I Lost 260 hours and $10k by watching Netflix | Hacker News Reader

I Lost 260 hours and $10k by watching Netflix

mihaihlodec.com

3 pointsmhld4 comments

260 hours over two years is 2½ hours per week, or half an hour per working day. Most people have longer commutes than that.

Based on the usage graph, though, it seems like the author had short bursts where they watched a lot of Netflix, followed by long periods of not using it at all. This seems more like they had periods where they just needed to chill for a while?

I also think, since the author is analytically inclined, they should make a histogram of the percentage of total duration of each item they watched. I personally fall into the trap of getting just enough motivation to stream something for 5-30 minutes and then not finishing it; this is a hell of a lot more wasteful than binging a few TV shows.

Thanks for reading! Half an hour per day might seem short, but for me all those binge sessions were draining my energy. Those long watches were more exhausting than doing light work or house chores. I'm with you on rarely stopping mid-show - I bet most of us are like that. Good idea - will look into crawling Netflix to get actual watch time instead of total duration of the show/movie.

> In my post, Netflix can be replaced with any other "vice" that takes your time: Other streaming services, News, Youtube, Social Media, etc. All of them are not bad when used moderately. But when they become a drug habit things need to change, or at least for me, they must.

Work can be abused and addictive just like any other drug. Optimize life to fit your needs, but if every moment spent not working makes you feel like you should be working, you might want to look into that.

Totally agree! Thank you for reading the post @defnotai. The idea to investigate this came because I felt like I was not relaxing at all when/after watching TV. Even though I was saying that I can't do anything else that evening besides watching TV, I was feeling much worse when going to bed. Unrelaxed and somehow overwhelmed. Not because I was thinking that i should be working instead, but because TV was actually draining my energy.

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