9 ms·

"Niksen": The art of doing nothing

102 points by Archelaos 3y ago

pieter_mj 3y ago
Wat zit jij weer te niksen! Niksen is heerlijk if it doesn't last too long :). Niks = nothing. Closely related to procrastination but not exactly the same. It actually helps getting/regaining focus and relieving stress.
- 28304283409234 3y ago
  When I procrastinate I usually still do something. Something more easy or fun. When I niks, I do absolutely nothing.
waffleiron 3y ago
> I couldn’t find any record of use of niksen in the Dutch language before the late 2010s. This feel wrong to me, the concept is definitely older. It just went by nietsen instead of niksen, which is (or was) more grammatically correct/formal as niks is an informal/spoken version of niets. Here is an example [1] from 2006 with nietsen, defined as to do nothing on a grammar forum. And before 2008 [2] as “not doing anything”. Even a use from 1997 [3]. [1] https://www.dutchgrammar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=627 https://www.dutchgrammar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=627 [2] https://www.dutchgrammar.com/en/?n=Verbs.Ot04 https://www.dutchgrammar.com/en/?n=Verbs.Ot04 [3] https://ronald-giphart.nl/vrouwen-zijn-de-baas/ https://ronald-giphart.nl/vrouwen-zijn-de-baas/
- smokel 3y ago
  It goes back to at least 1933. This was the first hit on Google: https://renevanmaarsseveen.nl/14273/niksen-iets-wat-nederlanders-goed-kunnen https://renevanmaarsseveen.nl/14273/niksen-iets-wat-nederlan...
  - evrimoztamur 3y ago
    This is a much better article that captures the niks of niksen.
  - snoopen 3y ago
    > doing nothing is letting yourself drift along in your environment in the moment without a purpose. I particularly like this definition. Moments like those I enjoy a lot.
- oesexe 3y ago
  we have the word in Danish. It is used to express 'No' with a bit of slang-vibes to it. Kinda like 'Nope'. We also say 'Niks' I think Niksen is the 'cute' word for Niks. The ending -sen is the familiar -sen from 'son (of)' found in 'Jensen' 'Hansen' 'Larsen' or in swedish 'Hansson' 'Larsson'
  - shautvast 3y ago
    the -en ending indicates the infinitive in Dutch
    - brnt 3y ago
      -sen also can be son-of (e.g. Jansen), it's just that niks happens to end in an s.
    - SushiHippie 3y ago
      Same for german (I think). We also have nix/nichts which means nothing. And "nichtsen" would somewhat make sense in german, at least I think most people would understand it.
  - Scarblac 3y ago
    'Niks' is an alternative version of 'niets', which means 'nothing'. Niksen is the verbified form, so 'to nothing'. It has an -en ending like most verbs, unrelated to the -sen ending as in those names.
tmountain 3y ago
How do you do it—in layman’s terms? Is it like meditation, or is there a more active method?
- tripdout 3y ago
  This whole article says nothing about what it actually is.
- Gys 3y ago
  To me it is intensionally doing nothing and enjoying it. It can still include something active like walking around a bit, but without much thinking and without a goal. Enjoying whatever you see. Its being in the moment. Disclaimer: did not read the article but am Dutch
- POiNTx 3y ago
  I'm a native Dutch (Flemish) speaker. For me 'Niksen' means you're doing something without intent/purpose and with low importance. You can watch a movie, just because you don't know what to do and you're filling the time, maybe your mind is wandering to other things while watching. Or you can watch a movie because you want to see it, like going to the movies instead of watching at home. Only the former is 'Niksen'. 'Puttering' is an English term which I feel is closely related to 'Niksen' but not exactly the same. With 'Puttering' there's always an action. But with 'Niksen' you can be sitting in a chair, looking around, 'doing nothing'. I would even argue that meditation is not 'Niksen', because with meditation there's intent. It's actively calming yourself down.
  - groby_b 3y ago
    Matches the German concept of "Nichtstun" (doing nothing) fairly well :) (It's not surprising, what with us being neighbors) And just like 'Niksen', that too is without deeper intent. You just hang. Closest I can come in English is probably 'idling about'. You do or don't do stuff. Your brain is meandering about. You don't really care about time passing. It's definitely an art form, most people get bored after a while - true masters can do days on end ;)
quibus 3y ago
It’s Italy’s dolce far niente, but with less style.
- 6510 3y ago
  It does sound better but style is also not doing things which seems hard when uhh.. doing nothing.
- Woeps 3y ago
  Would say that dolce far niente is just nietsen/niksen but dressed up a bit sweetly ;)
state_less 3y ago
I’m in bed hearing rain drops on the roof, watching lightning flash across the sky and listening to the rumble of a planet whispering sweet nothings in the vast nowhere.
- eimrine 3y ago
  Are you in a Northern semisphere? That rain should be a snow if not some climate trend.
  - mcphage 3y ago
    There's a difference between weather and climate.
  - DiggyJohnson 3y ago
    There's plenty of places in the northern hemisphere (?) where that rain "should" not be snow.
  - fullspectrumdev 3y ago
    Not really. Snow is pretty rare in Ireland/UK winters, rarer in Ireland. Due to the Gulf Stream and such.
bloomingeek 3y ago
I'm newly retired. My friends ask me if I'm bored yet. My reply is always the same: You never have enough time to do the things you don't need to do. Things like reading HN, such great articles, most of which I don't need to know, but fascinating none the less. Sometimes someone will not like a reply I made, who cares? (I do love the replies!) I'm not asking for anything, I'm just being.
- david-gpu 3y ago
  I retired a few years ago and I'm as busy as ever. It's like a prolonged weekend: there are far more things I'd like to do than time to do them. The best part, however, is that I can suck at everything. When I had a job I felt a ton of responsibility to meet a high standard in everything I was paid to do, but now I can afford being an absolutely moronic beginner at everything I attempt, because ultimately it doesn't matter. It's liberating.
  - paulcole 3y ago
    > When I had a job I felt a ton of responsibility to meet a high standard in everything I was paid to do Do you think you could’ve learned to not feel that? I feel fine doing an OK job as long as my OK is the standard my employer expects.
    - david-gpu 3y ago
      That is a great question that gets to the root of it. I have a rather anxious response to work, probably because of how much was at stake earlier in my career. I was an immigrant with a flimsy work permit that meant if I lost my job I would have to move to another country, with the added stress of being the only income in our family with no real prospect of my wife being able to find a job that would cover our expenses either. We couldn't count on anybody else helping us out either. It was a lot of pressure, and my fear-driven response was to work as hard as possible and save as much as possible. I got lucky and ended up effectively retiring at the age of forty. Do I recommend it? No, it was a pretty miserable experience. But those were my circumstances and I did what I thought was best for us.
camillomiller 3y ago
The "authority" on niksen is a woman who wrote a book and has a career revolving around the concept. How ironic.
- guerrilla 3y ago
  Really not ironic at all unless you think the leading authority snails or planets needs to be a snail or planet...
redandblack 3y ago
"Time pass" is a common enough phrase expressing having no intent and doing nothing. Obviously, evenings are the best for it in the cities/towns
Kim_Bruning 3y ago
GPT3 came up with "Downtime" or "Taking it easy" for English.
- 28304283409234 3y ago
  GPT3 weet niks.
  - Kim_Bruning 3y ago
    Exactly! Even GPT3 knows niks! And though it's nice to have dutch on the front page of HN, I don't think there's much of a cultural insight to be had here. (Unlike say "Gezellig" or "Gunnen", for instance)
- loloquwowndueo 3y ago
  GPT3. How 2020.
anon115 3y ago
go out on the side of mountain and dont think of work and let your mind wander freely.
cosmicradiance 3y ago
Reminds me of my favorite parables - When Alexander meet the sage ‘What is your purpose in life?’ ‘I am Alexander and I am out to master the earth.’ ‘What do you plan to do after that?’ asked the sadhu probingly. ‘I shall take all the wealth, horses and elephants from the conquered lands to Greece’. ‘Presuming you accomplish your goal, Emperor, what next?’ ‘I shall take all the men from these wretched countries as my slaves and all the women to regale us in Greece’. ‘What a motivation! All the men as slaves and women as entertainers!’ commented the sadhu wryly. Not stopping, he asked him further: ‘Assuming you accomplish even that, what will you do next?’ Contrary to his extrovert and energetic nature, Alexander was quiet for some time. Finally, he stated, with an exhalation: ‘After that, undoubtedly I will sit on my throne and relax’. ‘That’s what I am doing,’ said the ‘unusual Indian sadhu’ with a content smile. Source: https://www.esamskriti.com/e/History/Indian-History/Alexander-colon-s-Conversations-with-Naga-Sadhus--1.aspx https://www.esamskriti.com/e/History/Indian-History/Alexande...
- nick7376182 3y ago
  Conquering was his Zen flow state
  - asimovfan 3y ago
    Theres no such thing as flow state in zen. "Flow" is the absolute state of being distracted and nothing to do with zen.
- datadrivenangel 3y ago
  Reminds me of my favorite parable, When Diogense trolled plato: Diogenes was knee deep in a stream washing vegetables. Coming up to him, Plato said, "My good Diogenes, if you knew how to pay court to kings, you wouldn't have to wash vegetables." "And," replied Diogenes, "If you knew how to wash vegetables, you wouldn't have to pay court to kings."
  - brnt 3y ago
    Diogenes is a good source for quotes, here is one of him and Alexander: Alexander went in person to see Diogenes, and he found him lying in the sun. Diogenes raised himself up a little when he saw so many people coming towards him, and fixed his eyes upon Alexander. And when that monarch addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, "Yes," said Diogenes, "stand a little out of my sun."
eimrine 3y ago
What are the differences between a meditation and between just doing nothing?
- OJFord 3y ago
  Focus and intent?
- WJW 3y ago
  Meditation is something you purposefully do, as in you would put a daily half hour of meditation in your calendar or something. Meanwhile you cannot plan niksen, if you do it on purpose it is no longer niksen. Also, in the west, meditation is often seen as something you do to clear the mind so that you can be more productive later. Niksen has no such association in Dutch culture, it's just unproductive full stop. Note that Dutch culture is much less focused on productivity than US culture, so this does not necessarily have a negative connotation.
asystole 3y ago
This anglosphere obsession with single-word concepts in other languages like they're somehow transcendant things that don't exist in the English-speaking world (see also: Ikigai, Hygge, etc) has to stop. It's cringe.
- brnt 3y ago
  It always seemed to me that perhaps the Anglosphere tends to consist of both many secondary speakers and many primary speakers who don't speak any secondary language. This creates an environment with both an interest in bits of other language and speakers able to supply those bits.
b3lvedere 3y ago
Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time Source for the quote: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/11/time-you-enjoy/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/11/time-you-enjoy/
rollulus 3y ago
I like articles like this. Because they taught me, a native Dutchman, that I should take similar articles about cultures I’m not familiar with, with a grain of salt as well. Anyway, it’s a pity that today it wasn’t sunny while ice skating on my daily commute.
- notso411 3y ago
  [dead]
paganel 3y ago
If it's not a Japanese made-up term then it's a Nordic made-up term, and if not that then resort to Dutch (honorary Nordics, I guess). At least they've lost their obsession when it came to made-up German terms. Anglo mass-media is so predictable.
nick7376182 3y ago
In Chicago this was sitting on your stoop
- brnt 3y ago
  'Stoop' is also a Dutch loaner, so, maybe :)
runnr_az 3y ago
Slack: the SubGenius art of doing nothing effectively.
svilen_dobrev 3y ago
funny noone mentioned Winnie the Pooh and the zen there of.. "I like that too," said Christopher Robin, "but what I like doing best is Nothing." "How do you do Nothing?" asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time. "Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?' and you say 'Oh, nothing,' and then you go and do it." "Oh, I see," said Pooh. "This is a nothing sort of thing that we're doing now." "Oh, I see," said Pooh again. "It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." "Oh!" said Pooh. "do nothing and nothing will be left undone" is the ancient chinese thing, except that Nothing there means not-a-thing :/ which is more like every-thing.. https://web.archive.org/web/20190319105206/http://www.alangullette.com/essays/philo/nothing.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20190319105206/http://www.alangu...
anonzzzies 3y ago
I tried retirement and fulltime niksen after I sold my first company when I wasn’t even 30; I got bored after less than a month and started a new company after three. I am 50 now and I really dislike niksen; I have so many things I want to still do that I find doing nothing a stressful waste of my life. Nice it helps others; I find it annoying and it stresses me out. I cannot believe I (or anyone) will be on my deathbed thinking ‘man I wish I did less’.

102 points by Archelaos 3y ago

Wat zit jij weer te niksen! Niksen is heerlijk if it doesn't last too long :). Niks = nothing. Closely related to procrastination but not exactly the same. It actually helps getting/regaining focus and relieving stress.

28304283409234 3y ago
When I procrastinate I usually still do something. Something more easy or fun. When I niks, I do absolutely nothing.

waffleiron 3y ago

> I couldn’t find any record of use of niksen in the Dutch language before the late 2010s. This feel wrong to me, the concept is definitely older. It just went by nietsen instead of niksen, which is (or was) more grammatically correct/formal as niks is an informal/spoken version of niets. Here is an example [1] from 2006 with nietsen, defined as to do nothing on a grammar forum. And before 2008 [2] as “not doing anything”. Even a use from 1997 [3]. [1] https://www.dutchgrammar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=627 https://www.dutchgrammar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=627 [2] https://www.dutchgrammar.com/en/?n=Verbs.Ot04 https://www.dutchgrammar.com/en/?n=Verbs.Ot04 [3] https://ronald-giphart.nl/vrouwen-zijn-de-baas/ https://ronald-giphart.nl/vrouwen-zijn-de-baas/

smokel 3y ago
It goes back to at least 1933. This was the first hit on Google: https://renevanmaarsseveen.nl/14273/niksen-iets-wat-nederlanders-goed-kunnen https://renevanmaarsseveen.nl/14273/niksen-iets-wat-nederlan...
- evrimoztamur 3y ago
  This is a much better article that captures the niks of niksen.
- snoopen 3y ago
  > doing nothing is letting yourself drift along in your environment in the moment without a purpose. I particularly like this definition. Moments like those I enjoy a lot.
oesexe 3y ago
we have the word in Danish. It is used to express 'No' with a bit of slang-vibes to it. Kinda like 'Nope'. We also say 'Niks' I think Niksen is the 'cute' word for Niks. The ending -sen is the familiar -sen from 'son (of)' found in 'Jensen' 'Hansen' 'Larsen' or in swedish 'Hansson' 'Larsson'
- shautvast 3y ago
  the -en ending indicates the infinitive in Dutch
  - brnt 3y ago
    -sen also can be son-of (e.g. Jansen), it's just that niks happens to end in an s.
  - SushiHippie 3y ago
    Same for german (I think). We also have nix/nichts which means nothing. And "nichtsen" would somewhat make sense in german, at least I think most people would understand it.
- Scarblac 3y ago
  'Niks' is an alternative version of 'niets', which means 'nothing'. Niksen is the verbified form, so 'to nothing'. It has an -en ending like most verbs, unrelated to the -sen ending as in those names.

tmountain 3y ago

How do you do it—in layman’s terms? Is it like meditation, or is there a more active method?

tripdout 3y ago
This whole article says nothing about what it actually is.
Gys 3y ago
To me it is intensionally doing nothing and enjoying it. It can still include something active like walking around a bit, but without much thinking and without a goal. Enjoying whatever you see. Its being in the moment. Disclaimer: did not read the article but am Dutch
POiNTx 3y ago
I'm a native Dutch (Flemish) speaker. For me 'Niksen' means you're doing something without intent/purpose and with low importance. You can watch a movie, just because you don't know what to do and you're filling the time, maybe your mind is wandering to other things while watching. Or you can watch a movie because you want to see it, like going to the movies instead of watching at home. Only the former is 'Niksen'. 'Puttering' is an English term which I feel is closely related to 'Niksen' but not exactly the same. With 'Puttering' there's always an action. But with 'Niksen' you can be sitting in a chair, looking around, 'doing nothing'. I would even argue that meditation is not 'Niksen', because with meditation there's intent. It's actively calming yourself down.
- groby_b 3y ago
  Matches the German concept of "Nichtstun" (doing nothing) fairly well :) (It's not surprising, what with us being neighbors) And just like 'Niksen', that too is without deeper intent. You just hang. Closest I can come in English is probably 'idling about'. You do or don't do stuff. Your brain is meandering about. You don't really care about time passing. It's definitely an art form, most people get bored after a while - true masters can do days on end ;)

quibus 3y ago

It’s Italy’s dolce far niente, but with less style.

6510 3y ago
It does sound better but style is also not doing things which seems hard when uhh.. doing nothing.
Woeps 3y ago
Would say that dolce far niente is just nietsen/niksen but dressed up a bit sweetly ;)

state_less 3y ago

I’m in bed hearing rain drops on the roof, watching lightning flash across the sky and listening to the rumble of a planet whispering sweet nothings in the vast nowhere.

eimrine 3y ago
Are you in a Northern semisphere? That rain should be a snow if not some climate trend.
- mcphage 3y ago
  There's a difference between weather and climate.
- DiggyJohnson 3y ago
  There's plenty of places in the northern hemisphere (?) where that rain "should" not be snow.
- fullspectrumdev 3y ago
  Not really. Snow is pretty rare in Ireland/UK winters, rarer in Ireland. Due to the Gulf Stream and such.

bloomingeek 3y ago

I'm newly retired. My friends ask me if I'm bored yet. My reply is always the same: You never have enough time to do the things you don't need to do. Things like reading HN, such great articles, most of which I don't need to know, but fascinating none the less. Sometimes someone will not like a reply I made, who cares? (I do love the replies!) I'm not asking for anything, I'm just being.

david-gpu 3y ago
I retired a few years ago and I'm as busy as ever. It's like a prolonged weekend: there are far more things I'd like to do than time to do them. The best part, however, is that I can suck at everything. When I had a job I felt a ton of responsibility to meet a high standard in everything I was paid to do, but now I can afford being an absolutely moronic beginner at everything I attempt, because ultimately it doesn't matter. It's liberating.
- paulcole 3y ago
  > When I had a job I felt a ton of responsibility to meet a high standard in everything I was paid to do Do you think you could’ve learned to not feel that? I feel fine doing an OK job as long as my OK is the standard my employer expects.
  - david-gpu 3y ago
    That is a great question that gets to the root of it. I have a rather anxious response to work, probably because of how much was at stake earlier in my career. I was an immigrant with a flimsy work permit that meant if I lost my job I would have to move to another country, with the added stress of being the only income in our family with no real prospect of my wife being able to find a job that would cover our expenses either. We couldn't count on anybody else helping us out either. It was a lot of pressure, and my fear-driven response was to work as hard as possible and save as much as possible. I got lucky and ended up effectively retiring at the age of forty. Do I recommend it? No, it was a pretty miserable experience. But those were my circumstances and I did what I thought was best for us.

camillomiller 3y ago

The "authority" on niksen is a woman who wrote a book and has a career revolving around the concept. How ironic.

guerrilla 3y ago
Really not ironic at all unless you think the leading authority snails or planets needs to be a snail or planet...

redandblack 3y ago

"Time pass" is a common enough phrase expressing having no intent and doing nothing. Obviously, evenings are the best for it in the cities/towns

Kim_Bruning 3y ago

GPT3 came up with "Downtime" or "Taking it easy" for English.

28304283409234 3y ago
GPT3 weet niks.
- Kim_Bruning 3y ago
  Exactly! Even GPT3 knows niks! And though it's nice to have dutch on the front page of HN, I don't think there's much of a cultural insight to be had here. (Unlike say "Gezellig" or "Gunnen", for instance)
loloquwowndueo 3y ago
GPT3. How 2020.

anon115 3y ago

go out on the side of mountain and dont think of work and let your mind wander freely.

cosmicradiance 3y ago

Reminds me of my favorite parables - When Alexander meet the sage ‘What is your purpose in life?’ ‘I am Alexander and I am out to master the earth.’ ‘What do you plan to do after that?’ asked the sadhu probingly. ‘I shall take all the wealth, horses and elephants from the conquered lands to Greece’. ‘Presuming you accomplish your goal, Emperor, what next?’ ‘I shall take all the men from these wretched countries as my slaves and all the women to regale us in Greece’. ‘What a motivation! All the men as slaves and women as entertainers!’ commented the sadhu wryly. Not stopping, he asked him further: ‘Assuming you accomplish even that, what will you do next?’ Contrary to his extrovert and energetic nature, Alexander was quiet for some time. Finally, he stated, with an exhalation: ‘After that, undoubtedly I will sit on my throne and relax’. ‘That’s what I am doing,’ said the ‘unusual Indian sadhu’ with a content smile. Source: https://www.esamskriti.com/e/History/Indian-History/Alexander-colon-s-Conversations-with-Naga-Sadhus--1.aspx https://www.esamskriti.com/e/History/Indian-History/Alexande...

nick7376182 3y ago
Conquering was his Zen flow state
- asimovfan 3y ago
  Theres no such thing as flow state in zen. "Flow" is the absolute state of being distracted and nothing to do with zen.
datadrivenangel 3y ago
Reminds me of my favorite parable, When Diogense trolled plato: Diogenes was knee deep in a stream washing vegetables. Coming up to him, Plato said, "My good Diogenes, if you knew how to pay court to kings, you wouldn't have to wash vegetables." "And," replied Diogenes, "If you knew how to wash vegetables, you wouldn't have to pay court to kings."
- brnt 3y ago
  Diogenes is a good source for quotes, here is one of him and Alexander: Alexander went in person to see Diogenes, and he found him lying in the sun. Diogenes raised himself up a little when he saw so many people coming towards him, and fixed his eyes upon Alexander. And when that monarch addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, "Yes," said Diogenes, "stand a little out of my sun."

eimrine 3y ago

What are the differences between a meditation and between just doing nothing?

OJFord 3y ago
Focus and intent?
WJW 3y ago
Meditation is something you purposefully do, as in you would put a daily half hour of meditation in your calendar or something. Meanwhile you cannot plan niksen, if you do it on purpose it is no longer niksen. Also, in the west, meditation is often seen as something you do to clear the mind so that you can be more productive later. Niksen has no such association in Dutch culture, it's just unproductive full stop. Note that Dutch culture is much less focused on productivity than US culture, so this does not necessarily have a negative connotation.

asystole 3y ago

This anglosphere obsession with single-word concepts in other languages like they're somehow transcendant things that don't exist in the English-speaking world (see also: Ikigai, Hygge, etc) has to stop. It's cringe.

brnt 3y ago
It always seemed to me that perhaps the Anglosphere tends to consist of both many secondary speakers and many primary speakers who don't speak any secondary language. This creates an environment with both an interest in bits of other language and speakers able to supply those bits.

b3lvedere 3y ago

Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time Source for the quote: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/11/time-you-enjoy/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/06/11/time-you-enjoy/

rollulus 3y ago

I like articles like this. Because they taught me, a native Dutchman, that I should take similar articles about cultures I’m not familiar with, with a grain of salt as well. Anyway, it’s a pity that today it wasn’t sunny while ice skating on my daily commute.

notso411 3y ago
[dead]

paganel 3y ago

If it's not a Japanese made-up term then it's a Nordic made-up term, and if not that then resort to Dutch (honorary Nordics, I guess). At least they've lost their obsession when it came to made-up German terms. Anglo mass-media is so predictable.

nick7376182 3y ago

In Chicago this was sitting on your stoop

brnt 3y ago
'Stoop' is also a Dutch loaner, so, maybe :)

runnr_az 3y ago

Slack: the SubGenius art of doing nothing effectively.

svilen_dobrev 3y ago

funny noone mentioned Winnie the Pooh and the zen there of.. "I like that too," said Christopher Robin, "but what I like doing best is Nothing." "How do you do Nothing?" asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time. "Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?' and you say 'Oh, nothing,' and then you go and do it." "Oh, I see," said Pooh. "This is a nothing sort of thing that we're doing now." "Oh, I see," said Pooh again. "It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." "Oh!" said Pooh. "do nothing and nothing will be left undone" is the ancient chinese thing, except that Nothing there means not-a-thing :/ which is more like every-thing.. https://web.archive.org/web/20190319105206/http://www.alangullette.com/essays/philo/nothing.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20190319105206/http://www.alangu...

anonzzzies 3y ago

I tried retirement and fulltime niksen after I sold my first company when I wasn’t even 30; I got bored after less than a month and started a new company after three. I am 50 now and I really dislike niksen; I have so many things I want to still do that I find doing nothing a stressful waste of my life. Nice it helps others; I find it annoying and it stresses me out. I cannot believe I (or anyone) will be on my deathbed thinking ‘man I wish I did less’.