Wasting time on things that really don't matter | Hacker News Reader

Wasting time on things that really don't matter

paulbuchheit.blogspot.com

20 pointsSam_Odio11 comments

So tempting to comment on the irony that this is posted by someone who seems to spend every waking hour on news.yc ;)

yes!

my comment on the blog post:

well, most of the comments at news.YC and other 'non-technical' newsgroups debate things that "dont really matter";

However, it's the process of debating the silly stuff that creates social friction, so that our gears may slough off grit, interlock and start working together. Now THAT's important!

The tricky part is figuring out when you're wasting time on things that really don't matter. The string comparison deal is an obviously easy example, but there's a lot of gray area out there.

"Maybe that's fun if you don't have anything better to do, but when you're actually trying to accomplish something it can be deadly."

Doesn't that also apply to, eg.: reading Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs? Surely, when you're doing a startup, it's a waste of time, but at any other moment, it is worthwhile.

I find that reading arguments about these simple problems is not fun, but it's sometimes highly enligthening. If there are hard technical reasons for preferring A over B, I would like to know.

Definitely true. See also http://www.bikeshed.com

The tactic paul mentioned for avoiding time-wasting seems like a good approach. I tried a similar approach yesterday, however, and failed. It helps to have a very clear conception of what your top problems are.

Amen.

For a much broader view on things that don't really matter, check out:

http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

PG's essay is an interesting, broader view, but I like Buchheit's focus on what the next action is to kill the problem. Having a prioritized list of issues and keeping it prominent is key. It's different from the to-do list PG says to avoid, in that to-do lists don't have to be aggressively prioritized. They get filled with random schleps.

This is best:

Utility.isEmpty(s);

This problem of wasting time on things is not important either :)

It's only wasting time if the time would have otherwise been spent doing useful work. I also think there can be value in debating minor details. A lot of thinking goes on when you're forced to defend your decision and rational in debate form.

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