Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tomp | Hacker News Reader

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I can't help but pity people who say "there is nothing better to do" (but then again, maybe that's because I'm employed, working 10 hours a day).

We live at a time when "I have nothing to do" is a really bullshit excuse. You have the whole internet available!

- learn languages (e.g. Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish - to cover most of the world's population)

- learn new stuff (statistics/machine learning, quantum mechanics, chemistry/biology, philosophy, programming, ...)

- do crowd-funded science (https://www.zooniverse.org/)

- help with open source projects (they need both programmers and non-programmers)

- teach people English (or any other language you know)

- entertain yourself (chat, watch movies, read books, play games)

Even for older generations, who might not be so comfortable with technology, there are plenty of useful things they can do in the real world.

- mentor kids

- tidy up parks and other public spaces

- participate in or organize hackatons/hardware hackatons/makerspaces

- experiment with learning/science/research in your home (make a spice garden, grow plants using hydroponics, prototype using 3D printing, redecorate your home with cheap materials)

- hang out with lonely (often elderly) people

- (learn to) cook

- work out (bodyweight exercises - you'll live longer)

I seriously cannot imagine ever being bored with nothing useful to do (except when I get home after work, I'm tired and I only have an hour or two of free time, so there's not much time to start anything meaningful - but even so, I spend a lot of time programming my personal projects).

For perhaps 10% of the population, maybe less, what OPs parents said is true.

The other 90% or more of the people claiming they're bored would never do 40 hrs/wk of volunteer work... its just a socially acceptable way to say they can't afford it.

A good gauge would be to ask them if they'd do it part time or volunteer.

Some other reasons that aren't socially acceptable to talk about but are true, revolve around workers in highly capitalist sectors / hobbies can't have fun toys at home. My Aunt the chemical engineer can have a lot more fun at work than at home. Large machine tool operators who actually love the craft not the paycheck can't have a lathe bigger than their garage at home in their garage. Cluster operators. Large network operators. Some of the more exotic/modern corners of EE work.

What people say socially often has nothing to do with reality.

Great points - but honestly, I could classify most of those as jobs. Want to be a translator, or a teacher, or an open source developer? We can all do those things alone, sure. But going (or remoting) to a workplace gives us a collaborative experience. And not to mention, not all people can easily motivate themselves to keep something going on their own, and need external pressure and motivation. The vibe I was getting was that my elders were afraid of devolving into couch potatoes, were they to leave the jobs they enjoyed.

> but honestly, I could classify most of those as jobs.

Ok, so maybe that is where we differ. A "job", for me, is "work I do for money". If I had a passive source of money that would give me the option of not working ever again (and fully supporting my family, and future generations, etc), even if I still "worked" on the same stuff as I do now, I wouldn't call it "a job" (as it would be completely voluntary and optional) but "a hobby".

I agree with you. But only if you are a motivated person. It saddened me when I had to give up on them by founding out that they (most people, even the close ones) are not motivated due to fear, laziness, and disbelief in own powers and possibilities of improvement.

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