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Comment by TheFragenTaken | Hacker News Reader

Ugh. Posts like this are well meaning, but destructive. Why would you learn after work? Why do you strive towards something? Why is it important to learn, and constantly evolve? Are you really just doing it, because everyone else are, and you feel like you _have_ to?

It's poisonous, because you end up blaming yourself because you are not living up to constantly changing external demands.

It's okay to say no to what challenges your well-being. Otherwise you'd be at risk of losing your own autonomy. Accept your limitations, cherish them, and know you don't have to (or even can) change them.

I'm not saying you should say no to everything, but not everything is necessary.

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I didn't get that _at all_. If you are interested in stuff that is not related to your work (so learning on the job is out), what else would you do?

To me this sounded like the author likes to read and learn about things, but these just happen to also be tech. So they found a way to make time and describe how. I don't see any holier than thou "this is how you must do it", just a simple "this works for me". But YMMV.

Yeah except the piece started with:

> My software developer colleagues often ask me where I do get all the time for reading all the tech books or articles, watching conference talks and listening to podcasts.

They're not talking about learning about woodworking on the side, or learning about tech for fun. They specifically situated the piece in the world of work right at the start, going so far as to present themselves as some kind of mysterious marvel that their co-workers have tried to unravel.

This is just another tech productivity hacking piece. Good ol' workaholic porn, in the same vein as "Wanna get hired? Start a dozen side projects!" or "Hack leetcode in your remaining waking hours for fun and profit, except without the fun!"

It's a trope at this point, and an unhealthy one.

This is the same for all things in life.

Want to have a better partner? Become a gym rat! Work on your personality! Want to be make more money in life? Learn more, grind more!

The tech things I like to learn about/work on are almost entirely anti-lucrative. :D (E.g., low level C stuff, for which to get a job in I'd have to relocate to Hyderabad.)

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