"The gamers assign meaning to wasted time by viewing it as an end in itself to which other means are directed, and naturally orienting all activities toward the

"The gamers assign meaning to wasted time by viewing it as an end in itself to which other means are directed, and naturally orienting all activities toward the maximization of that waste. The productivity app cohort forces itself into an infinite cycle of waste minimization, in which surplus time must be continuously reinvested for further saving, and the means become the ends themselves. The perfectly ordered Google calendar does not facilitate other goals — it is the goal." This was what stuck out to me. Looking at my own goals, I can see the idea of using productivity tools to make my "productive time" more productive, so that I can have more free time (to "waste" on whatever hobby strikes my fancy). But it definitely is a slippery slope, especially in the hacker culture where everyone seems to be looking for small efficiencies through digitization. Looking back over the last ten years I can see that there were times that I was in this trap: the period of time that I spent trying to use org-mode as a time-tracker/todo list/everything (your life in plain text) comes to mind. Now I just use it for note taking and general writing. Additionally, I enjoy optimizing things. It was fun for a period of time. Eventually I just got exhausted. Indeed, I'm still exhausted, but I am spending less time at work than I used to, and I can feel OK taking a day where I don't have to rush,rush,rush and minimize downtime, but rather just say "This day is for whitewater paddling, and it's going to take all day, and a lot of that will just be driving, and that's fine. It will be fun." Another idea is that you actually don't have to make all the money. Just some of the money is OK. Money becoming the end-goal is almost the same as this "productivity as end-goal" idea. Like the panda, how much excess can you reasonably make use of?