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How to be more productive
- pyre 13y ago| Life is short (or so I’m told) Truer words...
- jamesbritt 13y agoNot only is life short, it's shorter than you think.
- swah 13y agojamesbritt's law: life is shorter than you think even when you consider jamesbritt's law
- mikeroher 13y agoRIP Aaron.
- enraged_camel 13y agoI don't know what kind of person would downvote this comment.
- mikeroher 13y agoNo one has yet..
- icpmacdo 13y agoI mostly a lurker of hacker news, do the see the scores as you gain more profile karama?
- jamesbritt 13y agoNo.
- ColinWright 13y agoPossibly they had. Possibly went gray for a time, indicating that its score was non-positive. Then it got upvoted, bringing it back to being positive.
- shrughes 13y agoIt's a vapid comment that lowers signal:noise, of course it should be downvoted.
- panic 13y agoSuch comments are explicitly encouraged—see http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html: Empty comments can be ok if they're positive. There's nothing wrong with submitting a comment saying just "Thanks." What we especially discourage are comments that are empty and negative—comments that are mere name-calling.
- asimjalis 13y ago"Are ok" is not the same as "are explicitly encouraged". They are tolerated would be more correct. Also we cannot mindlessly follow a static HTML document.
- ZirconCode 13y agoIt's interesting how technology leads to immortality, no? He's dead, yet we still read his words, listen to his thoughts, think of him as a person.
- hzay 13y agoThe written word leads to immortality. Although one could argue that writing and preserving writings are products of technology, I think you mean internet and such 21st century stuff, not the printing press or ink. I don't mean to find fault - only replied because it never ceases to amaze me that people can talk to me across centuries.
- dmoney 13y agoThe written word is immortal, but websites are not. Eventually your domain name and hosting will expire, your server will die. Presumably someone is keeping Aaron's site alive, but by default, things you write on your own website will go away when you're gone. Maybe someone should do a kickstarter for large buildings where printed websites can be stored for posterity.
- alecdbrooks 13y agoThe Internet Archive[0] is an organization that is working to preserve websites and online content, albeit not in printed form. In fact, they have an archive of Aaron's website[1] and a collection of other digital artifacts from his life[2]. [0]: http://archive.org/ http://archive.org/ [1]: http://wayback.archive-it.org/3492/20130113003702/http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ http://wayback.archive-it.org/3492/20130113003702/http://www... [2]: http://archive.org/details/aaronsw http://archive.org/details/aaronsw
- mikeroher 13y agoWhat's the difference between Descartes' mediations and Aaron's writings? Ignoring the obvious, technology simply made them easier to read. They're avail. on his public website whereas Descartes' mediations are more commonly found in textbooks and reproductions of his originals. Descartes probably isn't the best example because with one quick Google search, I found this: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/descartes/meditations/meditations.html http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/descartes/medit... Still, the principle remains true.
- realrocker 13y agoOk, It's just plain scary how much I identify with this article.
- 31reasons 13y agogreat thoughts. loved this part: But if you’re trying to do something worthwhile and creative, then shutting down your brain is entirely the wrong way to go. The real secret to productivity is the reverse: to listen to your body. To eat when you’re hungry, to sleep when you’re tired, to take a break when you’re bored, to work on projects that seem fun and interesting.
- freework 13y agoIt reminds me of a saying they have in show business: You need to go away before you can make a comeback.
- jakerocheleau 13y agoI have never heard that before but it is a very truthful proverb.
- ricardobeat 13y ago(2005)
- sporkologist 13y ago"So the secret to getting yourself to do something is not to convince yourself you have to do it, but to convince yourself that it’s fun. And if it isn’t, then you need to make it fun." This one woke me up.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- gdonelli 13y agoFunny he mentioned TV? These days my problem is Twitter and Facebook. I even wrote a tool to reduce my Twitter intake (essenceapp.com)
- jakerocheleau 13y agoI try to convince myself Twitter is for wasting time and that getting work completed is 10x more fun.
- paduc 13y agoI quit twitter altogether. Never felt better. I'm worried HN has replaced it though.
- michzen 13y agoSpent so much time a year back on twitter, facebook, instagram the best way is close all your accounts. It's hard the first month and then you realise how good in fact it is trust me!
- Dewie 13y agoThe Web is easily my biggest timesink.
- SatvikBeri 13y agoTwitter didn't exist back then.
- sirarthur3 13y agoVery interesting! Some of this methods remind me of GTD...
- roundaboat 13y agoInteresting article, but it does sadden me when I see the author's name...
- cs648 13y agoHis point about a dissertation is interesting, having just finished one myself, I had never thought that it could have been inspired as a task to focus (not distract) our attention on studying.
- jasallen 13y agoSpeaking of 'lists of things to go back to read', I really need to go and read every essay he's written. Every time somebody links one on HN, I'm blown away.
- robertskmiles 13y agoIf you have a reader, download the ebook from https://github.com/joshleitzel/rawthought https://github.com/joshleitzel/rawthought. I read it not long ago, and it's one of the most interesting books I've ever read.
- sneak 13y agoHow to be more productive: don't intentionally and permanently stop producing things forever. :( I have little tolerance for people that are hypocritical on that scale.
- naradaellis 13y agoWho knows what was going through his mind when he decided enough was enough. I think your comment lacks compassion, and that is a shame because one might argue that lack of compassion is getting to the root of the reasons behind his suicide.
- sneak 13y ago> Who knows what was going through his mind when he decided enough was enough. Who knows what's going through anyone's mind when they are being productive, either? We hackers go by output, which is why his article is about being more productive. Compassion or no, it's fundamentally hypocritical to espouse productivity as a virtue and then do an about-face in your own personal choices.
- CompelTechnic 13y ago>Compassion or no, it's fundamentally hypocritical to espouse productivity as a virtue and then do an about-face in your own personal choices. It need not be hypocritical to perform actions that disregard one of your claimed virtues, as long as said actions are in line with some of your other claimed virtues (or in line with well-founded consequentialist-type reasoning). A man who preaches courage may find himself on a battlefield where courageous action leads to certain death, and would be wise to retreat to safety.
- roflc0ptic 13y ago> I have little tolerance for people that are hypocritical on that scale. What are you going to do, write him a nasty letter? It's not even necessarily hypocritical. He didn't make the claim that one should value productivity over all other things. As can be said of all suicides, he lived his life as well as he knew how and then he ended it when he didn't know how to live it anymore. Let's enjoy what there is to enjoy about his legacy and let his mistakes, minor as they are, fade.
- theorique 13y agoIt's a shame that his site is not updated more often nowadays. :(