3 ms·

I imagine you could say that about most things you spend your time on. Reading books? Huge time suck. Playing games? Huge time suck. Watching videos? Huge time

by p33p 8y ago

I imagine you could say that about most things you spend your time on. Reading books? Huge time suck. Playing games? Huge time suck. Watching videos? Huge time suck. I think Ben explained it well in his podcast related to this. When people have $200 a month budgeted for entertainment, the marginal cost of a Netflix subscription isn't that much especially given the amount of potential content the service can have. Ultimately it depends on what you want to spend your time on, but I'd argue most want some form of entertainment, and Netflix fills that role for a lot of people.

wutbrodo 8y ago
The expression "Time suck" doesn't just mean "takes a lot of time", or people would be complaining that eating is a time suck. It has a connotation of wasted or unproductive time (where "productivity" is defined personally, as loosely as you like). A useful analogy might be junk food: 600 calories of potato chips has exactly as many calories as 600 calories of a balanced steak dinner, but the former is less filling and nutritious. It's reasonable to describe a service full of perceived low quality content as a time suck in ways that one might not consider watching better content.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > A useful analogy might be junk food: 600 calories of potato chips has exactly as many calories as 600 calories of a balanced steak dinner, but the former is less filling and nutritious. The former also takes two orders of magnitude less space, time to prepare, time to eat and time to clean. :). Also tastes better. Personally, I interpret "time suck" as something that sucks time in, i.e. you may have "allocated" X hours for entertainment this week (but who truly allocates this?), but with Netflix, you find yourself spending 2 * X this week, an increase from 1.5 * X the last week.
  - V-2 8y ago
    > Also tastes better. Seriously? I'd take a good steak over potato chips every single time.
  - wutbrodo 8y ago
    > The former also takes two orders of magnitude less space, time to prepare, time to eat and time to clean. :). Also tastes better. Well sure, and throwing on Netflix take less time and mental energy than playing music, reading something challenging, working out, or any of a million other things that most people would personally say is a more productive use of leisure time. This seems in accordance with my metaphor. I think you may have assumed an indictment of eating junk food from my comment, while there was none. I eat it myself occasionally without any (or at least many) qualms. But it's something that you'd ideally minimize, in the same way that one would for things considered a time suck. > Personally, I interpret "time suck" as something that sucks time in, i.e. you may have "allocated" X hours for entertainment this week (but who truly allocates this?), but with Netflix, you find yourself spending 2 * X this week, an increase from 1.5 * X the last week. Hm, I get where you're coming from, but I don't think I'd exclude something that takes a constant, large amount of time from the category. I also am not sure I'd include things that I find fulfilling, like working out or reading, even if their time commitments surprised me upwards. (fwiw, junk food only tastes better if you're used to it: I find healthy food way, way more palatable, with the only exception being when I'm drunk or high).

by p33p 8y ago

wutbrodo 8y ago

The expression "Time suck" doesn't just mean "takes a lot of time", or people would be complaining that eating is a time suck. It has a connotation of wasted or unproductive time (where "productivity" is defined personally, as loosely as you like). A useful analogy might be junk food: 600 calories of potato chips has exactly as many calories as 600 calories of a balanced steak dinner, but the former is less filling and nutritious. It's reasonable to describe a service full of perceived low quality content as a time suck in ways that one might not consider watching better content.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
> A useful analogy might be junk food: 600 calories of potato chips has exactly as many calories as 600 calories of a balanced steak dinner, but the former is less filling and nutritious. The former also takes two orders of magnitude less space, time to prepare, time to eat and time to clean. :). Also tastes better. Personally, I interpret "time suck" as something that sucks time in, i.e. you may have "allocated" X hours for entertainment this week (but who truly allocates this?), but with Netflix, you find yourself spending 2 * X this week, an increase from 1.5 * X the last week.
- V-2 8y ago
  > Also tastes better. Seriously? I'd take a good steak over potato chips every single time.
- wutbrodo 8y ago
  > The former also takes two orders of magnitude less space, time to prepare, time to eat and time to clean. :). Also tastes better. Well sure, and throwing on Netflix take less time and mental energy than playing music, reading something challenging, working out, or any of a million other things that most people would personally say is a more productive use of leisure time. This seems in accordance with my metaphor. I think you may have assumed an indictment of eating junk food from my comment, while there was none. I eat it myself occasionally without any (or at least many) qualms. But it's something that you'd ideally minimize, in the same way that one would for things considered a time suck. > Personally, I interpret "time suck" as something that sucks time in, i.e. you may have "allocated" X hours for entertainment this week (but who truly allocates this?), but with Netflix, you find yourself spending 2 * X this week, an increase from 1.5 * X the last week. Hm, I get where you're coming from, but I don't think I'd exclude something that takes a constant, large amount of time from the category. I also am not sure I'd include things that I find fulfilling, like working out or reading, even if their time commitments surprised me upwards. (fwiw, junk food only tastes better if you're used to it: I find healthy food way, way more palatable, with the only exception being when I'm drunk or high).