[chc]

The article takes as given that people who hack rather than watch Netflix do so because of their superior self-control — does anybody else doubt that?

I've had times in my life when I've been really prolific and times when it would take a Herculean effort to get anything worthwhile done. When I'm prolific, it's not because I'm exercising self-control to stop myself from watching Netflix — I'd just rather work on Thing X than watch a movie. When I find myself watching Netflix instead of putting in time on something I've been wanting to do, it's because at that moment the movie is more appealing than the work. It's the same force pushing in different directions.

I'm not saying you can get by with no self-control (there are always some less pleasant things you need to do), but I think taking this article at face value might lead people down the wrong path.

[aik]

I can relate with the article in that I've noticed in myself that if I ever go a week where I watch more movies/TV than usual, I VERY quickly notice myself feeling like it's OK to watch that amount, or more, in the future. Actions of that comfort turn very quickly into habits, and that's where the real danger lies - falling into comfort. It's really why so many people work boring jobs. I bet you a good amount of them have dreams, but are too comfortable and lack the "metacognition" (or vision, self-control, foresight, execution skills) to take action.

[DTrejo]

When I find myself watching Netflix instead of putting in time on something I've been wanting to do, it's because at that moment the movie is more appealing than the work.

When this happens to me I challenge myself first to figure out why the work is less appealing, and then once I've figured that out I attempt to remove the block. This strategy has been somewhat successful, but sometimes the barriers are too big and annoying and horrible to push through :|

In those cases, on goes the movie and I simply hope that time and help from others will resolve the issue.