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Comment by ssn | Hacker News Reader

A tribute to work. Depressing.

I love working. I love other things too, but I love working!

every hobby and social activity that's worth doing is also work. it's just not the work you get paid for. that's why it's fun; there are no expectations other than your own, and you're free to have none whatsoever.

i mean, what's not work? watching netflix? chilling by the pool and drinking booze? can you really do that all day, every day? do we need tributes to that?

p.s. people worked their ass off to make netflix+chill possible for you to enjoy in your leisure time.

I guess you could consider things like hiking, surfing, camping, playing video games, going to parties, having lunch with friends, driving up the PCH with my dog, etc. as work but that seems awfully depressing. Sure...viewed from a business lens it's putting hours into honing a craft or building a network...but is it really work if you're not expecting a payoff at some point?

There's no right answer to the question I just posed, but I feel healthier when I look at activities outside my 9-5 as leisure and outlets. It doesn't mean I can't be good at them, but I would feel that I was cheapening my enjoyment of these activities (maybe by putting any value on them at all?) if I thought of them "work".

Sure, but you can also consider things like coding, designing new products, talking to users, meeting like-minded people, reading about technology, etc. as "not work". You don't have to expect a payoff from them, and it's often less depressing if you don't.

For sure, activities that are intrinsically fun/challenging/engaging and that ultimately result in unexpected, tangible financial payouts are the best.

In reality, I find myself doing a lot of projects at my 9-5 where I need to be realistic and explicit about their expected value - especially when I need to be accountable to my boss who has business goals to meet, and who knows the approximate value of each hour of my time in the office. So it's nice to do things with no metrics or strings attached or bosses (besides myself) in my free time.

Luckily I don't have to justify every activity at work...such as reading/commenting on HN :)

you'll notice that i'm actually agreeing with you. what's fun for you may or may not be real 'work' in the vernacular sense. hiking is definitely work - even in the strict physical sense of the word. but what about something else, like carpentry or metalworking? these are definitely work, but also definitely hobbies for some people.

ycombinator is a venture capital firm and pretty much all they put out has to do with work and money and making lots of it. i was responding to the op who seemed upset that he's reading about work on a site about work... which is bizarre.

you're not even using the word the same way as the post you replied to. it's like you're talking to a different person entirely.

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