[theorique]

How one-sided. Anything worthy can be done to excess, but that line is drawn by the individual.

Take running as an example - the couch potato thinks the weekend 5K duffers are "running to excess"; the 5K duffers think the person training for a marathon is "running to excess"; the marathon trainers think the ultra-runners are "running to excess"; the ultra-runners think the 72-hour endurance runners are "running to excess".

As long as a person's lifehacking "system" is contributing to their well being, and serving them, who's to say it's wrong? If someone steps back and says, "ok, I'm working this system too much and I want to change it", then that's fine too.

Really, people - live and let live - it's not that hard.

[robbles]

I agree, but I also think this argument goes both ways.

The 5K runners think the couch potatoes should run more, the marathon trainers think the 5K runners should run more, etc. In a similar fashion, the "inefficient" are bombarded with lifehacking advice from the likes of Tim Ferriss and David Allen.

I think if there's one good takeaway from this article, it's that the lifehackers should "live and let live" as well. Not everyone needs or wants to optimize their life.

[theorique]

I agree with that too. People don't need to evangelize their latest productivity system.

[tankbot]

I'm not sure. I'll agree that it can be irritating, but I think sometimes people actually do need to evangelize their latest $WHATEVER in order to help motivate themselves and stay focused. Whether or not this is a sign of un/healthy activity could also be an interesting debate.

[theorique]

Yes, generally it's more about the evangelizer rather than their target (see: vegan, Christian, vi-user, etc)

[tankbot]

Haha! Wait... That was funny until the part about vi.

Vim is the best editor ever and you should use it! Your editor is bad and you should feel bad!

[anigbrowl]

Take running as an example - the couch potato thinks the weekend 5K duffers are "running to excess"

A classic straw man example. I hadn't herd of this 'running to excess' term, but I defy you to find someone who thinks running 5k once a week is excessive. I'm not into running myself, but I walk a round trip of that length a couple of times a week (to a specific destination, I don't mean that's my only exercise) and the idea of jogging it instead doesn't seem particularly radical.