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> I do regret the obsession I had with video games when younger because of the huge time sink I put in Don't regret time spent doing something you enjoy. So as

by gopher2000 3y ago

> I do regret the obsession I had with video games when younger because of the huge time sink I put in Don't regret time spent doing something you enjoy. So as long as you enjoyed it, feel good about it.

adastra22 3y ago
Opportunity cost is real.
- shmoogy 3y ago
  Try to not do this to yourself too much. Everybody needs an outlet, and you can't beat yourself up for spending time relaxing or enjoying instead of hustling with a side gig or something.
  - adastra22 3y ago
    I’m not beating myself up. I’m consciously choosing to engage in productive and enriching hobbies, while refusing to rationalize away those that are time wasting.
    - shaneoh 3y ago
      What are those hobbies?
      - adastra22 3y ago
        Reading non-fiction, writing open-source software, taking continuing education classes at my local university, learning foreign languages, self-study, volunteering, travel.
        fphhotchips 3y ago
        What makes any of those things more or less valuable than playing a video game? Volunteering, sure, but the rest are just as self indulgent as any other pass time. Just because you value them higher doesn't mean you should discount the things that other people do to enjoy themselves.
        tycho-newman 3y ago
        In our intensely competitive capitalist society, gaming has a low expected utility. It also doesn't usually reinforce skills that make you more employable. You also usually don't get a salary or remuneration. The elitist in me wants to say games are little more than hi-res Skinner boxes. But properly applied, games can teach us strategy, reason, and problem solving. Is that why I play God of War? No. I play it because KRATOS SMASH
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
        adastra22 3y ago
        All of those activities enrich my life and help me grow as an individual. I think someone should always be learning throughout their life, and I have yet to see a video game that accomplishes that.
        shaneoh 3y ago
        That's cool! I do all of those things as well, minus the uni classes and open-source. But for someone who has no interest in travel, then learning foreign languages would be a waste of time. I personally consider writing open-source software a waste of my time because it would be taking away from my closed-source side project ventures. You can totally min/max your entire life and only do things for self-improvement, but then to what end? What do you expect to derive out of the continuing education classes that is going to be significantly valuable to your life/career? I think it's important to note that many people are actually quite satisfied with their position in life, a lot of us are making a lot of money engaging in interesting work, so at a certain point doing things for the sake of minimizing opportunity cost comes with diminishing returns as you've already made the most of the opportunities you've already had. The whole point of working hard is to reach some stage of life where you can actually reap the rewards and have the time and resources to enjoy yourself however you please without worrying about it.
        adastra22 3y ago
        I don’t really use my language learning for travel—nearly everyone speaks better English than I do their native language. But in the same way that learning Haskell or Lisp can change the way you write and think about code, learning a language like Japanese can fundamentally change the way you think about everything. There’s intrinsic value to being multilingual. Of greater pragmatic benefit is that if you learn a language, like Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, or French, you gain exposure to a whole different media landscape, including information on news and world events that is drastically different from what you encounter in the anglosphere.
    - dbmikus 3y ago
      I don't consider playing video games time wasting. If they were, then watching movies is time wasting, enjoying art is time wasting, playing board games or sports with friends is time wasting. Certainly, an addiction to gaming is bad, as is playing games too much to the detriment of the rest of your life. Ultimately, everyone should do what they find enjoyable in the moment that they will simultaneously not regret later in life. Totally understand if video games fall under that category for you, but I dispute them as "time wasting" as a general statement.
    - vunderba 3y ago
      All activities are inherently "time wasting". After you're gone and dust - it's not like you'll be regretting playing the latest release of FORZA versus taking yet another Rosetta Stone course...
- zogrodea 3y ago
  Opportunity cost is definitely one thing I had in mind. Other than that, my peers were committed to various things like fundraising for charitable organisations, doing something good by serving people in one way or another, voluntarily taking up responsibilities or just becoming a more well-rounded person by spending their time doing various things instead of just one thing. While they all did that, I just stayed at home playing games instead and acted like the sole purpose of life was to enjoy myself which is something worth regretting (and happy I've made some progress since then).
- fluoridation 3y ago
  It's not. Every instant of your life you're making choices that lock you out of opportunities. To claim that you're able to measure the opportunity cost of your current path is to claim that you're able to know the path that would have led to the greatest reward and measure that reward. At best you could say that in hindsight a previous choice you made was suboptimal.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
beltsazar 3y ago
> Don't regret time spent doing something you enjoy. This common saying is harmful and borderline hedonistic. Not all enjoyable activities are good activities. Should ex-smokers not regret their past smoking habit, then? Everything must be in moderation. Playing video games, watching movies, and binging TV shows are great for unwinding after work. But if you do them too much, they can disrupt your life.
- dankwizard 3y ago
  Nerd alert.
- JambalayaJim 3y ago
  Yes, ex-smokers should not regret their past smoking habits. There is no point in letting past decisions affect your present emotions.
  - beltsazar 3y ago
    Are you suggesting that we should never regret anything, then? Like I said, everything must be in moderation. Regrets are effective for reminding us not to repeat the same mistakes. But of course if we regret our mistakes 24/7, it will only depress us and discourage us to do anything.
    - JambalayaJim 3y ago
      Yes we should not regret anything. Regret is not effective for reminding us not to repeat mistakes ( the experience of the mistake is enough to do that, and not the same as regret)
      - beltsazar 3y ago
        You have a different definition of "regret" from what most people think, then.

adastra22 3y ago

Opportunity cost is real.

shmoogy 3y ago
Try to not do this to yourself too much. Everybody needs an outlet, and you can't beat yourself up for spending time relaxing or enjoying instead of hustling with a side gig or something.
- adastra22 3y ago
  I’m not beating myself up. I’m consciously choosing to engage in productive and enriching hobbies, while refusing to rationalize away those that are time wasting.
  - shaneoh 3y ago
    What are those hobbies?
    - adastra22 3y ago
      Reading non-fiction, writing open-source software, taking continuing education classes at my local university, learning foreign languages, self-study, volunteering, travel.
      - fphhotchips 3y ago
        What makes any of those things more or less valuable than playing a video game? Volunteering, sure, but the rest are just as self indulgent as any other pass time. Just because you value them higher doesn't mean you should discount the things that other people do to enjoy themselves.
        tycho-newman 3y ago
        In our intensely competitive capitalist society, gaming has a low expected utility. It also doesn't usually reinforce skills that make you more employable. You also usually don't get a salary or remuneration. The elitist in me wants to say games are little more than hi-res Skinner boxes. But properly applied, games can teach us strategy, reason, and problem solving. Is that why I play God of War? No. I play it because KRATOS SMASH
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
        adastra22 3y ago
        All of those activities enrich my life and help me grow as an individual. I think someone should always be learning throughout their life, and I have yet to see a video game that accomplishes that.
      - shaneoh 3y ago
        That's cool! I do all of those things as well, minus the uni classes and open-source. But for someone who has no interest in travel, then learning foreign languages would be a waste of time. I personally consider writing open-source software a waste of my time because it would be taking away from my closed-source side project ventures. You can totally min/max your entire life and only do things for self-improvement, but then to what end? What do you expect to derive out of the continuing education classes that is going to be significantly valuable to your life/career? I think it's important to note that many people are actually quite satisfied with their position in life, a lot of us are making a lot of money engaging in interesting work, so at a certain point doing things for the sake of minimizing opportunity cost comes with diminishing returns as you've already made the most of the opportunities you've already had. The whole point of working hard is to reach some stage of life where you can actually reap the rewards and have the time and resources to enjoy yourself however you please without worrying about it.
        adastra22 3y ago
        I don’t really use my language learning for travel—nearly everyone speaks better English than I do their native language. But in the same way that learning Haskell or Lisp can change the way you write and think about code, learning a language like Japanese can fundamentally change the way you think about everything. There’s intrinsic value to being multilingual. Of greater pragmatic benefit is that if you learn a language, like Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, or French, you gain exposure to a whole different media landscape, including information on news and world events that is drastically different from what you encounter in the anglosphere.
  - dbmikus 3y ago
    I don't consider playing video games time wasting. If they were, then watching movies is time wasting, enjoying art is time wasting, playing board games or sports with friends is time wasting. Certainly, an addiction to gaming is bad, as is playing games too much to the detriment of the rest of your life. Ultimately, everyone should do what they find enjoyable in the moment that they will simultaneously not regret later in life. Totally understand if video games fall under that category for you, but I dispute them as "time wasting" as a general statement.
  - vunderba 3y ago
    All activities are inherently "time wasting". After you're gone and dust - it's not like you'll be regretting playing the latest release of FORZA versus taking yet another Rosetta Stone course...
zogrodea 3y ago
Opportunity cost is definitely one thing I had in mind. Other than that, my peers were committed to various things like fundraising for charitable organisations, doing something good by serving people in one way or another, voluntarily taking up responsibilities or just becoming a more well-rounded person by spending their time doing various things instead of just one thing. While they all did that, I just stayed at home playing games instead and acted like the sole purpose of life was to enjoy myself which is something worth regretting (and happy I've made some progress since then).
fluoridation 3y ago
It's not. Every instant of your life you're making choices that lock you out of opportunities. To claim that you're able to measure the opportunity cost of your current path is to claim that you're able to know the path that would have led to the greatest reward and measure that reward. At best you could say that in hindsight a previous choice you made was suboptimal.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

beltsazar 3y ago

> Don't regret time spent doing something you enjoy. This common saying is harmful and borderline hedonistic. Not all enjoyable activities are good activities. Should ex-smokers not regret their past smoking habit, then? Everything must be in moderation. Playing video games, watching movies, and binging TV shows are great for unwinding after work. But if you do them too much, they can disrupt your life.

dankwizard 3y ago
Nerd alert.
JambalayaJim 3y ago
Yes, ex-smokers should not regret their past smoking habits. There is no point in letting past decisions affect your present emotions.
- beltsazar 3y ago
  Are you suggesting that we should never regret anything, then? Like I said, everything must be in moderation. Regrets are effective for reminding us not to repeat the same mistakes. But of course if we regret our mistakes 24/7, it will only depress us and discourage us to do anything.
  - JambalayaJim 3y ago
    Yes we should not regret anything. Regret is not effective for reminding us not to repeat mistakes ( the experience of the mistake is enough to do that, and not the same as regret)
    - beltsazar 3y ago
      You have a different definition of "regret" from what most people think, then.