5 ms·
Many years ago, I read a book from a library whose title is lost to the mists of time. It posited that we each have x amount of capacity for different things a
by DoreenMichele 5y ago
Many years ago, I read a book from a library whose title is lost to the mists of time.
It posited that we each have x amount of capacity for different things and success in life hinges on figuring out how to hit x consistently across all categories.
Someone whose capacity for reading is 5000 pages per week who has a job that requires 4000 pages of reading will come up with hobbies that provide another 1000 pages of reading. If crunch time requires 5000 pages per week temporarily, the hobby will disappear. If he gets a job requiring 5500 pages of reading, the hobby will disappear and he will start to burn out.
Building the shed filled a different bucket. It required different skills and activities that met some unmet need. Kind of like still having room for dessert after you are too full for more of the main course.
- p0d 5y agoI find that so helpful, thank you. I think you scratched the itch in my head. I think my real concern is, "was the shed building time well spent?" I think it served it's purpose and helped me de-stress. I am 50 now and need a new focus. As you mention, we have x capacity. I am hoping that my "this time 5 years ago photos" in 2027 are not pictures of sheds :-)
- lifeisstillgood 5y agoAlso hitting that big milestone I am wondering what you have in your mind for those 2027 photos?
- mattbrewsbytes 5y agoI dabble in woodworking, have built some picture frames, coat hook thingies, a cheese slicer but mostly have built shop furniture. I came to the realization that if I want to build a workbench, for like the 4th time, it’s because I enjoy just building stuff. Watching professionals on YouTube and just society in general fills my head with thoughts about needing to have goals and maybe build stuff to sell as a side hustle or whatever. I enjoy building stuff and I’m just going to build stuff for myself and if the end result is I enjoyed shop time then that is a success and time well spent.
- abakker 5y agoI would never degrade the effort spent on shop fixtures or tools. Often the highest Echelon of any craft is toolmakers. It is certainly true in machining. I know very little about software engineering as a trade, but it seems that half the stuff on HN is tooling used for making software. It is obviously valuable.
- saalweachter 5y agoAt the same time, it's important to remember the maker's conundrum: "Wait, wasn't I making these tools for a reason?" If what you intend to be working on is tools, more power to you, but it's very easy to get caught up in building a new workbench, or adjusting the settings on your window manager, or writing a new programming language, and forget the thing you actually intended to make at the beginning using the tool you stopped to make. At some point you have to stop making tools and start making other things. (Unless you're the GP, who is just consciously making tools for fun.)
- sgtnoodle 5y agoI got a 3D printer years ago to use on a specific hobby project, and I ended up not touching the hobby project again until about 6 months ago. I've rebuilt my 3D printer numerous times though!
- mattbrewsbytes 5y agoMaybe a better way to say it is that I enjoy the process of building something with wood. If I suck at it and the end result isn't great, at least I still enjoyed the process and tinkering. Its funny that I'm very pragmatic with software work though. I don't spend any time looking into new/upcoming languages or tinkering with compilers or whatnot unless I have a work project. It seems like a waste of time since the software world turns very quickly.
- thanatos519 5y agoThat is a great explanation! Did the book explain what happens when we go beyond our capacity? OP: Admit it, you want your friends to call you 'two sheds': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA8xTGP_M8g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA8xTGP_M8g
- p0d 5y agoI do enjoy that, yes and have never seen that video ;-)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- duckmysick 5y agoThis capacity management reminds me of the innovation tokens from the Choose Boring Technology talk: http://boringtechnology.club/#17 http://boringtechnology.club/#17
- aswanson 5y agoI need that book. I will fulfill myself in finding it.
- DoreenMichele 5y agoI probably read it at least thirty years ago and it may have been old when I read it. From what I gather, that general concept -- about doing rather than thinking or feeling -- was a more common view before modern psychology, so works from the 1800s may touch on it more than more recent works. I think there was a term for that general framing but I have no idea what it was. Good luck in your search. Let us know if you succeed.