4 ms·

While I get the sentiment behind this, I feel in reality it's more insidious. It teaches you to be content with mediocrity, with failure. It will make you lazy

While I get the sentiment behind this, I feel in reality it's more insidious. It teaches you to be content with mediocrity, with failure. It will make you lazy and there will be others who won't fall into the trap.

hammock 4y ago
There is an arc to life. Life has phases. There are phases where building productivity makes the most sense, as results have time, runway to compound. Then there are later phases where priorities shift
marniewebb 4y ago
I get this worry. I didn’t read it this way though. I read it as being more about being conscious in choosing how to spend you time and not assuming that productivity leads to open amounts of person or quality time. I am lucky; I love the work I do and there is an overlap with what I do as a “hobby.” The place I find myself in this trap is that often the places I am most “productive” are not the places I can do the highest value work, which tends to be slower and harder.
- Claude_Shannon 4y ago
  I reread what I wrote and I spoke to rashly; I apologise for that, especially the latest fragment. But still I can't shake that feeling that perhaps what this does is just teaching yourself to be content with mediocrity and not in the good sense.
  - 8note 4y ago
    Optimizing yourself into answering emails instead of building stuff is pigeonholing yourself into mediocrity. Being more productive does not necessarily make you better at things, and the article really argues that increasing your productivity on the wrong things negatively impacts your productivity on the right things.
frollo 4y ago
What's wrong with mediocrity and laziness? Once you do enough to put a roof over your head and food on your table there's exactly zero reason to do more.
ThrowawayR2 4y ago
Bingo. Nobody who ever won a Nobel Prize, competed in the Olympics, or, in Joseph's Heller's case, wrote several novels that each took years to complete ever got up in the morning and said "I've done enough." Chasing money might be dumb but chasing excellence in your own personal goals might be the only meaning to life that there is or ever will be.
- sophiabits 4y ago
  I agree. None of those people you’ve mentioned would recognize the concept of “work-life balance” at all. If you want to be exceptional at something then there’s no substitute for putting more effort in. In fact, if you look at Google books ngram viewer [1] or Google search trends [2] you’ll find the term is a very modern one. I think there are lots of ways to live a fulfilling life. Relaxing and not worrying about being exceptional is one of them, but it feels to me like there’s a trend towards demonizing hard work (whether at $dayjob or in personal pursuits) which doesn’t seem healthy. [1] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=work-life+balance&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=work-life+bala... [2] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=work%20life%20balance&hl=en https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=work%20l...
- chuankl 4y ago
  > Bingo. Nobody who ever won a Nobel Prize, competed in the Olympics, or, in Joseph's Heller's case, wrote several novels that each took years to complete ever got up in the morning and said "I've done enough." I am sure that is true. That said, whether such a person lives a satisfying life depends on the motivation behind such a drive. Do you pursue your research, your sports training, and your writing because of your love of the process and the activity itself? If so, you are doing great. Do you pursue your research, your sports training, and your writing because you are "climbing the ladder" toward a Nobel Prize, an Olympic medal, or the status of a famous writer? If so, you are probably going to have a bad time. The message I took from the book is not "don't excel" or "don't put your heart into things". Rather it is that excelling at something and putting your heart into something should be a conscious decision on your part, instead of a default response (e.g., mindlessly climbing the corporate ladder) because that is what everyone seems to be doing.

hammock 4y ago

There is an arc to life. Life has phases. There are phases where building productivity makes the most sense, as results have time, runway to compound. Then there are later phases where priorities shift

marniewebb 4y ago

I get this worry. I didn’t read it this way though. I read it as being more about being conscious in choosing how to spend you time and not assuming that productivity leads to open amounts of person or quality time. I am lucky; I love the work I do and there is an overlap with what I do as a “hobby.” The place I find myself in this trap is that often the places I am most “productive” are not the places I can do the highest value work, which tends to be slower and harder.

Claude_Shannon 4y ago
I reread what I wrote and I spoke to rashly; I apologise for that, especially the latest fragment. But still I can't shake that feeling that perhaps what this does is just teaching yourself to be content with mediocrity and not in the good sense.
- 8note 4y ago
  Optimizing yourself into answering emails instead of building stuff is pigeonholing yourself into mediocrity. Being more productive does not necessarily make you better at things, and the article really argues that increasing your productivity on the wrong things negatively impacts your productivity on the right things.

frollo 4y ago

What's wrong with mediocrity and laziness? Once you do enough to put a roof over your head and food on your table there's exactly zero reason to do more.

ThrowawayR2 4y ago

Bingo. Nobody who ever won a Nobel Prize, competed in the Olympics, or, in Joseph's Heller's case, wrote several novels that each took years to complete ever got up in the morning and said "I've done enough." Chasing money might be dumb but chasing excellence in your own personal goals might be the only meaning to life that there is or ever will be.

sophiabits 4y ago
I agree. None of those people you’ve mentioned would recognize the concept of “work-life balance” at all. If you want to be exceptional at something then there’s no substitute for putting more effort in. In fact, if you look at Google books ngram viewer [1] or Google search trends [2] you’ll find the term is a very modern one. I think there are lots of ways to live a fulfilling life. Relaxing and not worrying about being exceptional is one of them, but it feels to me like there’s a trend towards demonizing hard work (whether at $dayjob or in personal pursuits) which doesn’t seem healthy. [1] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=work-life+balance&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=work-life+bala... [2] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=work%20life%20balance&hl=en https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=work%20l...
chuankl 4y ago
> Bingo. Nobody who ever won a Nobel Prize, competed in the Olympics, or, in Joseph's Heller's case, wrote several novels that each took years to complete ever got up in the morning and said "I've done enough." I am sure that is true. That said, whether such a person lives a satisfying life depends on the motivation behind such a drive. Do you pursue your research, your sports training, and your writing because of your love of the process and the activity itself? If so, you are doing great. Do you pursue your research, your sports training, and your writing because you are "climbing the ladder" toward a Nobel Prize, an Olympic medal, or the status of a famous writer? If so, you are probably going to have a bad time. The message I took from the book is not "don't excel" or "don't put your heart into things". Rather it is that excelling at something and putting your heart into something should be a conscious decision on your part, instead of a default response (e.g., mindlessly climbing the corporate ladder) because that is what everyone seems to be doing.