to being disappointed with myself after wasting too
much time online (YouTube is usually my addiction).

Problem is, even when I am productive, I usually don't feel much better for
it. At least I don't feel guilty, but I don't really feel satisfied either.
Feeling satisfied at the end of the day just seems to be random.

------
njacobs5074
I spent most of my younger years making sure that my family was supported and
that my kids could go to university without crushing debt afterwards.

Now I try to make sure that when I’m gone, it won’t create too much work for
them to clean up after me.

I try not to be attached to worldly passions. It’s not easy but it feels like
the right thing to do.

------
mjayhn
That twist was a definite kick in the ass to this 35yo, question is will I
wake up tomorrow still acting on it.

------
jonnycomputer
Is there a special word for the kind of procrastination you do by watching or
reading productivity-porn?

~~~
geocrasher
Procrasturbation

~~~
ak39
Great word

------
slipmagic
I feel like my bullies have grown up to be successful while I ended up being a
loser and it turned out that I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was. My hard
work didn’t amount to much and the things I sacrificed for it were the things
that actually mattered.

------
samsquire
Get out there and write your ideas down. It's never too late to start. Edit.
You have good ideas if you cultivate that skill of having ideas.

Someday you'll find an idea you like that hasn't been done before and you'll
kill it.

At least that's what I tell myself :-)

------
tmsh
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24120275](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24120275)
has helped me a lot with procrastination already (the video and discussion and
the original blogpost)

------
plaidfuji
Great style and obviously relatable. At the risk of taking it too seriously,
though, this piece reveals an all-too-common self-centered approach to goal-
setting: "I wanted to found and sell a successful business by the time I was
35". "I wanted to have given a TED talk." These are just personal outcomes
that are the by-products of doing something for society. The older I get, the
more obvious it becomes that the founders and the TED-talkers of the world are
the people whose goals were set in terms of how they specifically wanted to
help others - "I wanted to bring better healthcare to Senegal", "I wanted to
improve urban transportation". It was just happenstance that founding a
business was the only way to get there, or conducting academic research was
the first necessary step to solve the problem. Careers and jobs are just tools
to affect real societal change; speaking engagements and awards are a symptom
of having done something for the world. You can't start with these things as
goals and work backwards - I mean, you can, but it requires an almost
sociopathic drive for fame and recognition, and is far more likely to result
in burnout.

------
naveen99
What i did today was more important than what I didn’t do. Make it a tautology
!

------
Kiro
I feel the opposite. I'm a complete slacker but had a lot success in life and
accomplished so much I never thought was possible. I don't deserve any of this
and I feel my biggest asset is my incredible luck.

------
werber
I feel like I read a roughly equal amount of words now, but i jump between a
million things and rarely finish a book, the great American novel never flowed
out of me either and i still haven’t become fluent in French meh

------
Axsuul
"A healthy man wants a thousand things, a sick man only wants one."

------
sabas123
This sounds more like a letter of a depressed person than anybody else. Or
maybe we blame procrastination for the causes that gives him this feeling
while there is a much deeper issue (on a societal level)

------
peter303
The daily lethargy may be low grade covid isolation depression. Most of my
regular social contacts ended six months ago. I am not dysfunctional, but less
productive. Summer outdoors helped a bit.

------
gonzo41
Don't worry, history is littered with NPC's, maybe you don't know it but you
could be one of them.

Also this person daily schedule reads like someone with mild depression.

------
caligulatte
The piece has pathos and is funny and feels universal, but I cannot help but
think the truth is somewhat diminished when its author is published by The New
Yorker!

------
pmoriarty
A lot of people would give absolutely anything to be 35 again.

~~~
DoreenMichele
And some of us would rather gnaw our left arm off than be 35 again.

------
yters
The range of possible accomplishments is too broad, each requiring a lifetime
of focus, and thus cause people to hop from accomplishment to accomplishment.

------
gjm11
"It is a sobering thought that by the time Mozart was my age ... he had been
dead for three years." \-- Tom Lehrer

------
paulcarroty
Sometimes thinking a lot is bad, especially when hesitation comes you should
kick yourself in the ass and start doing.

------
vcanales
...said the guy published on the newyorker.

------
syndacks
If you're an aspiring writer and get published in The New Yorker, you've
accomplished a lot :)

------
ur-whale
[https://archive.is/zOvjZ](https://archive.is/zOvjZ)

------
hyuuu
this is an interesting view:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LopI4YeC4I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LopI4YeC4I)

how luck plays a role to your success but also how you perceive your success
which will change your behavior

------
tus88
Sometimes I think the MSM is deliberately writing articles so they will trend
on HN.

------
m0zg
> I didn’t finish my Ph.D. in political science

That's a worthwhile accomplishment in itself.

------
exabrial
This hits me in the feels. 36.

------
known
"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes" \--Oscar

------
vonwoodson
That moment when your iPhone says “your usage is down 30% to 4 hours a day”

------
TehShrike
I chuckled

------
adityamehta1990
It felt like I read a mini version of Brave New World.

------
quickthrower2
I didn’t even get into tedx as an audience member

------
sunstone
The secret of happiness is low expectations.

------
nsandell123
This was depressing

------
yters
they said in a new yorker article...

------
kylewins
damn this one hits Hard!!!

------
mrwnmonm
three waffles? no way

~~~
throwaway0a5e
If he's using one of those mini waffle makers three sounds like a reasonable
meal.

------
vwat
This has 200 comments while the unveiling of the first working prototype of
neuralink got a grand total of 15 upvotes. Hackernews has officially
flatlined.

~~~
kart23
huh?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24311152](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24311152)

~~~
vwat
I’m not sure how this is possible... I posted the link before your linked post
was created... and my post was a dupe of the following post which is also
older than your linked post...

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24308944](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24308944)

I guess I just somehow missed it?

------
type0
> but I didn’t finish it, just like I didn’t finish my Ph.D. in political
> science

I hope it's to the best. Humanity needs less ph.Ds in non scientific fields
and more Ph.Ds in fields that don't urge the need to call themselves science,
you know like real scientific endeavors, chemistry physics and so on

~~~
crazygringo
Hard, hard disagree.

We already have all the resources to feed the world's population and then
some, to shelter everyone, to provide health care, to stop global warming, to
end poverty. We already have enough technology and then some.

The reality is that it's _politics, war and corruption that gets in the way._

Sadly, our understanding of how to get along with each other for our mutual
benefit is _far behind_ our scientific understanding.

The most meaningful progress over the next century, I believe, is not going to
come from technology. It's going to come from political science, sociology,
and related fields like behavioral economics.

How do we fix the polarization that is tearing democracies apart? How do we
make international cooperation to mitigate climate change realistic? How do we
neutralize the threats from authoritarian regimes?

If you want to help people, then today _these_ are the questions that matter
most.

And the debate over whether these are "sciences" or not is just distracting
and pointless -- mere semantics. They help us design institutions to improve
the human good, which is what is meaningful and matters.

~~~
emteycz
The hardest question is how do we replace money. How do we split out luxury,
leisure, fun etc then? How do we determine what is rentable and what's not?
How do we decide who and whether has e.g. the latest gaming computer? How do
we decide what is worthwhile usage of natural resources?

------
tudorconstantin
Now, this will probably get me downvoted to oblivion, but the article sounds
like the rants of a loser. We all have distractions. We all enjoy wasting
time. Hell, I'm writing this after 5-6 beers and my tomorrow will most
probably be wasted by hangover.

But man, you definitely got to man up get your shit figured out. You're 42,
you definitely didn't hit the lottery until now and the chances don't look
good in the future either. You seem pragmatic enough to realize there's got to
be another way out there to be successful. Get out, find it, and follow it.

~~~
bdowling
> the article sounds like the rants of a loser.

The article is published in the humor section of the New Yorker magazine. It’s
clearly a humorous work of fiction written by a writer who was certainly paid
for his work. It’s grandiose and delusional, because that’s what makes it
funny on multiple levels. We relate to the story because we too suffer from
procrastination and dismay at not meeting the fantastic goals we set for
ourselves.

