[edmcnulty101]

I hate philosophies like this. It acts like humans are machines that need to be doing things.

I like to relax and binge netflix occasionally to decompress but that doesn't mean I'm voting for myself to become a lazy bum.

I also like to play music but I don't want to become a working musician.

Life is more than ACTIONS there's also experiences and things you enjoy that have nothing to do with future planning.

[robcohen]

I don't see these as mutually exclusive philosophies. You can choose to make an action out of relaxing by voting to not be a strung-out stressed person that is pressured to do things all the time. That person isn't fun at parties. You can vote to de-stress for a few hours or a whole day on occasion.

I personally find this philosophy useful and follow it myself. I intentionally choose what I spend my time on. I make a list of priorities, then I allocate time to those priorities on a spreadsheet. If I run out of time, I drop priorities and make more time. I factor in social time where I can choose to go out or stay in, depending on how I am feeling that day.

What I don't appreciate it the philosophy that most people seem to embrace which is "externalize everything but my job and what feels good". I feel like it's important to hone a variety of skills, and sometimes doing that isn't exactly fun. I think it's more justifiable to delegate once you know how to do a job well. There are exceptions, but there really are not a lot of them.

[ProAm]

These blog posts are such low effort too it makes me cringe.

1) Read $popular_book

2) Have it tell you what to do

3) Blog about chapter, quote, section of said $popular_book

4) Keep you in the loop for SV/VC/Hacker/Founder-sphere because if you don't have a presence your startup doesnt matter.

I'm overly generalizing a bit, and I think the blogger probably had good intentions (i.e. me overreacting) but I feel like these types of posts are more virtue signaling and a waste of time vs smart people wanting an online book club.

[mcbutterbunz]

Having a mechanism to express your thoughts, whether publicly or privately, can be beneficial to the learning process. You try to express your ideas to others and see if you really understand it, sort of like the Feynman technique.

Beyond that, if its cringe to you or not worth your time, just ignore it and move on. Just because it's not worth your time doesn't mean its not worth the time of the author.

[ProAm]

I totally agree. Im not saying he shouldn't blog as for its good personal expression, similar to a diary. Just surprised to see it on HN as for it seems more that the author is someone seeking validation vs discussion.

[ravenstine]

It's not entirely wrong, but yeah, we aren't always making highly conscious decisions. There should be no shame in living a low-key yet morally integral existence and not always being intentional with every single action we take.

My contention with that philosophy is similar to that of all the messaging we get on social media about success and how our lives are supposed to be. No, I don't travel and dine out as much as other people, and perhaps I'm not as conventionally successful as most others in my cohort, but I have enough life experience to inform me that I am both content and not really "missing out" on things like others might. To "live like you'll die tomorrow" seems stressful and unsustainable to me. I much prefer the chill feeling of knowing that I'll wake up with a new day and that I don't necessarily need to be hustling or achieving to be a human.

[GauntletWizard]

I think you're interpreting the advice overly agressively. You can take it as chill advice in chill situations.

It's okay to want to be the kind of person who enjoys a show and watches it enthusiastically. It's great to be the kind of person who relaxes and takes care of themselves. It's wonderful to want to be musical without pushing yourself to do so commercially.

Take actions to be the kind of person who enjoys being you.