[rauljara]

My favorite quote from the article:

> One of the sneakier pitfalls of an efficiency-based attitude to time is that we start to feel pressured to use our leisure time “productively”, too – an attitude which implies that enjoying leisure for its own sake, which you might have assumed was the whole point of leisure, is somehow not quite enough.

[Negitivefrags]

I see this attitude fairly pervasively in hacker news when it comes to consuming media.

When famous tech people like Bill Gates post lists of books, there is almost never any fiction on there.

It's like reading is frowned upon as a waste of time unless it's non-fiction. You can get away with literary fiction but only if it's high-brow enough that it still feels like learning.

Can I not just read a fantasy book because I find it entertaining?

[vizeroth]

American adults read so little that this attitude only comes from a minority of the minority. For the most part, people see it as a waste of time because they may only read 1-4 books a year, so they might feel those books should have some meaningful purpose in their lives (or they only read a book because it is supposed to be great or have some use they can apply to their lives).

Read more, worry less about what others think. I read an average of a book a week (and I'm a slow reader), and most people find that to be argument enough to read whatever I want.

[braveo]

I don't read as much as I used to, and when I really think about it I get regretful. I definitely read more than 1-4 books/year, but I just don't have the time to devote to it anymore.

I strongly prefer actual books, but I've been doing a lot of reading on my iphone over the past few years due to being able to read when I have spots of downtime (waiting on oil change, for example).

[amazing_jose]

I read somewhere that Bill Gates' wife forced him to read at least one general magazine every month because he was completely disconnected from reality. He only consumed financial books and magazines and never watched the news. He used to find famous people in parties and events and never recognise them or know why they were famous.

[arcanus]

> He used to find famous people in parties and events and never recognise them or know why they were famous.

That sounds like a feature, not a bug to me.

[dwaltrip]

Not when you are the head of a huge philanthropic organization.

[gozur88]

It may also be that famous tech people don't want to admit they read the entire Harry Potter series the year the company was struggling. You don't get into the C-suite by not worrying about what people think.

[SBCRec]

Of course you can. It is your time to spend, not Bill Gates or any one elses. I don't read fiction although I enjoy reading history books even though some of them could be considered fiction by critics.

[PavlovsCat]

"obligatory quote"

> To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

-- C.S. Lewis

[braveo]

Or it's that they're posting a specific type of list.

[m_fayer]

I've come to realise that I suffer from this phenomenon in an odd (and possibly funny) way.

While I unapologetically consume plenty of fiction and television just for entertainment purposes, I seem to be on some mission to find only the highest quality stuff. So, what I consume ends up being dense, cerebral, and often dark. And while it's enriching and engaging, it also isn't exactly relaxing, and doesn't help me to relax and turn off when I perhaps should.

I was surprised to find that I felt guilty about consuming just-fine mindless entertainment, and also surprised about how good it felt when I actually did.

[jackgolding]

I found that myself while reviewing some Album of The Year lists. I could only listen to half of each album at a time because they generally are so complex and dense before I end up going back to more simpler and easier to listen to music.

[BN1978]

I am "guilty" of that sometimes. And I am proud for that. For me, there are two kinds of fun: just fun and fun with some added value. Being active on the facebook, playing computer games, watching TV series is just fun. Working on my hobbies (playing an instrument, learning new stuff, working on projects I like...) is fun with added value. If I don't organize my leisure time to much time is spent on the just fun category. Yes, it is fun, but at the end of the day, I don't feel as happy and fulfilled as when I am working on fun + value category.

[edblarney]

"an attitude which implies that enjoying leisure for its own sake, "

As in - oh, 'you want to interview here'?

- 'where are your side projects'? - 'why don't you have 20 github pushes a day'? - 'what open source have you contributed to'? - 'why don't you know all the JS frameworks'?

- 'eat, sleep, code, repeat' ...

:)