4 ms·

In 2007, I finished my bba, received an angel investment, and started a company. Three months later (and with my investor's enthusiastic support), I started a n

by hluska 11y ago

In 2007, I finished my bba, received an angel investment, and started a company. Three months later (and with my investor's enthusiastic support), I started a non-profit street magazine. About two years later, I ended up in hospital with stroke symptoms and blood pressure on the 'how are you alive?' end of the scale. Because of this, I beg anyone who wants to be as highly productive as I was to please take care of your body and your mind. It's better to be productive for forty years than highly productive for two years and then dead. I don't want to hear about another dead hacker.

dualogy 11y ago
So out of curiosity, in your case, was this overworked + crappy diet + lack of physical activity, or was this overworked + healthy/balanced/junk-free diet + some modicum of regular physical activity?
- hluska 11y ago
  It started as a spiral of being overworked and not sleeping enough. As I slept less, my coffee consumption skyrocketed and my diet grew worse and worse. I tried to exercise three times a week, but between being tired, mild stomach problems from too much coffee and unhealthy food, and energy spikes, my intensity in the gym slipped and I eventually started skipping more workouts. It all spiralled because all of those things made me less effective. So, I not only made more mistakes but those mistakes kept me up later and later at night...
  - bluejellybean 11y ago
    >mild stomach problems from too much coffee This is a problem I've ran into in the past but on fairly severe scales. I was drinking at least 2 pots (~24 cups) of coffee per day and ended up in the hospital a few time due to stomach problems. I've sense limited my consumption of coffee and switched to pure caffeine pills (mixed with water) and my quality of life has improved quite dramatically. Gone are the constant bathroom trips and stomach issues! Obviously reducing the overall caffeine intake is extremely helpful as well but coffee as the method of ingestion is just not good on the body.
    - hluska 11y ago
      I completely agree with you. It used to be nothing for me to drink 12 - 15 large cups of coffee a day. Nowadays, I might drink 3 - 4 cups a day and the difference in my quality of life has been astounding. Caffeine is a great performance enhancing drug, but coffee is a particular bad delivery method!
- cpncrunch 11y ago
  Burnout doesn't really have anything to do with diet or exercise. I suffered from it with a good diet and exercise. It's basically just your brain shutting down your stress system due to excessive long-term stress and/or negative outlook.
  - zzalpha 11y ago
    Burnout can absolutely lead to a poorer diet and a lack of exercise due to a lack of general motivation to eat well or stay active. At minimum it would be correlated with poorer diet, in that if you're overworked, finding time to take care of yourself becomes increasingly difficult.
dataker 11y ago
Did you use/abuse caffeine/ritalin/..?
- hluska 11y ago
  Massive caffeine abuse. I drank truly insane amounts of coffee.
  - logicallee 11y ago
    how massive? I can't always plan my crunches, but since I started taking caffeine pills - I take 4 pills, equiv 4 coffees, right before really focusing on something, then I can relax in a different part of the day where it doesn't matter if it's slower. So I go between 0 and 8 coffees per day worth of caffeine, depending on what I'm doing. I've completely stopped drinking coffee and save a bunch of time that way (except socially.) How does this compare with what you called truly insane?
    - PopeOfNope 11y ago
      I can't speak for hluska, but before my burnout I was up to ~700mg/day of caffeine via energy drinks. I qualified that as quite insane. This site is fun, btw: http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database
    - hluska 11y ago
      At the peak of my madness, it was nothing for me to drink 12 - 15 large cups of coffee over 12 hours at work.
    - cheald 11y ago
      Consider taking L-theanine with your caffeine. When taken with caffeine, it smooths out the jitters and produces a subtle sense of clarity and focus; it will probably improve your ability to think on less caffeine. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051107001573 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051107... (Lots of other articles about the effect cited in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine too) If you are using caffeine for energy, you probably should improve your diet first, instead, and make sure you get enough sleep (which I know can be hard in crunch mode, but it makes your awake time much more productive). I love my coffee as much as the next person, but using caffeine to drive my ability to work has never produced good effects.
dpc_pw 11y ago
Thanks for your comment. It scared me a little and gave me a perspective. First thing: I hope you're all doing OK now and your health improves. I'm a bit envious of all the great hackers getting plenty of nice Open Source projects done (mostly Rust community, because that's what I'm into). Secretly, I would like to be a open-source-star-developer, but I can't see it ever happening... Between dayjob, family-time/babywork (newborn son) I squeezing any time I can get for my hobby Rust projects, and I still feel like I don't get much done. I eat OK, drink just two coffies a day, but maybe I should get more sleep, slow down and hit the gym...
- hluska 11y ago
  I'm actually doing great now - I had a very scary experience that ended in the emergency room and decided to completely change how I lived. I cut my coffee consumption, started eating better, started exercising properly, and started changing some of my more destructive habits. I've been doing entrepreneurial things again, but this time is totally different - heck, I'm writing this outside in a park! It sounds like you've got a lot to live for - if you would ever like to talk, my email is in my profile. Be safe and thanks for your kind wishes! :)
ArkyBeagle 11y ago
I think having something else to also do is critical. I'm a musician and I kept 70+ hour weeks in school, but 16 of those hours were at gigs, and Sundays were off limits for anything at all - no work at all. It wasn't gigging but just jamming when I later was in startup land for a few years. I found the effect the same. You need something to get your mind completely off work.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  To be honest, my current problem is exactly the opposite - I can't get my mind on work. There're always at least three other projects occupying my mind that would be a much better use of my time than the day job except I wouldn't be able to pay my rent with them :(.
  - swah 11y ago
    Maybe just tell us about them.
    - TeMPOraL 11y ago
      One is a Mars colonization roguelike I'm designing every spare minute I have, the other is half-finished haptic device that only needs me to find the time to design and make a PCB (and solder components I already have), and the third would be a set-up for notifications from various home appliances via processing the noises they make. I have all the hardware for this already in place, but lack the time to code the required DSP.
  - insensible 11y ago
    I recommend the book _Refuse to Choose_ by Barbara Scher. It is about how to use that Edison-like tendency of yours as an asset rather than having to stuff it all the time.
  - ArkyBeagle 11y ago
    Maybe the side projects are too close to the day job? That's kind of what was nice about playing music - it was totally different.

by hluska 11y ago

dualogy 11y ago

So out of curiosity, in your case, was this overworked + crappy diet + lack of physical activity, or was this overworked + healthy/balanced/junk-free diet + some modicum of regular physical activity?

hluska 11y ago
It started as a spiral of being overworked and not sleeping enough. As I slept less, my coffee consumption skyrocketed and my diet grew worse and worse. I tried to exercise three times a week, but between being tired, mild stomach problems from too much coffee and unhealthy food, and energy spikes, my intensity in the gym slipped and I eventually started skipping more workouts. It all spiralled because all of those things made me less effective. So, I not only made more mistakes but those mistakes kept me up later and later at night...
- bluejellybean 11y ago
  >mild stomach problems from too much coffee This is a problem I've ran into in the past but on fairly severe scales. I was drinking at least 2 pots (~24 cups) of coffee per day and ended up in the hospital a few time due to stomach problems. I've sense limited my consumption of coffee and switched to pure caffeine pills (mixed with water) and my quality of life has improved quite dramatically. Gone are the constant bathroom trips and stomach issues! Obviously reducing the overall caffeine intake is extremely helpful as well but coffee as the method of ingestion is just not good on the body.
  - hluska 11y ago
    I completely agree with you. It used to be nothing for me to drink 12 - 15 large cups of coffee a day. Nowadays, I might drink 3 - 4 cups a day and the difference in my quality of life has been astounding. Caffeine is a great performance enhancing drug, but coffee is a particular bad delivery method!
cpncrunch 11y ago
Burnout doesn't really have anything to do with diet or exercise. I suffered from it with a good diet and exercise. It's basically just your brain shutting down your stress system due to excessive long-term stress and/or negative outlook.
- zzalpha 11y ago
  Burnout can absolutely lead to a poorer diet and a lack of exercise due to a lack of general motivation to eat well or stay active. At minimum it would be correlated with poorer diet, in that if you're overworked, finding time to take care of yourself becomes increasingly difficult.

dataker 11y ago

Did you use/abuse caffeine/ritalin/..?

hluska 11y ago
Massive caffeine abuse. I drank truly insane amounts of coffee.
- logicallee 11y ago
  how massive? I can't always plan my crunches, but since I started taking caffeine pills - I take 4 pills, equiv 4 coffees, right before really focusing on something, then I can relax in a different part of the day where it doesn't matter if it's slower. So I go between 0 and 8 coffees per day worth of caffeine, depending on what I'm doing. I've completely stopped drinking coffee and save a bunch of time that way (except socially.) How does this compare with what you called truly insane?
  - PopeOfNope 11y ago
    I can't speak for hluska, but before my burnout I was up to ~700mg/day of caffeine via energy drinks. I qualified that as quite insane. This site is fun, btw: http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database
  - hluska 11y ago
    At the peak of my madness, it was nothing for me to drink 12 - 15 large cups of coffee over 12 hours at work.
  - cheald 11y ago
    Consider taking L-theanine with your caffeine. When taken with caffeine, it smooths out the jitters and produces a subtle sense of clarity and focus; it will probably improve your ability to think on less caffeine. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051107001573 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051107... (Lots of other articles about the effect cited in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine too) If you are using caffeine for energy, you probably should improve your diet first, instead, and make sure you get enough sleep (which I know can be hard in crunch mode, but it makes your awake time much more productive). I love my coffee as much as the next person, but using caffeine to drive my ability to work has never produced good effects.

dpc_pw 11y ago

Thanks for your comment. It scared me a little and gave me a perspective. First thing: I hope you're all doing OK now and your health improves. I'm a bit envious of all the great hackers getting plenty of nice Open Source projects done (mostly Rust community, because that's what I'm into). Secretly, I would like to be a open-source-star-developer, but I can't see it ever happening... Between dayjob, family-time/babywork (newborn son) I squeezing any time I can get for my hobby Rust projects, and I still feel like I don't get much done. I eat OK, drink just two coffies a day, but maybe I should get more sleep, slow down and hit the gym...

hluska 11y ago
I'm actually doing great now - I had a very scary experience that ended in the emergency room and decided to completely change how I lived. I cut my coffee consumption, started eating better, started exercising properly, and started changing some of my more destructive habits. I've been doing entrepreneurial things again, but this time is totally different - heck, I'm writing this outside in a park! It sounds like you've got a lot to live for - if you would ever like to talk, my email is in my profile. Be safe and thanks for your kind wishes! :)

ArkyBeagle 11y ago

I think having something else to also do is critical. I'm a musician and I kept 70+ hour weeks in school, but 16 of those hours were at gigs, and Sundays were off limits for anything at all - no work at all. It wasn't gigging but just jamming when I later was in startup land for a few years. I found the effect the same. You need something to get your mind completely off work.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
To be honest, my current problem is exactly the opposite - I can't get my mind on work. There're always at least three other projects occupying my mind that would be a much better use of my time than the day job except I wouldn't be able to pay my rent with them :(.
- swah 11y ago
  Maybe just tell us about them.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    One is a Mars colonization roguelike I'm designing every spare minute I have, the other is half-finished haptic device that only needs me to find the time to design and make a PCB (and solder components I already have), and the third would be a set-up for notifications from various home appliances via processing the noises they make. I have all the hardware for this already in place, but lack the time to code the required DSP.
- insensible 11y ago
  I recommend the book _Refuse to Choose_ by Barbara Scher. It is about how to use that Edison-like tendency of yours as an asset rather than having to stuff it all the time.
- ArkyBeagle 11y ago
  Maybe the side projects are too close to the day job? That's kind of what was nice about playing music - it was totally different.