You have only so much time – are you using it right?
wsj.com
wsj.com
This obsession and tension about the time 'left' I don't get it. As an example, sometimes I'm worried about very long life ahead for which I don't have enough savings to navigate in old age. When in misery (ex. out of job, out of long relationship, lonely.. etc) time stretches really long. But when ecstatic and happy, the past (unhappy) time doesn't really matter how much ever long it was.
Time really does not matter.
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I keep it in a pinned tab to help me recontextualize things when I'm stuck in a poorly functioning dopamine loop. If I'm doing something for leisure, I want to really like doing it, not do it as a holding pattern.
I mostly wanted a reference point and a countdown timer with an impossibly large number, but to be able to see it steadily decreasing. That's been somewhat psychologically impactful for myself, but YMMV.
Live long and prosper :)
The question I ask myself is "what do I want?". It is a tough question. I consider my present and future needs, as well as how I feel. When I have thought about my answer, then it becomes clearer how I want to spend my time.
You get the idea. Nothing small like this basically matters. I'm well into my seventh decade and enjoying the ride, doing what I can to improve the situation but not getting too attached to stuff.
I can feel like never getting out of bed, getting a heroin fix, eating a pizza to myself with a case of beer, and repeating. I would also feel like shit, but those aren't mutually exclusive. I could also feel like hitting refresh on social media clients that make me anxious several times a day.
I think that intuitive compass generally works, as you allude to, but not always. But as time passes, I don't think I "feel like" doing anything specific - what I feel like is getting a dopamine spike, blood flowing, social validation, feeling good. All of what we choose is just a vehicle.
IOW, your natural instincts largely worked because your environment supported a fairly high quality lifestyle.
This is not close to true anymore. Our natural instincts and daily lives have been hijacked beyond recognition.
With WFH, for example, people may go days without having walked beyond the distance it takes to go from their bed to their desk, or if they're lucky, from their bedroom to the home office.
Yeah, we get it: you're independently wealthy and doesn't need to work, nor have timelines imposed on your days.
Or, you don't really do all those things "when you feel like it" (and the above is what you'd like to do).
Or, you do them "when you feel like to", but this surprisingly coincides with your free time and holidays...
No fourth option, iirc
The high stress lifestyle is definitely a choice. Fancy car, fancy house, posh neighborhood etc aren't necessary. If you live modestly you have plenty of time and leisure. I spent some time living in a Kibbutz in my 20s and while you have to work it never felt stressful or like a chore or as if you're defined by it.
These days as a dev in particular, you can take on a half-day job move to a cheap place in the country with a nice community, you have as much control over your time as you want.
Big secret: The rest IS entirely arbitrary.
Not independently wealthy except in the sense that I belong just above Branko Milanovic's 85th percentile of wealth. I have a small fixed retirement income derived from wealth accumulated over a 40 year working life. I have the good fortune to live in a country with a stable financial system and institutions that maintain continuity over time.
Taking your wider point, yes, perhaps my behaviour is shaped by the practicalities of my circumstances. But that shaping is largely unconscious so I don't have a sense of constraint.
Of course as you age, you have to adjust. However, I think worrying less about time left and time in general and focusing instead on what your priorities are is more important.
That being said, don’t completely ignore other areas of life.
I probably make less money than the median HN commenter but "keeping up with my bills by spending 2-3h a day drawing things for Patreon and commissioners while biking around a tourist destination's parks and cafes" sure feels like using my time right. I could probably stand to be dancing to a lot more live music though.
Literally just google "bypass paywalls," the first result works like a charm.
“Part of it is, my body is working right now and who knows if it will be in a year or two,” he says. “I’m more deliberate and determined when it comes to things like that.”
I'm at that age where I know things are getting more brittle. Trying to care of things a bit more so I can still do things like walk and ride my bike.
Spend your time how you want. Time is never wasted. If you don't want to do something, and you have no good reason to do it (friends, family, etc.), don't.
As the article states, you only have so much time. Stop trying to figure out how to optimize it, and live it.
You don't have to hike up a mountain, see the world, turn off that TV show you like, or even skip out on unhealthy stuff like going to the bar or eating that piece of cake you shouldn't have (in moderation) to live an enjoyable, fulfilling life.
If what you're doing right now is enjoyable, that's enough.
We're not? How'd you figure that one out with 100% certainty?
At best said purpose is optional or it would require equal opportunity to come upon the explanation from every person who has and who will be in existence. If said purpose is hidden without even a hint that you're supposed to find it I consider that malicious obfuscation.
Except for your own statements of fact, of course.
Sure, and Louis Pasteur was initially a crank for claiming that invisible micro-organisms were causing infection and disease. Absence of perception does not rationally conclude something is therefore absent.
> I need a reason to change mine from the default option.
The default option is faith/belief. You don't have "strong evidence" each day that the sky will be the same color, the sun will come up, your dining room chair will still hold your weight, your best friend still loves and cares for you, and that your car will likely start.
A large majority of your life behavior cruises along quite happily on faith/belief. Or do you start every day re-checking all the proofs of the physical world before you can do anything?
I don't understand your example. Louis Pasteur determined germ theory by observations of natural phenomena - he observed evidence, experimented, and found an explanation for said evidence. In this case I'd need to see direct evidence of a purpose and a means by which I could observe or experiment with said purpose.
> The default option is faith/belief.
You need to provide some reasoning behind that. And which faith? Some belief? Some god? Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster, and the theory of Atlantis?
> You don't have "strong evidence" each day that the sky will be the same color, the sun will come up, your dining room chair will still hold your weight, your best friend still loves and cares for you, and that your car will likely start at the crank of the key.
You're not understanding - I'd need to have some form of reason to believe that the sky would change, or that the dining room chair's properties would change. I'm saying that my understanding of the world is based upon observations. I observed the sun comes up every day so I assume that it will tomorrow. Unless something acts on it it will continue to do so I have no reason to not assume that. For it to not come up the next day without any reason to would in fact be a supernatural phenomena.
> Your absence of perception does not mean the evidence is absent.
And what I'm saying is that the absence of a "thing observed" can have multiple reasons for "not being observed" - 1) it really doesn't exist or 2) you lack the ability to observe it.
If you don't have a microscope it's hard to confirm the existence of cells, and if your life has been lived in a way that you lack the "spiritual scope" and ways of thinking to perceive purpose then of course you will not observe it.
This has become a secret thing that you should discover and know and most won't know which tells me it's not actually important or required to know.
What about time spent on social media like hacker news that I subjectively feel was wasted?
Usually thanks to a combination of being tired and feeling like I can’t muster anything else. But literally staring at a blank wall for 5 minutes would be more restful (some call that meditation)
It is very easy these days to be always busy without making progress towards anything other than keeping busy. And just like junk food, it rarely feels like the best choice in retrospect. Very easy to make in the moment without even enjoying it all that much while it’s happening
That’s what I was trying to convey. I don’t enjoy time on HN as much as I would enjoy other activities that happen to have a slightly higher activation energy.
For example: I would almost certainly enjoy grabbing dinner with a friend more than I enjoy HN. But opening HN is waaaaay easier than calling up a friend. So that’s what happens instead.
Yes! I try to optimize for doing as little things I don't enjoy as possible. If I feel like spending 10 hours watching some Netflix show all weekend, I consider that a perfectly good use of my time. On the other hand, things like cleaning/cooking/shopping, I consider them a waste of time and try to spend as little time doing them as humanly possible.
Argument could then be made that we are living it regardless of what we do. Including optimizing.
I take the point about being stuck in analysis-mode and self-doubt, though I think the fear it addresses is less-so FOMO and more-so living with or without needless suffering or drudgery. Paradoxically I think a bit of suffering is part of living well, e.g. suffering for a passion-project, or cause.
A certain strange book that deals with desire had made waves this past year in navel-gaze-y rationalist-adjacent circles, I think this overlaps. The author posits that we don't have real desires. Instead we make up surrogate reasons and social permission structures to get things done. And if we have desires, they're surrogate desires anyway. It's called "Sadly, Porn" - with the allusion being we're living a pornographic life. Personally I think it's fun and interesting, but I've seen reactions ranging between "banal", "amazing", "disturbing", "pomo nonsense"
I think this is why habit-creation is so powerful. We all have habits, whether they are good or bad - they lower cognitive overload so you can act without rationalizing everything. The way a habit can relate to desire can be completely abstract, but if we follow through they can be fruitful.
Spending just 100 words writing a novel might be for you. You might even leave behind something.
> Steve Jobs : "When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.""
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfBZXIn_Zrw
Your adventure is your own.
Reading that book is just so calming - as Vonnegut said “I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.”
https://twitter.com/sundialcalendar https://twitter.com/seanmcdonaldxyz
I recall listening to the radio and hearing about the ways in which we view time can sometimes alter how we use it. A man was asked how many years he thinks he has left to spend with his parents and he said something along the lines of 10 years. He was then asked how many times a year he spends with his parents and I think he said around 3-4 or so get-togethers.
So at that rate, you only have 30-40 get-togethers left with your family. Which really changed the man's perspective on how much time he really had left based on how he was using it. Just some food for thought on how we use time with others.
No.
Time is illusion; nobody can take you or give you time.
Directly engaging with people on a forum is not even remotely the same thing. The danger is in the algorithmic mind control that social media employs. It is subtle, dangerous, and highly effective at providing alternate realities tailored to the individual. Allowing your mind to be exposed to that is fatally naive, and has lead to the nightmare world of manufactured outrage that we now live in.