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This feels like an incredibly elaborate way to say that he's a morning person. There's plenty of people for whom the entire thing works the exact opposite, and

• kelvinjps10 2y ago
  Did you read the article?, is about doing the importnat stuff when no one is around to distract you. >Not an early riser? No problem, just flip it. Avoid the day. And when it’s done, that’s when your focussed work starts (my favourite adherent of this approach is Demis Hassabis: who works a “second day” from between 11pm and 4am).
  • Y_Y 2y ago
    I read the article and had the same response as GP. I don't know on what basis the author believes you can "flip it", but it seems at odds with the idea that at some point your day is "poisoned" and the rest must be written off, presumably until you can reset it by sleeping.
    • Tade0 2y ago
      I guess it follows that one should... take a nap in between?
  • UnreachableCode 2y ago
    How do you flip it though? What does that really mean?
    • ted_bunny 2y ago
      Maybe it means finding an antidote rather than a poison. Dealing with bullshit first until you get inspired, and then doing the focused work.
    • boo-ga-ga 2y ago
      It can be a different thing for each person. For example, you might have some evening ritual that allows you to refresh your mind. Like an easy nice run. And then, with disabled notifications and clear mind, you can tackle your creative endeavors:).
  • Tade0 2y ago
    I find that advice vague. What does "avoiding the day" even mean? Anyway, for me it was easier to wake up earlier than try to do focused work after an exhausting day with children. Doing stuff in the middle of the night is a privilege of the childless anyway.
    • jeltz 2y ago
      Nah, I have several friends who work in the middle of the night after the kids have gone to sleep. That seems to be the the optimal solution for evening persons with kids.
  • glitchc 2y ago
    This is not possible to do in most workplaces, unless it's remote and the time zone difference works in your favour.
• frou_dh 2y ago
  If you don't wanna read elaborations on known concepts then don't read articles. I think simplistic terms like "morning person" and "night owl" are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_cliché https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_cliché applied to identity. Much like "introvert" and "extrovert".
  • card_zero 2y ago
    Well I think they refer to the genetic make-up of the circadian timing system, as mentioned in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_owl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_owl .
    • vundercind 2y ago
      Most modern night owls just have very bright whole-house lighting and a world-class 24/7 carnival in their pockets.
      • high_priest 2y ago
        THIS is a brilliant metaphor. I see it myself, how being tired during the day, allows me to justify avoidance of important conflicts. Instead I prefer do indulge myself in the carnival of LED light, doing things which would have little-to-no priority in the middle of social activities. Without the stimuli & light of modern tech, this wouldn't have a chance to be a thing. Also, I have started thinking about my Night Owliness, as a manifestation of avoidant character in general. The "waiting till deadline to do a sprint" type of mentality.
• neilv 2y ago
  Does the following part mean they're a morning person, or is it orthogonal? > “Every day is a new beginning. You wake up and at some point in the day, someone shoots up a school, or something’s going on with your family, or you wake up and eat the wrong thing. And then you’re done. Emotionally cooked. Literally and emotionally poisoned. > Every day I wake up and can get to the studio before something has shattered my existence, I am grateful. And I can do things.
  • safety1st 2y ago
    Yeah it sounds like he's just terminally online. The whole idea here did not resonate with me at all. If I have serious work to do I isolate myself and do it until it's done or I'm out of steam. If the day "poisons" me that means I should have been more disciplined - the correct answer to consuming news media, for instance, is always to consume less of it. If someone is consistently poisoning my day the answer is to reduce contact with them.
    • cocacola1 2y ago
      That’s what he says, though, at least in the context of Antonoff. He gets to the studio and gets to work without being sidetracked or letting other things sidetrack him. The “poison” is just the distractions to avoid.
      • safety1st 2y ago
        The part about accepting when your focus is shot is good, while I'm not convinced it's gone for the entire day, you can definitely get stuck outside of your "flow state" for a couple hours and you may just have to go do other stuff when it happens. I think what triggered me was this line - "no early morning notifications - no sudden alert about Putin’s latest military actions." Unless you're a journalist covering the Ukraine war, you really shouldn't have real time notifications informing you about Putin's military actions, and if you do, that's productivity problem #1. I'm just saying this guy paints a picture of a constantly interrupted life and from my experience the first line of defense is to reduce the interruptions, with measures that are much more aggressive than the average modern person's.
• nomilk 2y ago
  Tangental but I noted this quote from 4HWW: > Ask: if this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day? Don’t ever arrive at your computer without a clear list of priorities, you’ll just read unassociated email and scramble your brain for the day. When I read that last bit ("scramble your brain") I had a profound sense of agreement that this was incredibly applicable to me. I feel like distractions 'poison' my vibe, productivity, priorities, and most importantly, distract that bit of my brain that ticks away in the background working on important creative stuff. When it's distracted with news, emails, or other junk, it's unavailable to work on creative/important problems that actually matter.
  • user_7832 2y ago
    Is 4hww 4 hour work week, the book, that you’re referring to? It’s a good quote!
    • postoplust 2y ago
      (not OP) Yes, the quoted strategy is from The 4-Hour Workweek (Ferriss 2007)
      • nomilk 2y ago
        Can confirm :)
  • Terr_ 2y ago
    > Don’t ever arrive at your computer without a clear list of priorities Sometimes I find it best best to stop my workday before entirely finishing a task: The next morning (or in some cases, the next Monday) there will be an obvious next-step to work on that which I'm already familiar with. In contrast, arriving without a clear next step can trigger some severe doldrums.
• omgtehlion 2y ago
  Maybe he is, but the advice stays for "evening-persons" too. I'm not an early bird, but I noticed that I am most productive when I pull all-nighters, when nothing happens and when no one bothers me. With age it is harder and harder to do though...
• anal_reactor 2y ago
  Exactly this.
• Aurornis 2y ago
  > This feels like an incredibly elaborate way to say that he's a morning person. If you read the whole article there’s a section dedicated to evening people. Regardless, the advice is about avoiding emotionally draining stimuli until you’ve accomplished what you want to do for the day. You can wake up at noon and still do that. The root problem is that people are consuming large amounts of negative news and social media early in the day and draining their mental capacity before they even get started on what they want to do. I see this all the time in, for example, junior hires. Some of them will tell me they’re exhausted or they have no time to do anything outside of their 40 hour workweek. When I ask some questions to figure out where their time is going every day, it always comes down to spending so much time on phones and watching Netflix that their time and energy are fully consumed before they have a chance at anything else. The advice in the article is good and it’s not about being a morning person.
  • dylan604 2y ago
    > You can wake up at noon and still do that. That's not necessarily true. If you're a morning person managing other people that are not morning people but insist on having daily meetings in the morning, you're an asshole. I find meetings early in the morning sadistic and way more draining than reading the news, but I'm not the type that gets emotional about the news while I will react negatively in an early meeting at the drop of a pin. It's not about needing coffee nor did I get up on the wrong side of the bed or whatever demeaning quip you want to offer. I'm not up to speed until later in the day, and forcing me to pretend I am is just rude. This is the biggest downside to WFH where everyone can live in whatever timezone so someone's afternoon meeting is my morning rather than just scheduling the meeting where everyone is on the same schedule. It's one of the few things about working in an office I can appreciate. Definitely not to be misread as a vote for RTO.
    • adamauckland 2y ago
      If you're a morning person and you're scheduling meetings for the morning you're literally wasting your period of productivity.
• vonnik 2y ago
  He’s really talking about how to maintain focus and neurological energy, but doesn’t have the right words. Fwiw, I wrote about it here: https://vonnik.substack.com/p/the-inner-game-of-knowledge-work https://vonnik.substack.com/p/the-inner-game-of-knowledge-wo... It’s something I struggle with, too.
  • high_priest 2y ago
    I love how you have connected the dots between evaluation of ideas, metaphorisation & invention of consciousness. Linking to relevant book. I've come up with the same, internalised, realisation, based on my relation with religion & science. Both are a way to describe our world with metaphors (e.g. electric & water currents). At some point, for some people, one is a more attractive way, to describe our relation with the environment.
• julianeon 2y ago
  There's something it it though that's not interchangeable, that becomes a bigger factor as you age (see: that Bezos quote). The brain is becoming more physically tired during the day. At a certain point, say 5pm, it's done: the accumulated wear and tear is too much. Try again after sleeping. This might not be a concern at 20 but is at 60 (Bezos' age).
  • _yb2s 2y ago
    I usually take a few naps during the workday, and get the sharp morning over again each time.
• devjab 2y ago
  I think there is some sound advice in there that just happens to fit into his mornings. Take always like having your day poisoned by news, stuff in your life and so on would also occur for you if you woke up later. I do agree that it’s not that deep. Anyone who’s bipolar has ADHD or other “doesn’t fit into the 9-5 society” issues can likely tell you how their emotions will fuck with their productivity. There isn’t a whole lot you can do with it if you don’t have the freedom to work when you’re energised and stop when you’re not. A lot of us in the software industry have the advantage of being able to not work a lot during “normal hours” and then pull off an entire weeks worth of work on a Saturday, but a lot of us don’t. I worked 30 hours a week for a while (37 is normal in Denmark) and I consistently scores between 20-30% better on our infernal measurements for quality and productivity than I did when I went back to a 37 hour week. Not because I was doing anything different, felt less motivated or was intentionally trying to do anything different. I was simply more tired and it impacted me more than it might do to neurotypical (or whatever we call healthy people these days). Of course for me personally the 37 hours are way better because it pays 20% more. Anyway, even if you aren’t neurodivergent like me I still suspect you’re not cut out to do office work as though you were at an assembly line. Which is really where the modern “work week” originated. Cutting down on distractions, getting enough sleep and so on will obviously work in your favour. So yeah, I agree with you.
  • flysand7 2y ago
    > Anyone who’s bipolar has ADHD Did you miss a comma, or, like, where did that come from?