Chucking TV Helped me Start my Company | Hacker News Reader

Chucking TV Helped me Start my Company

joshwhiton.com

85 pointsaspirant65 comments

The fact that he ditched TV has nothing to do with the device/media itself. I could very easily write the same article about how chucking 'playing guitar' helped me launch my startup.

If anything occupies a lot of your time, of course eliminating it will free up time for other things.

Right, because ending up a great musician instead of a great watcher of television would have been awful.

You sir, have been upvoted.

I hate the "agree" posts, but since no one else can see how upvoted I can only dream you've been, I decided this comment was worth the -4.

You are missing his point.

He could have replaced guitar with model airplane building, riding bikes, making friendship bracelets, or training a giraffe.

The point is, good time management makes time for the things you need to make time for - and in this person's case, TV happened to be his vice.

Does everyone who practices guitar ends up a great musician? And if they don't, but only practice guitar to relax, would you consider the time "wasted"?

I guess you could approach this kind of question from a risk/probability point of view. Not everyone who practices guitar becomes great at it, but some do, so if you practice guitar you expose yourself to a potentially big upside (assuming you actually want to be a great guitar player).

I can't think of a potential upside that you expose yourself to by watching TV (other than the immediate gratification), but maybe there is something.

TV is the biggest mind-suck. Deniers will try to justify its value but honestly, when you look at the hole you choose to fill with TV, there are so many more productive you could be filling it with.

I'm not immune either, I have been trying to cut down on TV but I still watch maybe four or five hours per week.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I'm sorry, but responsible TV users do exist. I watch maybe 5 hours per week, and I enjoy the down time. Sometimes it's nice to be entertained after a long day of entertaining users.

Would you say that books are a mind-suck? Would you say HN is a mind-suck? Would you say listening to music or going to a play is a mind-suck?

Even if you think all those other forms of entertainment are "bad", I'd still ask what's so wrong about being "unproductive" some of the time? I don't think you should seek to be 100% "productive". I think being a cultured person is a perfectly good goal as well.

The primary test that I put any kind of leisure activity through is whether or not I feel better in some way during or afterwards. Most of television, for me, doesn't do that; it's a convenient way to fill some time, but leaves me feeling generally less energized than when I started.

A very good test. I find that even TV can fit this requirement if it's the right kind of TV: A 60-minute episode of The Wire, for example, leaves my mind in a vastly more engaged state than the same amount of time spent watching a few minutes of one show, changing channels, watching a few minutes of another, channel surfing, and finally concluding there's nothing on.

Good point. It's not just what you're doing in your downtime, but how you're doing it. Anything that you can make challenging, relaxing and significantly different (from work) can actually leave you more able to focus, and therefore go towards increasing your productivity.

> Would you say HN is a mind-suck?

No, I've learned a lot through it.

> I'd still ask what's so wrong about being "unproductive" some of the time?

Nothing. But TV tends to make me unproductive for more of the time than I want.

What? That has nothing to do with TV. It has everything to do with your apparent lack of self control. If I spend 45 minutes watching TV or 45 minutes playing with myself, what's the difference? They're both time that I could spend doing other things.

edit: And I never just watch TV anyway, I'm always doing something else, like coding or reading HN or looking at code on GitHub.

> That has nothing to do with TV. It has everything to do with your apparent lack of self control.

I do have self-control, at least regarding TV. That's why I don't watch it at all. (I do have a television, it is gathering dust in a cupboard.)

> If I spend 45 minutes watching TV or 45 minutes playing with myself, what's the difference?

It is quite easy -- and millions of people do it -- to spend an entire evening watching TV. I dunno about you, but I have never spent 5 hours non-stop masturbating :-). So the one activity is self-limiting, but the other isn't.

Indeed, and Clay Shirky actually wrote an entire book called Cognitive Surplus on how the shift away from TV will unlock oceans of time for people. I wrote about it some here: http://jseliger.com/2010/06/26/progress-extra-time-efficienc... .

> Deniers will try to justify its value but honestly, when you look at the hole you choose to fill with TV, there are so many more productive you could be filling it with.

Like pontificating on Hacker News from a pulpit built of gross generalization? Not everyone who watches TV wastes frightening amounts of time on it. I watch relatively little, almost all of it ends up educating me in some way, and that which does not gives some highly desired chances to shrug off stress and laugh a little.

I watch tons of TV and professionally have done well. I sincerely enjoy watching TV. In fact I'd like to watch more, not less.

The great thing about TV, unlike playing the guitar, is that you can do other things while watching TV. I can workout, write code, write docs, read HN, write blog entries, write emails, clean the house, cook dinner, put up crown molding, etc... And frankly, I enjoy watching TV more than playing a guitar.

More TV please.

It sounds like TV functions a lot like radio for you.

I'm pretty sure that the internet is a far bigger mind-suck than the TV. At any given moment there's probably nothing I want to watch on TV, but there's always something marginally interesting to do on the internet.

And besides, sitting in front of the TV at least feels like wasting time, and yet here I am on the internet while sitting at my work desk in front of my work computer looking like I'm working!

"If anything occupies a lot of your time, of course eliminating it will free up time for other things."

I'm looking at YOU HackerNews :-)

Chucking out Hacker News would help me start my company.

(there's a really funny irony to this statement)

That's a pretty well-known phenomenon; in fact, that's what /noprocrast is for.

And the thing is, if chucking HN (or: chucking HN and similar internet distractions) enables someone to free up enough time and energy to do something good ... they're less likely to write about it on the internet, and so we HN junkies are less likely to hear about it.

The other thing is that when someone stops (say) watching TV and it turns out not to make much difference to their life, we probably won't hear about that either.

Sampling bias is a powerful thing.

I think the real irony is that the guy who started this giant time-suck for startups can be considered the "face" of startups in America :)

I like to rationalize it, and think that at the least, the helpful information, contacts, advice and ideas I get from here balances the time I spend fribbling around.

Hacker News is the place people go to find out what has been created by those who don't waste their time reading HN.

If you absolutely must have some form of TV entertainment in your life, just try a 1-week or 1-month binge on Netflix or AppleTV to soak up any relevant or thought-provoking show/movie/doc you must see, then unsubscribe/stop using those services for a year—preferably more—and repeat.

I stopped watching TV and most films from 2007 onwards… until Netflix finally came to Canada and I gorged on it like an all-you-can eat buffet for a month or two. I couldn’t believe I missed stuff like Mad Men and Slumdog Millionaire and started to kick myself for not having seen them sooner.

But really, I watched those a few years after their release, and they’re still just as great as when they first came out. I may have missed a few water cooler talks about Don Draper’s relationships with his secretaries, but who cares. And while many documentaries I’ve seen during the binge were eye-opening, I didn’t lose big by not being able think critically or apply what I’ve seen immediately after.

I don't think that binge-watching is a good way to use TV.

TV is a fine way to soak up a leisure hour when you don't particularly feel like doing anything else. If you're alert, do something creative. If you're energetic, go do some exercise. But if you're dog tired for two hours before bedtime, then by all means go watch some damn TV.

I also overdosed on TV and got rid of it around college time. That is, until Netflix came along. Now I'm thinking about unsubscribing from Netflix. I like what he says about needing a break: you just need to exercise another part of your brain. And that is what I've discovered to be the solution for work-life balance: take a break from work, and immerse yourself in family time, so that you can return to work refreshed. You shouldn't feel guilty for missing out on work while with your family, nor guilty for working while not being with your family, as long as there is balance, because you need to satisfy different needs at different times, and it helps you return to full power.

I have avoided subscribing to Netflix for this exact reason. Hulu is bad enough, and that's all the TV I watch.

I have cut back on watching TV. Using a DVR helps: not only for skipping commercials but for some reason when I am watching something that is recorded it is much easier to bail out and delete it after a few minutes. I try to watch about 4 hours of TV a week and perhaps 3 movies - this may seem like a lot, but a decrease compared to 10 years ago.

My big time sink is reading: I read about 3 technical books a month and about 2 novels. For a mindless vegging-out activity, I like hiking.

When I was six years old my parents decided to move the family to another country, and they left the TV behind (never to buy one again). I've never owned a TV, though I've shared my household with people who would have one in the common area.

To this day, TV just absorbs me, I just can't stop watching. I become the caricature of an absent minded drooling zombie. When people speak to me while watching TV I don't respond. When I go to a bar that has any channel on, I zone out of social life.

Though I developed what some people might call "good habits" (I picked up cooking and reading as a kid). But I also think TV is culture in it's own merit, in the sense that it's a shared experience. I've seen a lot of people talk about TV shows with great passion, and I'm totally lost on that experience.

In the end TV is just a medium, and you choose what to watch. It is true that the quality of most TV shows is appalling (and yet I can't stop looking), but I've found that if I turn it on specifically to watch a show, instead tuning out, I can have a healthy relationship with it.

> To this day, TV just absorbs me, I just can't stop watching.

Same here. Having grown up without much TV, I find it absolutely hypnotic when it's on, which is why keeping it off is critical to my productivity.

My not owning a TV isn't some form of elitism; I don't keep a TV in the house for the same reason a recovering alcoholic doesn't keep liquor in the house - I can't trust myself with it 24/7.

My question is - how do you maintain this discipline in the age of internet video on demand? As PG put it in his essay on distraction, I often feel like sometime in the last few years someone snuck in and put a TV on my desk.

I work from home much of the time, and that requires a fast, always-on internet connection. I've been reasonably successful at keeping my bad habits in check to date, but the temptation alone is a regular distraction.

I'd be very interested to hear how others deal with this.

This is exactly my answer to why I don't watch TV. "It's not because I am good, it is because I am a filthy addict who can't handle it."

I do the Pomodoro technique when focus is crucial... it's surprisingly effective. Something interesting happens when you have permissible but cleanly defined segments of time to goof off.

i actually find that tv makes me more productive. i'm not sure why... i can just put on a season of futurama or arrested development and keep focused/keep coding.

without tv, i find i get antsy or distracted. if i put on music, i spend more time air drumming and rocking out than typing.

Try different music? Anything without words is good when you're working - I lean towards ambient or chillout.

Not that I don't like heavy music, but as you say, it doesn't really work as something to have on in the background.

i generally just keep music for my non-work related time. though you're right that it is likely due to my genres of choice.

tv while i work is still my preference and keeps me the most productive. it's like the ADD portion of my brain is satiated by the flickering lights and let's the rest of my brain focus on the task at hand.

I'm with the poster. I play reruns of TV shows in iTunes throughout my day. The white noise from meaningless TV is one of the only ways I stay productive.

I find it 100% impossible to work with Music on. I just can't handle it.

Every 3 minutes there is a completely different sound playing.

Each song has a completely different story.

Each song triggers an entirely different set of emotions.

Every 6 to 10 minutes I have to stop and start skipping through tracks to find something suitable for the moment.

If I just play the same band over and over, I find it leads to a trance like state, or I feel like I'm being punished and forced to listen to the same music.

Then there's the music I would have to play in order to stay focused, say instrumental music only, and in this case I get frustrated. Tired of the loop, of the sound, it turns into a "tick" instead of a sound.

Anyway, I have a real hate-hate relationship with listening to music while I work. Very few people are with me on this.

I prefer to turn on white-noise TV just so there's ambiance in the room that has no rhythm :)

> Every 3 minutes there is a completely different sound playing.

> Each song has a completely different story.

> Each song triggers an entirely different set of emotions.

> Every 6 to 10 minutes I have to stop and start skipping through tracks to find something suitable for the moment.

None of the above issues relate to Chuck Wild's Liquid Mind albums, which is the only music I listen to.

http://www.liquidmindmusic.com/

Agreed. And who just watches TV anymore anyway? I'm usually coding while I watch, or at least surfing the web/playing an ipad game. I can spend the whole evening writing code for my personal projects and not feel bad about it because I'm doing something to decompress after work.

I've found some truth to this in my own experience. I've actually given up on having cable/satellite/some other system where I can just turn on the TV and be inundated by crappy content. However, I still have a few shows a week I must watch in a timely fashion (via non-cable sources) and then a large DVD library of past seasons that I can use if I feel I need some sort of background activity.

My productivity is huge with this set up but I still get to watch my favourites.

LOL - lots of folks defending TV :)

I completely agree with Josh though. In my case, I haven't watched more than 30 minutes of TV (usually zero) in a week for probably 10 years now. Instead, during the evenings I worked on my business while my spouse watched TV. Now I have a great business to show for all those hours. Don't have anything to show for the TV-watching hours from the previous 10 years though. YMMV (though you'll never know 'til you try it!)

The proverbial "this." When friends and family ask if I've seen this or that, I usually reply "no," but if pressed ("Turn on channel 6 now! There's a dog driving a lawn mower!") I politely remind them I don't have a TV.

The fact is, I do have a small (wait, 32" is small now?) one in the bedroom, but it's hooked up to AppleTV and Roku, for the sole purpose of putting on podcasts and informational videos (like TED Talks or Khan Academy) to fall asleep to.

> To this day, TV just absorbs me, I just can't stop watching. I become the caricature > of an absent minded drooling zombie....

I can relate. But I've learnt to teach myself that TV is like a drug. It can be very relaxing to "turn your mind off" and "zone out" to TV. Sometimes you have had a long day and feel like you "need" some TV to help relax.

The truth is that TV is harmful. It is lazy, bad for your health, unproductive and a massive time waste.

What is scary is that you can watch 5 shows in a night and then the next day not remember any of the shows. That is why people watch reruns of TV shows - their mind is basically off the whole time so they can watch the same thing over and over.

*(TV is fine and healthy in moderation.)

I don't even own a TV (or a netflix account). I'm quite happy with how much I'm able to get done.

> I just had a momentary burst of willpower that allowed me to get rid of it.

Actually it's taken many bursts of willpower for my family to stay TV free. People keep pushing them on us as soon as they find out we don't have one. My brother in law sent us one for christmas one year despite being told we didn't want one. We gave it away. And it seems like every scond person has an old they want us to have because "you can't not have a TV!"

The "Redefining Entertainment" part of this post reminded me of this Rands one, about finding what actually relaxes you:

http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2010/06/22/chill.html

(Not that I've tried that technique. Can't find the time with so many things on TV & HN. ;).)

I wish I had some major time waster like that to eliminate, but sadly, TV has already gone by the wayside for me a long time ago.

From my own experience, and knowing nothing about you, try accounting for your time in 15-min increments for a week. You might be surprised.

Try the Pomodoro Technique

I wish I had some major time waster like that to eliminate ...

Maybe you're commenting on it? :P

Heh, if anything, yeah, this site'd be it, but I've managed to cut back on it, too.

Are you this guy?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-constantly-mention...

Nope, we have one, I just never watch it, except for bicycle racing once in a rare while.

If watching TV is distracting you from working on your company, you don't have to sell your TV, just stop watching it. You're going to be bombarded with distractions no matter what you do. Family, friends, beer, the whole internet in general, all have the potential to be really distracting. But you can't just throw them out or sell them at a garage sale, you need to learn to get stuff done with them in your life as well. If you don't have the willpower to simply turn the TV off, how will you have the willpower to say no to a night out at the bar with friends, or when you open a new browser window and reddit is just a few keystrokes away I'll only check out a few links then it's back to work oh look its 4am how did that happen?

Basically, stop blaming TV. TV isn't what's not getting the work done.

You're pretty much on-the-nose.

You can always make an active choice as to whether you'll be producing or consuming. With TV, you're guaranteed to be consuming.

There is nothing wrong with consuming. Sometimes your brain is fried, and you need to mentally recharge. However if you have the ability to produce, and you are not choosing to produce, you will fail.

For some, removing the consumption device makes it easier to produce since the choice the consume is no longer an option.

My weakness is food. I'll eat anything that's in front of me or in the fridge. I'll just mindlessly snack on it until I'm uncomfortably full.

I live right across the road from a store and yet if there is no food in the house I won't feel inclined to go and buy more unless it's time for a meal. Then I buy exactly enough stuff to make one meal only with no difficulty restraining myself.

Result: I exercise a form of will power I do have and achieve my goal rather than failing to exercise a form of willpower I don't have.

Am I just fooling myself? Yeah. Maybe this guy is too. But if the outcome is positive then that seems smart to me.

This is true and smart. There is a quote in 'Cooking for Geeks' about this phenomenon from Michael Pollan. The idea is that Americans could fix their diets by eating smaller portions, but the simplest way to get people to eat smaller portions is a smaller plate. Changing your environment is easier that changing your behavior and it works. It's a powerful idea.

TV is the biggest mind-suck. Sure, it's partly my fault for allowing myself to be distracted etc., but it's no help that TV specifically has been purposefully designed to be the easiest and biggest distraction on the planet.

I was a coke addict, sure it was my own fault for getting into it, for enabling my own unhealthy habit. But it wasn't enough just to "stop blowing coke." I had to sever relationships with bad influences, I had to "throw coke out the window."

With that in mind, I'm going to of chuck my TV out the window, and despite what you might argue, I'm not just lying to myself. I'm improving my life.

It sounds like you have addiction problems, and I'm not saying that out of cruelty. But if you find yourself in several similar addiction patterns, perhaps it's time to take a deeper look at what's missing, else something else will creep in to fill the void.

Whoops I meant to delete this since it's a double-comment. I actually dont do coke, it was an example in which i used first-person to make it more meaningful

Thank you for being a voice of reason. TV is easy to hate because it can't defend itself, but it's not the enemy. The enemy is always within.

I hardly watch TV anymore, because I find all programs of the national TV mindnumbingly stupid. Commercial stations have the same braindead programs. Movies are reduced to vehicles to shove as much commercials before your eyeballs as possible.

I still have a TV in my living room, tho. Once a day I watch the news.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com