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Comment by dazc | Hacker News Reader

Having grown up in the UK I've always felt guilty about not doing anything in my free time. Partly because everyone else seems to be living such a busy and rewarding existence (or so they would have me believe).

Now, living in Spain, I feel it's OK not to do anything. Just sitting in the shade for 6 hours watching the world go by doesn't make me a weirdo, like it does back home.

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Heh, I've noticed that Western culture does put a different emphasis on work ethics. After moving to Russia, I've just noticed a different approach to how work is perceived, and my partner and her mom have often cited this proverb at me:

Работа не волк - в лес не убежит. Work is not a wolf, it will not run to the forest.

Basically, the idea is work isn't going anywhere, so no need to worry that much about it. At my last job in the US, I couldn't understand why people were so adamant about how busy they were when most of the time people were doing what they could to look busy. It's not that they were actually burdened with work, it was that they wanted to appear like they had no time. My employees would frequently get into arguments over who had the busier and more difficult schedule. My family does the same (one of my brothers prides himself on how little free time he had)

I guess it's just this perception that important people are busy and the inverse of that is if you're not busy you're not important. Just speculation, of course, but it's my experience that once you get away from the US, you lose this mindset.

Edit: I guess in fairness I should note that I did have genuinely busy coworkers - our under-staffed programming team were constantly under pressure and in constant repair mode due to not having the time or resources to move out of a crisis state. This is a true "always busy" scenario in my mind.

>I guess it's just this perception that important people are busy

Perhaps but I'm sure the primary thought in their subconscious is "don't back down or they will punish you by inventing new burdens for you."

That's not the inverse, it's the contrapositive. The inverse would be "busy people are important".

>Western culture does put a different emphasis on work ethics.

See "protestant work ethic".

>Having grown up in the UK I've always felt guilty about not doing anything in my free time. Partly because everyone else seems to be living such a busy and rewarding existence

In the UK? Have you been to Yorkshire?

I am from Yorkshire. Take the point though.

Heh, didn't know it, no offence meant.

Was mostly referring to all the urban poor, crime, domestic violence etc that goes on in large parts of the UK.

There are certainly area of the UK where this is true, but not all. I guess it can seem that way because we have dense areas of population where the good and bad parts are so close together?

That's part of the reason I guess (density).

Well, those are ways of keeping yourself busy.

Is it really like that or is that the message you get from the media?

This post gives me hope. And a rekindled desire to learn Spanish. I just wish I coped with hot weather better.

Yes, learning Spanish is tough and July/August is pretty hot, so much so I returned to the UK for 2 months.

I can speak maybe 5 words in Spanish but I was usually told that it was easy to learn?

I find the vocabulary isn't that hard to learn as you pick up new words each day and eventually they stick. The grammar required to put those words together is another matter though.

It really does depend on your situation though. I have one to one lessons twice a week but it's not really enough as I manage to get by without having to speak that much during the week.

However, I know people who have picked it up fairly quickly because they are working in a public facing environment where they really have to learn fast.

The grammar required to put those words together is another matter though.

I wrote down a grammar card with all the verb conjugations (-AR, -IR, -ER verbs) and carried it in my pocket everywhere. When I couldn't remember, I (as soon as practical) pulled it out of my pocket and double-checked.

The most difficult one for me was getting la/el correct. Although by that point I knew the correct gender of each noun, it didn't come out correctly when speaking quickly.

I have started doing something similar - I have a notebook with some basics that I can refer to while attempting a conversation.

It helps, a bit, and is lot more convenient than firing up google translate every two minutes (which isn't that much use for a lot of grammar anyway).

I'm in Sevilla for several weeks and was told by locals to come in September rather than August, due to the heat letting up. So far, it's been 40-45C every single day (save for the past few), and that leaves me couped up in the apt.

I'm missing Lisbon, where I usually live (over 300 days of sun yet it never really gets unbearably hot). I can't imagine being in Andalucia during the entire summer, though I hear Granada isn't as bad (probably due to being 30 min to the mountains and 30 min to the beach).

I'm in Alicante. It's been around 30-32C for the past two weeks which is hot enough to make me lethargic for most of the day. I couldn't bear 40-45C.

There's unusual weather in Europe at the moment. The UK recorded their hottest September day since 1911.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/13/uks-hottest-...

Some areas, even in the South, are not that hot even during summertime.

True, I believe some of the the Northern regions can be relatively temperate? It is easy to forget that Spain is such a big country sometimes, especially compared to the UK.

Some parts are colder than the south of England, see Burgos and surroundings (not to mention the Pyrenees with 3K high peaks!).

The original author's distribution of time over responsibilities is not identical to mine, but it's similar enough to make me wonder where you're getting those 6 hours from. I'm not saying it's "weird," in fact I think it sounds lovely. But I doubt I could find six contiguous free hours in the next six months, except maybe if I spend my holidays with my in-laws.

Edit: typing on phone

During the week it would be tough but on weekends I have all the time in the world.

I think what you are experiencing in Spain is kakonomics, a preference for low quality pay-offs.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37108240

I'm OK with not really doing anything, but I try to draw a line between totally squandering time (e.g. scrolling endlessly through facebook, or watching a show you don't enjoy, purely to kill time) and calm, idle time reading a book or watching nature. I haven't figured out how to describe it well yet.

"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

Amen.

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