<story><title>How to Work Hard</title><url>http://paulgraham.com/hwh.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>devchix</author><text>&amp;gt;  I can hardly sit through an entire two-hour movie or play a video game without feeling like I should be doing something else.&lt;p&gt;One summer we rented a beach house, I had delusions of lazing on the beach under a big umbrella, drinks, books, dogs, netflix, music, a endless orgy of entertainment and sunny weather.  I went stir-crazy in about half a day, there&amp;#x27;s only so much lazing about I can do, after 2 movies I thought meh, I&amp;#x27;m wasting this day.  I envy the people who say they&amp;#x27;re going on vacation and do nothing for a week, two weeks even.  I can&amp;#x27;t seem to do that, and I don&amp;#x27;t know whether that&amp;#x27;s something intrinsic to who I am, or that&amp;#x27;s a toxic thought pattern I need to get rid of.  When I&amp;#x27;m back at home and at work I am so busy I have a tendency say &amp;quot;I wish I had some more time to unwind&amp;quot; a lot.&lt;p&gt;At the present, I&amp;#x27;m trying to have &lt;i&gt;focused and purposeful&lt;/i&gt; idle time.  With intent, sit through a movie, read something, play a game, whatever, for a chunk of time, or deliberately do nothing at all.  The last one is very hard for me, I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;ve managed 15 minutes of it.</text></item><item><author>nonbirithm</author><text>I feel the same. I can hardly sit through an entire two-hour movie or play a video game without feeling like I should be doing something else. I &lt;i&gt;cannot&lt;/i&gt; feel good about myself if I cannot sense that I&amp;#x27;m making progress learning a skill, and am stuck for hours looking down at a blank page as a result.&lt;p&gt;But what&amp;#x27;s dangerous for me is that this alarm system does not trigger consistently. I might spend too much time on HN, for example, because my impression is that HN is a place to have intellectual discoveries. I might spend too much time on YouTube because I can&amp;#x27;t think of anything else to do. Ironically there is a wealth of knowledge contained in some games that would be more worthwhile than a bunch of highlights on YouTube, but YouTube is just too easy to go back to.&lt;p&gt;When I work on some of my programming projects, I come out with the feeling that I&amp;#x27;m just using the act of constantly working on them as an excuse to not have to worry about the fact that my life outside of them is one-dimensional and currently stagnating. I work way too hard on such non-work projects and burn out only to stop and instead spend weeks anxious that because I&amp;#x27;m not doing anything, I am not growing as a person. I still believe this is true; I don&amp;#x27;t think I am much different from the me of two years ago, except that I&amp;#x27;ve made some progress on programming projects.&lt;p&gt;But it&amp;#x27;s weird because I enjoy programming. I think it is because I enjoy programming so much that I become blinded to things that I should have seen as more important. I think I am already good enough at programming to not need much more to learn, and am only applying the skills that I happen to have built up for years.&lt;p&gt;But when I turn back to the other hobbies I always told myself I wanted to spend my life doing, all I find is a void of interest, and I ultimately accomplish little.&lt;p&gt;I also believe this was a result of how I was raised and the coping mechanisms my upbringing&amp;#x2F;college ingrained in me.</text></item><item><author>helen___keller</author><text>When I was an undergrad at CMU, I learned how to work hard. Really hard. After having coasted through too-easy high school, I spent all day every day at CMU either programming, doing mathematics, or thinking about one of those things (to great effect: often the trick to prove a theorem would pop into my head while showering or while taking a walk). I would fall asleep while programming in the middle of the night, dream about programming, then wake up and continue programming just where I left off.&lt;p&gt;One thing from this essay really stuck out to me:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The most basic level of which is simply to feel you should be working without anyone telling you to. Now, when I&amp;#x27;m not working hard, alarm bells go off.&lt;p&gt;One thing that always happened at the end of a semester is we&amp;#x27;d have a few days after exams but before flights back home. On these days I&amp;#x27;d typically try playing a video game (my hobby before college) and every time I would stop playing after just an hour with deep feeling of unease at the pit of my stomach. &amp;quot;Alarm bells&amp;quot; is exactly how I would describe it - a feeling at the core of my psyche that I have been wasting time and there must be &lt;i&gt;something&lt;/i&gt; productive I should be doing or thinking about.&lt;p&gt;Years later, having tackled anxiety problems that had plagued me most of my life, I came to recognize that my relationship with hard work during my college years was not healthy and that this deep seated desire to do more work is not a positive thing, at least not for me.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve since reformed my ambitions, instead of looking to start a company or get a PhD in mathematics, I&amp;#x27;ve decided that hard work is not the love of my life and instead I should focus on my hobbies while looking for a career path that can be simultaneously fulfilling but laid back.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wfme</author><text>I had a very similar experience a few years ago after travelling to Rarotonga for a holiday. There was little reception for mobile data without a new sim - this turned out to be an absolute blessing. The first day or so was easy, but the next few were restless. We had explored the island, snorkelled, swam in the pool, and tried lots of the local food. We had run out of things to do.&lt;p&gt;The funny thing is, it took there being nothing to do, no phone to idly turn to, to truly start to unwind and relax. I didn&amp;#x27;t initially realise it at the time, but my body and mind had been in this constant state of stress. After pushing through that initial restlessness and that constant need to be actively doing or reading about something productive, my whole body began to feel noticeably more relaxed. The invisible state of constant stress was finally parting. Waking up later than usual, grabbing some tropical fruits and enjoying them around the pool with a light fictional book at the ready started to feel more natural and enjoyable. It started to feel like I could truly enjoy doing &amp;quot;nothing&amp;quot; and just bathe in the relaxation.&lt;p&gt;After returning home, there were many noticeable improvements to my creative thinking, productivity, and my general feeling of wellbeing.&lt;p&gt;My take away from this experience is that it is so incredible difficult to fully disconnect from day-to-day life when your phone can provide constant  access to information. It&amp;#x27;s oh so easy to go on holiday but still turn to your phone and hn or reddit when idle. I highly highly recommend taking a holiday either without your phone, or without any easy access to the internet.</text></comment>
<story><title>How to Work Hard</title><url>http://paulgraham.com/hwh.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>devchix</author><text>&amp;gt;  I can hardly sit through an entire two-hour movie or play a video game without feeling like I should be doing something else.&lt;p&gt;One summer we rented a beach house, I had delusions of lazing on the beach under a big umbrella, drinks, books, dogs, netflix, music, a endless orgy of entertainment and sunny weather.  I went stir-crazy in about half a day, there&amp;#x27;s only so much lazing about I can do, after 2 movies I thought meh, I&amp;#x27;m wasting this day.  I envy the people who say they&amp;#x27;re going on vacation and do nothing for a week, two weeks even.  I can&amp;#x27;t seem to do that, and I don&amp;#x27;t know whether that&amp;#x27;s something intrinsic to who I am, or that&amp;#x27;s a toxic thought pattern I need to get rid of.  When I&amp;#x27;m back at home and at work I am so busy I have a tendency say &amp;quot;I wish I had some more time to unwind&amp;quot; a lot.&lt;p&gt;At the present, I&amp;#x27;m trying to have &lt;i&gt;focused and purposeful&lt;/i&gt; idle time.  With intent, sit through a movie, read something, play a game, whatever, for a chunk of time, or deliberately do nothing at all.  The last one is very hard for me, I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;ve managed 15 minutes of it.</text></item><item><author>nonbirithm</author><text>I feel the same. I can hardly sit through an entire two-hour movie or play a video game without feeling like I should be doing something else. I &lt;i&gt;cannot&lt;/i&gt; feel good about myself if I cannot sense that I&amp;#x27;m making progress learning a skill, and am stuck for hours looking down at a blank page as a result.&lt;p&gt;But what&amp;#x27;s dangerous for me is that this alarm system does not trigger consistently. I might spend too much time on HN, for example, because my impression is that HN is a place to have intellectual discoveries. I might spend too much time on YouTube because I can&amp;#x27;t think of anything else to do. Ironically there is a wealth of knowledge contained in some games that would be more worthwhile than a bunch of highlights on YouTube, but YouTube is just too easy to go back to.&lt;p&gt;When I work on some of my programming projects, I come out with the feeling that I&amp;#x27;m just using the act of constantly working on them as an excuse to not have to worry about the fact that my life outside of them is one-dimensional and currently stagnating. I work way too hard on such non-work projects and burn out only to stop and instead spend weeks anxious that because I&amp;#x27;m not doing anything, I am not growing as a person. I still believe this is true; I don&amp;#x27;t think I am much different from the me of two years ago, except that I&amp;#x27;ve made some progress on programming projects.&lt;p&gt;But it&amp;#x27;s weird because I enjoy programming. I think it is because I enjoy programming so much that I become blinded to things that I should have seen as more important. I think I am already good enough at programming to not need much more to learn, and am only applying the skills that I happen to have built up for years.&lt;p&gt;But when I turn back to the other hobbies I always told myself I wanted to spend my life doing, all I find is a void of interest, and I ultimately accomplish little.&lt;p&gt;I also believe this was a result of how I was raised and the coping mechanisms my upbringing&amp;#x2F;college ingrained in me.</text></item><item><author>helen___keller</author><text>When I was an undergrad at CMU, I learned how to work hard. Really hard. After having coasted through too-easy high school, I spent all day every day at CMU either programming, doing mathematics, or thinking about one of those things (to great effect: often the trick to prove a theorem would pop into my head while showering or while taking a walk). I would fall asleep while programming in the middle of the night, dream about programming, then wake up and continue programming just where I left off.&lt;p&gt;One thing from this essay really stuck out to me:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The most basic level of which is simply to feel you should be working without anyone telling you to. Now, when I&amp;#x27;m not working hard, alarm bells go off.&lt;p&gt;One thing that always happened at the end of a semester is we&amp;#x27;d have a few days after exams but before flights back home. On these days I&amp;#x27;d typically try playing a video game (my hobby before college) and every time I would stop playing after just an hour with deep feeling of unease at the pit of my stomach. &amp;quot;Alarm bells&amp;quot; is exactly how I would describe it - a feeling at the core of my psyche that I have been wasting time and there must be &lt;i&gt;something&lt;/i&gt; productive I should be doing or thinking about.&lt;p&gt;Years later, having tackled anxiety problems that had plagued me most of my life, I came to recognize that my relationship with hard work during my college years was not healthy and that this deep seated desire to do more work is not a positive thing, at least not for me.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve since reformed my ambitions, instead of looking to start a company or get a PhD in mathematics, I&amp;#x27;ve decided that hard work is not the love of my life and instead I should focus on my hobbies while looking for a career path that can be simultaneously fulfilling but laid back.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>d0m3</author><text>Going on vacation doesn&amp;#x27;t mean doing nothing.
Like you I don&amp;#x27;t understand how&amp;#x2F;why people do this.
I think it&amp;#x27;s about doing something different. Travel, visit, explore, camp, hike, do sport, meet new people, share that with family&amp;#x2F;friends or not.</text></comment>