5 ms·

I'm of the belief that all those stories about CEOs who wake up at 4:30 AM, hit the gym, and have another notch in their belt by 7 AM are not products of their

I'm of the belief that all those stories about CEOs who wake up at 4:30 AM, hit the gym, and have another notch in their belt by 7 AM are not products of their routine, but rather that their routines are products of themselves. One can't usurp those lifestyles without changing their unique set of circumstances up to that point, their genetics, their gut bacteria, or any of a plethora of other factors. Being someone is like being a planet, forged by chance from matter swirling around after chaotically exploding into the universe. Dialogue on the Internet is narrowing our perceptions of what it means to be an individual, and that's not really a good thing, IMO.

matwood 9y ago
As someone who gets up early and works out, I have noticed that the discipline required to make it to the gym early carries through the rest of my life. The flip side is when I start being lazy in one area of my life it permeates to other areas.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Meanwhile Wittgenstein couldn't even deny himself a cup of coffee, and look what he accomplished.
  - projektir 9y ago
    That sounds amusing, do you have a link to something to read about this? (my perusal of Wikipedia was not effective)
    - sillysaurus3 9y ago
      http://www.paulgraham.com/philosophy.html http://www.paulgraham.com/philosophy.html for an intro of Wittgenstein; http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html for the claim that Wittgenstein couldn't deny himself a cup of coffee, and the implications toward self-discipline and effectiveness.
- AckSyn 9y ago
  As someone who shares this kind of routine, I can say from my own experiences and perception that it's best not to let yourself get too relaxed about the things that matter, and remain focused and dedicated. Diciplining yourself takes a lot of effort and time. Without that (among other things) you will fail to achieve much.
- enraged_camel 9y ago
  On the other hand, willpower has been shown in multiple studies to be a limited resource[1], so on days where I force myself to wake up early, I end up making caving and bad decisions later in the day, like eating a bag of doritos. [1]https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower-limited-resource.pdf https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower-limited-resource.pd...
  - beagle3 9y ago
    Baumeister’s ego depletion experiments failed to replicate spectacularly. On phone now, so you’ll need to google yourself.
  - matwood 9y ago
    Here is a good overview of issues with the studies and attempts to correct: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story/2016/03/ego_depletion_an_influential_theory_in_psychology_may_have_just_been_debunked.html http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story...
- guitarbill 9y ago
  This could easily be a mental fallacy. Some days, you'll be doing great so going to the gym is easier, but so is everything else. Certainly exercise has benefits, so it could be that, or good nutrition or sleep the day before, or some combination, etc. It's good that you've found something that works for you, but sadly it won't necessarily generalise. And the danger of this is thinking that people who don't do this are lazy. To anybody struggling with this, the thread "Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?" [0] is full of frank and good advice. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16411662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16411662
  - stagbeetle 9y ago
    I believe once you've become aware of all the different "yous" (the many moods ranging from the simple happiness/sadness to the sleep deprived/hungry/malcontented), it's easier to know what exactly makes days "good" and "bad." For example, if I sleep more than 8 hours (or wake up after 11 am), I'm likely to achieve nothing the next day. Or, if I don't socialize for more than three days, I'll slip into insanity. Exercise, similarly. I've found slow heavy lifting to have the most effect on uplifting my mood to a stable point, where such bad things like a lapse in diet don't make as much of a dent as they would normally. Another peculiarity I've found is that all the little things I do are connected. Something as simple as going on HN to read through comments, instead of some other medium, will snowball into a huge change, as the rest of my habits start becoming more in-line with the effects of "reading HN comments." The main point here is that you have little control over your circumstances, your mood, and your self, but you have a very simple choice: engage in something that's beneficial regularly or don't. If you do, everything else has a way of "falling into place" as you unconsciously veer away from negative activities towards more productive ones. The same can be said about friends, as they will undoubtedly have an effect on your overall actions. With this in mind, the gym becomes this "center." That one thing which you enter voluntarily. The one choice you make to go lift for an hour daily, will be the foundation for everything else to build off of. The choice of doing something that requires discipline will carryover into other areas of life, as you become more independent of outcomes and things that don't matter. A more apt example would be having a family. If you make the intentful choice to make sure your family is doing well, then as long as they are, everything else will be fine. Perfect even. Lifting is no different. As long as you get that 1 hour of discipline, everything else will be just fine. But another thing's been nagging me. I see it often, this "danger of this is thinking that people who don't do this are lazy." That the side effects of judging people are worse than the benefits you get from the actions which warranted that judgement. There's also the veneer of self-rationalization that I cannot shake from reading such comments. Maybe it is sour grapes? I don't say this with the intent to insult, but I cannot shake the feeling that there's something off about these sorts of thinking. Maybe it's the trying to poke holes in the topic instead of using it as a standard to aim for. Maybe it's the seesaw of polarization. Wherein these people have went from one extreme, of hyper-productivity and massive effort to be "efficient," and then swung to the other side as they burned out and feel like they've "grown as a person," and realized it's ok to be "yourself." Which in itself, would be a good thought, but it's adulterated into being an excuse for lack of want to do something that may or not be beneficial, but hard.
- graeme 9y ago
  Really varies by person. I need no willpower to go to the gym - I enjoy it. But, if I am low energy, I don't go. From past experience my lifts will all be off, and I need to fix whatever is lowering the energy. This doesn't mean your solution is wrong! It's just a csse of different circumstances. Very hard to generalize this stuff.
50 9y ago
On a similar note to your last argument, I recently started devaluing productivity. Have you read Medium's Self topic section? Have you watched any of Gary Vaynerchuk's videos? No thanks, man - I feel nauseous thinking about them. I look around at my classmates, friends, parents, etc, and I don't know. I'm starting to prefer inner cultivation, solitude, present-ness, and peace of mind over my limited views and the world's limited views. Plus, the latter does not necessarily mean laziness or passivity. Again, I don't know, I'm now thinking about how people tend to associate words with exhaustingly fabricated concepts and often forget what words conceal.
scandox 9y ago
Very often they are products of their imagination. The fact is it is much easier to project life mastery than master life. Therefore an intelligent person will often spend energy creating the image since that gives them the reward they really want: admiration, respect and so on.

matwood 9y ago

As someone who gets up early and works out, I have noticed that the discipline required to make it to the gym early carries through the rest of my life. The flip side is when I start being lazy in one area of my life it permeates to other areas.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Meanwhile Wittgenstein couldn't even deny himself a cup of coffee, and look what he accomplished.
- projektir 9y ago
  That sounds amusing, do you have a link to something to read about this? (my perusal of Wikipedia was not effective)
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    http://www.paulgraham.com/philosophy.html http://www.paulgraham.com/philosophy.html for an intro of Wittgenstein; http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html for the claim that Wittgenstein couldn't deny himself a cup of coffee, and the implications toward self-discipline and effectiveness.
AckSyn 9y ago
As someone who shares this kind of routine, I can say from my own experiences and perception that it's best not to let yourself get too relaxed about the things that matter, and remain focused and dedicated. Diciplining yourself takes a lot of effort and time. Without that (among other things) you will fail to achieve much.
enraged_camel 9y ago
On the other hand, willpower has been shown in multiple studies to be a limited resource[1], so on days where I force myself to wake up early, I end up making caving and bad decisions later in the day, like eating a bag of doritos. [1]https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower-limited-resource.pdf https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower-limited-resource.pd...
- beagle3 9y ago
  Baumeister’s ego depletion experiments failed to replicate spectacularly. On phone now, so you’ll need to google yourself.
- matwood 9y ago
  Here is a good overview of issues with the studies and attempts to correct: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story/2016/03/ego_depletion_an_influential_theory_in_psychology_may_have_just_been_debunked.html http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story...
guitarbill 9y ago
This could easily be a mental fallacy. Some days, you'll be doing great so going to the gym is easier, but so is everything else. Certainly exercise has benefits, so it could be that, or good nutrition or sleep the day before, or some combination, etc. It's good that you've found something that works for you, but sadly it won't necessarily generalise. And the danger of this is thinking that people who don't do this are lazy. To anybody struggling with this, the thread "Ask HN: Is it 'normal' to struggle so hard with work?" [0] is full of frank and good advice. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16411662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16411662
- stagbeetle 9y ago
  I believe once you've become aware of all the different "yous" (the many moods ranging from the simple happiness/sadness to the sleep deprived/hungry/malcontented), it's easier to know what exactly makes days "good" and "bad." For example, if I sleep more than 8 hours (or wake up after 11 am), I'm likely to achieve nothing the next day. Or, if I don't socialize for more than three days, I'll slip into insanity. Exercise, similarly. I've found slow heavy lifting to have the most effect on uplifting my mood to a stable point, where such bad things like a lapse in diet don't make as much of a dent as they would normally. Another peculiarity I've found is that all the little things I do are connected. Something as simple as going on HN to read through comments, instead of some other medium, will snowball into a huge change, as the rest of my habits start becoming more in-line with the effects of "reading HN comments." The main point here is that you have little control over your circumstances, your mood, and your self, but you have a very simple choice: engage in something that's beneficial regularly or don't. If you do, everything else has a way of "falling into place" as you unconsciously veer away from negative activities towards more productive ones. The same can be said about friends, as they will undoubtedly have an effect on your overall actions. With this in mind, the gym becomes this "center." That one thing which you enter voluntarily. The one choice you make to go lift for an hour daily, will be the foundation for everything else to build off of. The choice of doing something that requires discipline will carryover into other areas of life, as you become more independent of outcomes and things that don't matter. A more apt example would be having a family. If you make the intentful choice to make sure your family is doing well, then as long as they are, everything else will be fine. Perfect even. Lifting is no different. As long as you get that 1 hour of discipline, everything else will be just fine. But another thing's been nagging me. I see it often, this "danger of this is thinking that people who don't do this are lazy." That the side effects of judging people are worse than the benefits you get from the actions which warranted that judgement. There's also the veneer of self-rationalization that I cannot shake from reading such comments. Maybe it is sour grapes? I don't say this with the intent to insult, but I cannot shake the feeling that there's something off about these sorts of thinking. Maybe it's the trying to poke holes in the topic instead of using it as a standard to aim for. Maybe it's the seesaw of polarization. Wherein these people have went from one extreme, of hyper-productivity and massive effort to be "efficient," and then swung to the other side as they burned out and feel like they've "grown as a person," and realized it's ok to be "yourself." Which in itself, would be a good thought, but it's adulterated into being an excuse for lack of want to do something that may or not be beneficial, but hard.
graeme 9y ago
Really varies by person. I need no willpower to go to the gym - I enjoy it. But, if I am low energy, I don't go. From past experience my lifts will all be off, and I need to fix whatever is lowering the energy. This doesn't mean your solution is wrong! It's just a csse of different circumstances. Very hard to generalize this stuff.

50 9y ago

On a similar note to your last argument, I recently started devaluing productivity. Have you read Medium's Self topic section? Have you watched any of Gary Vaynerchuk's videos? No thanks, man - I feel nauseous thinking about them. I look around at my classmates, friends, parents, etc, and I don't know. I'm starting to prefer inner cultivation, solitude, present-ness, and peace of mind over my limited views and the world's limited views. Plus, the latter does not necessarily mean laziness or passivity. Again, I don't know, I'm now thinking about how people tend to associate words with exhaustingly fabricated concepts and often forget what words conceal.

scandox 9y ago

Very often they are products of their imagination. The fact is it is much easier to project life mastery than master life. Therefore an intelligent person will often spend energy creating the image since that gives them the reward they really want: admiration, respect and so on.