Interesting, I often drop caffeine for a week or so (without any real conceited effort, typically just when I'm sick or on vacation) and any withdrawal seems gone after a few days but then restart it within a week because it's just so damn good, especially when you only sleep 4-6 hours a night which is... every night for me.
It's not just a nagging doubt, it's adding a "gap" to your resume - I've heard many employers view any sort of exclusive self-employment as basically that and it's something that actively keeps me hesitating.
I did it, and failed, and the gap year only hurt economically. My job prospects were better if anything after (and changing jobs netted a large enough raise that it soon made up for the gap year.) I do regret that I failed, but I think I needed to take the shot. I'm considering doing it again.
I see this excuse a lot. Maybe it’s a valid reason in some industries. But IMHO it’s likely just a convenient excuse someone plays to further procrastinate on making the though decision now so they don’t have to make a tougher, maybe-very-unlikely decision down the road if they want to re-enter the workforce.
I've stayed closer to %20 and it's allowed me to support a family of four for 20 years on one income while riding through two employment layoffs during that time.
Also, rather than spending our proceeds from the sale of our home in 2005 I put it back into our new home once the market was near the bottom. The net of all of it was that I was basically able to cut about 18 years off our original 30 year fixed rate mortgage.
It’s a standard used by mortgage underwriters, presumably based on analysis of decades of past mortgages they’ve written and calibrated to balance their risks and rewards for maximum profit.
Yeah, I question the idea that it's beneficial to experience pain - why should I? Especially if it's going to cost me days of my life that I could do something with. Maybe not go out, but at least be able to catch up on some of the more passive content... seems like a needless waste of life.
The experience of pain (and I'm separating this from the dopamine-release thing for people who groove on that sort of thing) is, for my money, a useful training facility for willpower and restraint. Separate from the pain-as-warning-signs noted by 'lukeschlather, few things hurt that much and the fact that you are not the master of even yourself is a valuable reminder.
The experience of being uncomfortable is not a bad one to have, nor a bad one to make peace with. Pain and discomfort are a part of humanity: when they don't exist, we invent ways to have both. And there certainly exists a line where chronic pain makes it humane to blunt it--but most folks don't have that problem at all.
And "content" is what you are left with when the soul is leached out of creativity by people who lack it. It is a soul-suckingly awful construct in the twenty-first century and decent people should reject it. Please don't promulgate its notions.
People talking positively about pain (and especially immediate post-surgical pain as in the article) makes me uneasy. Sure, some level of pain is useful as a warning sign. And wanting painkillers primarily to avoid resting is unreasonable.
But, if there is too much pain, it will cause extreme stress during the day and they will probably be unable to sleep at night - it is hard to imagine this being beneficial for recovery.
Also, if the pain is too great, people will avoid future treatment, even if it is medically advisable.
I think there have been problems with anesthesia in the past, where people woke up during surgery (although still unable to move), and I think it led to negative outcomes even though it is only pain - although I admit, I am reluctant to look up the details.
At the very least, I think it is good to give enough pain medication so that the patient does not want to die, although I understand it may be unavoidable when the level / duration is high enough.
It looks like in the article, the level of pain and recovery for this procedure is not very bad (probably because it's laparoscopic), and the doctors know this, so their recommendations were appropriate and the patient was worried over nothing. But, I don't think this means that the same is true for all procedures, and suggesting that people just make peace with it or whatever without knowing what the level is seems wrong. Especially in the case of surgical recovery where the first day or two is usually the worst, and the risks of medication over such a short period are low.
I wouldn't wish for a more serious level of pain on my worst enemy. I do not think it is useful or possible to make peace with, unless you are Buddha himself.
> I don't think this means that the same is true for all procedures, and suggesting that people just make peace with it or whatever without knowing what the level is seems wrong
It's like I literally expressed that? Maybe I made it trickier to parse by referring primarily to chronic pain--if you want to lump extreme, trauma-induced pain into that? Sure. When lives are on the line, whatever, do what needs to be done; we have doctors to make educated decisions based on the information available.
But I will contend most Americans--and my observations are largely limited to us--mostly harm themselves in the effort to avoid what we have largely decided is pain and is in many ways merely discomfort. And I tend to think that that ramps up into greater problems along the way.
I see that makes more sense now, I think that line did throw me off somehow.
I haven't seen any close friends or family just pop a Tylenol for every day aches and pains, but it certainly seems to be a thing, so I'm open to the idea that I'm living in some kind of bubble in that regard. I've always thought of pain medication as for bringing severe pain down to a lower (but non-zero) level, so for example it might not be taken at all if you break a toe, but would be more than reasonable for the jaw surgery in the first post in the thread.
It's interesting, chronic back pain is one of the most common chronic pain causes, and a doctor was talking to me recently about it (in general, luckily I don't have it). Apparently once it gets started it can have its own self reinforcing process, and there are measurable biological changes to how nerves fire etc. that are independent of any initial underlying injury. Probably there's some people faking or overstating it, but I could easily imagine such a process getting pretty severe. Unfortunately, the outlook is pretty bad I think once you've had it for a set amount of time.
So concerning chronic pain / opioid use I can't figure out if Americans are less willing to deal with pain, or actually have more pain, or some combination of both. If back pain just needs an initial injury to set it off, then escalates from there, the unhealthy lifestyles and ever increasing obesity levels here would do a lot to explain why it is becoming an increasing problem.
I don't buy the "it's good and normal for you; suck it up" perspective. Pain is a useful signal that you're doing something wrong with your body, or that you need to rest to recover and heal. But if you're lying still on your bed recovering from a surgery and are still in pain, what purpose does that serve? It "builds character"? If that makes you happy, go for it, but don't impose that view on the rest of us.
This seems to me to be entirely backwards. If you appreciate creativity, don't you want to have as much time as possible to experience and enjoy the world around you? To learn? To create? Why would you spend the day stuck in bed feeling like shit, unable to do anything but watch TV when you could easily solve that and do more?
There is a joke about Americans (which I extend to "most people", and definitely to most technical people I know): if one is to stop being stimulated from outside, then one runs the very real risk of having to consider what is inside. I tend to consider the cavalier American use of painkillers to be in that "stimulated from outside" bucket--and I try very hard to be unafraid of considering what might be inside.
I already don't watch TV when I feel poorly (or in general). I might work--usually on something that I care about, so as to make me feel good that I have done it. Or I might read. If circumstances are uncomfortable enough that concentrating is difficult, then I know I need to sleep. If sleep is very difficult--not merely difficult--due to pain, then sure, then painkillers are on the table for me. Otherwise, why would I try to change how I feel externally?
Painkillers do not change the underlying state. If it is something you literally cannot bear, then sure, get some help. But I have learned over time that the world includes discomfort and pain and that they're really not that bad, most of the time. The world around me includes me. And it includes the need to be mindful about me, too. This is part of that.
I think you're confusing some sort of emotional pain which may deserve analysis with physical pain which analysis cannot bring any insights from - it's just pain. Nothing revolutionary.
Pain is really important. You can't properly heal from an injury without pain, because you won't know when you're worsening the injury. In the worst case you'll get into a descending spiral where you need to take more and more painkillers as you attempt to go about your day normally until you've injured yourself to the point where painkillers are no longer able to let you ignore the injury.
And in the best case (and almost 100% of the time) you'll just heal anyways, but won't give a shit about the pain and will actually be able to do stuff.
I think I'll roll that dice, thanks anyways. I'm generally able to restrict myself without the need for pain.
How is me having my phone in my pocket and in my possession at all times and leaving promptly after the event is over detracting from the experience of those around me?
We're talking about going to a gig here: there are many ways that people "enjoy the experience" which might detract from the experience of others: talking, singing badly, moving around too much, jumping up and spilling beer everywhere. If you try to eliminate all behaviour that might adversely affect others, we'll all end up strapped into a seat — no-one really wants that.
Playing with your cell phone is a lot less easily justified than singing bladly or dancing too wildly. If someone is talking over the concert or spilling beer on me I'm going to ask them to stop, too.
> Playing with your cell phone is a lot less easily justified than singing bladly or dancing too wildly
Taking a photo to commemorate a once-in-a-lifetime experience, recording video to show friends, checking the time because you can't stay until the very end, checking the babysitter hasn't called to say the kids are in hospital, ... there are many reasons I can think of that, whilst they may be annoying, and may to a very small extent detract from your experience, are still 'valid' and necessary from the other's point of view.
> If someone is talking over the concert or spilling beer on me I'm going to ask them to stop, too.
Right. I must admit, I wouldn't do that in the same situation, partly because I'm conflict-averse but also because it wouldn't bother me that much. However, I wouldn't argue that beer can't be served at the event or no-one's allowed to talk at all. I have no problem with you politely asking someone else to take their cell phone out of your face, but I see no reason why that has to result in a blanket ban.
>Taking a photo to commemorate a once-in-a-lifetime experience, recording video to show friends
Not okay at the expense of others. Professional photographers and videographers are likely recording the event for you.
>checking the time because you can't stay until the very end
Plan better or buy a watch
>checking the babysitter hasn't called to say the kids are in hospital
What are you going to do other than worry if you go to the hospital? What do you think people did before cell phones? It's OKAY to disconnect for a bit.
Went to a concert this summer where the woman in front of me was taking pictures/videos and posting them during the concert to Facebook. It was a blacked out arena and she had the brightness near full. Saying it was distracting is an understatement and thankfully someone told her to quit the shit after a few songs.
Having several bright screens in front of you recording or taking pictures without letting you watch the real thing. And yes texting can be really distracting too if you are in a theater, or if they decide to turn the lights off for a second as part of the performance.
In a dark venue the light could easily bother you from someone texting, but the main issue is people who hold their phones up in front of your face to record the event.
This isn't an abstract issue of diverse ways of living. The smartphone zombie specifically is a real thing that's observable in society all day every day.
I'm a programmer who's currently in a union position - I want out. I pay dues and get basically nothing for them, as developers we're generally in decent negotiating positions. Unions are great when you're not in that position, but just an extra cost when you are.
I've always been in a fine negotiating position for pay, but I've never felt like I had any negotiating position for things like getting a cubicle or office instead of an open floor plan, getting IP rights to things I do in my spare time that are not related to my own job but related to something my employer is doing somewhere, running an interview process that doesn't suck for both candidates and interviewers, etc.
I see people on this very website claim they can probably implement an Uber clone in a weekend or two - and they're probably right, the basics of such a service are quite simple, but perfecting it and marketing it are far harder.
Is that my problem though as a freelance developer? Should I invest effort in something knowing it will fail because it can't possibly be marketed successfully against competitors?
The linked blog post is really about bad customers, and either firing them, or not accepting them in the first place. As a freelance developer it seems easy enough to say if someone's going to pay you your going rate to build something, accept their money and build what they're asking.
The problem is that in reality, clients like that often turn out to be bad customers. They don't know what they want, make all the excuses to avoid paying on time (or worse, offer "equity"/revenue share), and you end up spending all your time and energy supporting them - just one more little change and I'll pay you - and not by working on actual client projects.
Sussing out which clients are like that is up to you as a freelance developer, and it's a skill that isn't programming but is well worth your time to develop.
Yeah, I put a good pile of reverse engineering work into this thing at one point - used Flare and Flasm along with a lighttpd proxy to replace their swfs with my own.
Compare with say Tesla where a single motor runs you over $3000 and they call it "cheap".