Hacker News Reader

Comment by ak39 | Hacker News Reader

Really there's only one definition of success: Getting shit you want done.

Well, lots of succesful artists get "shit they want done", in that they leave a great body of work/legacy, and yet their days are nothing like micro-managed...

Mason Currey's book is full of examples of artists that micro managed their time like Mozart and Kafka's strict schedules

https://podio.com/site/creative-routines

That's because his book was all about "routines". That's selection bias right there.

If you read random artist biographies you're rarely gonna find the same emphasis on routines.

In science, major breakthroughs don't usually come from strained application of rational thinking, they come from spontaneous intuitive leaps. These leaps occur more readily when the mind is in a relaxed state free from worry and distractions, where you can just let your thoughts wander.

And that relaxed state comes from externalizing your process into structure and routine, so your mind can focus on high thinking and not juggling all your cluttered concerns

Not sure what kind of artist you're talking about - the stereotypical starving one, or the modern successful media personalities? In the latter case, I'm sure their time is micromanaged to the minute by a whole staff of professionals. In the former, well... if I had courage to just blow off errands and people and commitments to spend all time on my own projects, I guess I could be as productive too.

>Not sure what kind of artist you're talking about - the stereotypical starving one, or the modern successful media personalities?

I don't consider the "modern successful media personalities" artists.

So, yeah, the stereotypical starving ones (or not so starving, some of them went millionaires in their lifetimes and still led a blurry / non "optimized" life).

>I don't consider the "modern successful media personalities" artists.

Why not? What they make still qualifies as art.

I feel like a lot of successful artists though spend their whole days on art, so in terms of a schedule every slot of their time table is filled with doing exactly that.

Exactly and I for one do no need time management for that, so it is a personal preference.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com