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Comment by irishpolyglot | Hacker News Reader

If after spending many hours watching TV you feel your life has been enhanced in some way, then by all means keep it up. In my opinion people don't feel this way (I certainly never did and grew up glued to my TV) and would have spent their time better in other activities rather than following hours of reality TV shows etc.

Doing "whatever you like" doesn't necessarily enrich your life. It's just immediate pleasure. Sometimes doing whatever is BEST for you (which you should of course decide) is way more important. If people really sat down and thought about it, a lot of them would realise that, as much as they like it, TV is NOT best for them.

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I feel my life is infinitely enriched by watching TV and movies. (In UK, we have extremely high quality programming).

You wouldn't say "all books are bad" would you... Sadly people seem to take the worst TV (reality TV) and assume it's all like that.

Watch some good movies, comedies or documentaries. Heck watch "How it's made" for a few days.

I have lived in the UK and tv there is just as bad as anywhere else (I particularly remember gardening shows ad nauseum). If you think your life is infinitely enriched by tv, wait till you get out there (and garden for example).

As I said in another comment, these are just things that I have personally learned in the last 8 years. Disagree with them if you will. I do agree that TV quality is better in the UK (we get most of it in Ireland) compared to the states, but there is still plenty of rubbish that people waste their time with. If you just watch documentaries or educational programming, then that enriches your life and there would be nothing negative for me to say about it.

I think there's a difference between watching the tele without regard to content and using it to watch specific content.

The "read more" crowd gets the reverse of this - much of what is in print is not worth the time it takes to consume it.

In general, value your time and use it accordingly. You're not getting it back if you decide it was wasted later.

why do i need to "enrich my life"? can't i be happy with how it is? who are you to tell other what's BEST for them?

how about you get a little older? how about staying in a place for a little longer, say 10 years and see how time makes a difference? your zero impact runaway life is a narrow experience - ever thought about that?

maybe you'll realize that all your travels, all your experiences don't make your life a jota more "valuable" or less valuable than the ones of any other being, whatever life they live.

your open mind - isn't.

First off, you're really defensive about some person's blog post. I mean, seriously. He's not working on your spleen.

Secondly, it's "lessons learned", not commandments. Just stuff he picked up whilst traveling, not universally-accepted, committee-approved advice for everyone on planet earth and those who aren't born yet.

Finally, what on earth does age have to do with conveying general observations? What would staying 10 years in Portofino tell me that I couldn't get from open exploration and friendly/social interaction in a few weeks? That they actually ship their sardines live from China and throw them into the Ligurian? Good to know, but I'm a traveler. Why do I need to know that?

"your open mind - isn't."

I don't think he conferred himself any type of honor or status about his travels that assumes he is open-minded, except to say "I had an open mind while traveling and learned some stuff. Hope you can appreciate it." He isn't bigoted against people who do or don't do anything from what I could read in that article. When he says "don't defer your happiness" he means just that: Appreciate what you've got while you're planning on attaining more if that's the goal."

i'm replying to his reply...did you read it?

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