[dkersten]

These are the same people who complain that they would be bored if out of work for too long. I personally have so many personal or passion projects that I would like to undertake, but don’t have the time for, that I’d happily fill a few lifetimes with interesting things to do.

Of course, there’s a difference between a few lifetimes and thousands of years or immortality.

[okcando]

I expect most people's experiences when they're unemployed are colored by being... unemployed. You're not retired or on vacation, you're jobless. You're not supposed to be having a good time following your passions, you're supposed to be looking for more work or skill-building so you can get work. And money is going to run out eventually and who is going to want to hire you when you haven't had a job in six months or a year?

A lot of cultural baggage and shame in it, most people just end up stressed out and depressed.

[dkersten]

I’m not talking about the people who are unemployed against their will, but the people who are not unemployed and say “no, they couldn’t take a load of time of work[1] because they would be bored”. I took some time off a while back, to destress and work on my own ideas for a while and the amount of people who said they couldn’t do it, they’d be bored was mind blowing.

> who is going to want to hire you when you haven't had a job in six months or a year?

I’m lucky enough that in our industry, this hasn’t affected me. Tech companies seem pretty open to the idea that people take sabbaticals and such. Don’t get me wrong, I’m under no illusion that this isn’t a problem for other people and other industries, it absolutely is, unfortunately.

[1] Assuming they could financially afford it

[okcando]

Yes, I think even when people choose to stop working, they often still fall into the trappings of joblessness and stress about the uncertainty of what they're going to do when it's time to go back to work. And so they don't enjoy it.

Not everyone, of course.

[raxxorrax]

Seriously, I think this is actually a severe case of self-deception to cope with the realities of having to work in a modern environment. Or, for the other example, dying.

That said, people who get bored are difficult to be with in my opinion. Cannot remember that last time being bored. You always have the option to spam your unqualified opinion on HN or something, there is so much potential stuff to do that a lifetime probably wouldn't be enough.

[stcredzero]

That said, people who get bored are difficult to be with in my opinion.

Suburban kids in the 70's. Checks out!

[lisper]

As someone who has been incredibly fortunate to be able to do pretty much whatever I want for the last 15 years I can tell you from personal experience: you can get sick and tired of pretty much anything and everything, and it happens a lot faster than you would expect (or at least a lot faster than I expected).

One of the really serious problems is that your brain generalizes, so once you get sick and tired of one thing, it's easier to get sick and tired of the next thing because your brain says, "Oh, this is kinda similar to this other thing that I already got sick and tired of."

Managing all this can be a real challenge. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, it's an incredibly nice problem to have, and I wouldn't trade it for the world (literally!) But even nice problems to have can still be real problems.

[oblio]

I took a long sabbatical (6+ months). All my friends were working. My own projects didn't seem that fulfilling.

I was bored after about 4 months.

[dkersten]

I guess I can’t relate, I’ve been lucky enough to have had a number of periods in my life where I’ve had time to do my own thing and... I never tire of having long periods of time to do with as I wish. I mean, sure, I have to actively seek the next fulfilling thing, I can’t just sit back and assume the projects in my mind will fulfilling longtime and I do agree that its easy to slip into boredom, but there are so many things I’d like to do or experience that there’s always something I can do that I find interesting or exciting enough to fill my time. I certainly wouldn’t be idle, which absolutely would bore me.

I suppose everybody is different though and what works for me, might not work for you.

[MadWombat]

I am the same way, have a bunch of things I would love to do, but don't have the time. Once thing I noticed is that at least in the past 2-3 decades there are more and more fields opening up to DIY projects that used to have a really high bar for entry in the past. DIY biology, robotics and other electronics and many others. So I think by the time we could fill one lifetime with projects, things would pile up enough to take another few lifetimes :)

[magduf]

Don't worry, it's quite likely you won't have thousands of years of immortality even if biological immortality is achieved. Eventually, something is going to kill you: a plane crash, a speeding bus, an earthquake, a murderer, etc. Just look at how many people are killed in cars every year in the US alone.