Ask HN: However little television you watch, watch less." | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: However little television you watch, watch less."

6 pointsimpendia7 comments

That's a David McCullough quote, which I believe I've seen repeated by Paul Graham or otherwise on HN. I am curious if anyone has tried to put this advice into practice?

In my case, my chosen vice is the computer game Civilization 6, but the principle feels the same. It's an easy source of readily accessible pleasure, that scratches a certain itch, and which I can enjoy even when I feel tired and irritable. I've intermittently given it up for periods of time, with mixed results.

I am curious what others' experience has been?

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I think about it in the following way; lifting weights is good for your body and strength but muscles grow during the recovery phase. If you don't add in recovery days, your muscles will not be happy and injury is right around the corner. From a narrow point of view of lifting/exercising, recovery is a waste of time since you can only gain if you lift. But if you don't consider recovery as part of the training itself then you're not going to last long until your body forces you to slow down.

Now consider the brain and the mind that doesn't shutdown even when you go to sleep and are supposedly physically resting. Applying the same process used for muscles is necessary. The term used if you don't do that isn't "mind injury" though, it is burn out and corresponding mental health issues("brain injury" is reserved to mean something else).

You need a way to "rest", whatever that means for you. If it's a game of Civ, then great. Reading a good book, extra great. Unfortunately while TV used to be a source of entertainment, I don't believe it is serving that purpose anymore. Why give up Civ if you enjoy it? Limit the time if you think you have better things you'd like to do.

For me, I've incorporated rest and downtime into my life after experiencing what happens when you don't. Having said that, it is still a battle some days if I'm not mindful because we're so used to being "productive" every waking second and actively discourage resting.

I also strongly encourage you try some meditation. It is very simple to do but not easy.

Thank you very much for your reply.

This might sound like a strange question, and maybe not one I can reasonably ask of anyone else. That said -- how can I determine what "rest" genuinely means for me? As opposed to what I would like it to mean?

I enjoy Civ, but that might be for the dopamine kick it delivers, so I'm not sure if it has the beneficial effects you describe. I also enjoy reading, but that feels more like lifting than recovery.

And I've indeed tried meditation, and indeed not found it easy!

Interesting question. For me, resting was similar to exercising an antagonist muscle. Or oversimplifying it, do the opposite of what you were doing. So if your day is full of focus and concentration and sedentary then do something physical that doesn't require a lot of focus and concentration. Doing something physical all day? Then relax your body by reading a book on the couch.

You'll probably need to experiment to see what works for you and come up with your own answer.

Given how many pleasure traps society has laid out to capture/monetize/weaponize their Attention, Gen Z seems to have discovered Dopa loading by themselves - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyLXcy5SGd8

Main thing to notice and focus on are the 2 graphs, and then develop some consciousness about your own oscillations and hill climbs.

Enjoyed this ty

I read the book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport a couple years ago. I’m not sure what I was expecting, I think maybe some advice how to organize and maintain my digital world and avoid being a digital hoarder. What I got was a book about the importance having periods of time without any input from outside influences. That could be TV, social media, games, music, or even books and news. Being alone with our own thoughts is much more rare than it once was, some people never do it at all for more than a minute here and there. It’s a thought I come back to often.

What I struggle with is the lack of a good hobby to occupy my hands for longer stretches of time while my mind wanders.

Nobody is a machine so it’s a balance. Gotta find time for the things you enjoy and sometimes you need something passive if you’re wiped.

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