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"When you have children, you can have exactly one hobby. Anything else is an exercise in futility, self-deception, and ineffectiveness. Cooking healthy food is
by j2d3 13y ago
"When you have children, you can have exactly one hobby. Anything else is an exercise in futility, self-deception, and ineffectiveness. Cooking healthy food is a hobby. Exercising is a hobby. Maintaining a website is a hobby. Writing a blog is a hobby. Bringing work home is a hobby. You have time to do exactly one thing after your kids go to sleep, if you want to do it well."
Yes. Ugh. And I cannot pick one.
- throwit1979 13y agoRelevant to the story earlier today, John Carmack has three jobs and two children. He tweets regularly, speaks at cons, and occasionally blogs on altdev. He also reportedly lifts weights regularly. It's not impossible.
- mhartl 13y agoTo be fair, John Carmack is probably a vampire.
- x0x0 13y agoyour comparison is stupid 1 - he's a multimillionaire. He can afford to offload lots of cooking (restaurants), cleaning (cleaners), childcare (nannies), loss of income (stay at home partner), shorten his commute (purchase a house close to work, put a gym in the basement) 2 - even with all of the above, I still bet his wife does a big chunk of the household maintenance and childcare
- brymaster 13y ago> your comparison is stupid http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html In Comments Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face to face conversation. When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is an idiotic thing to say; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
- mgkimsal 13y agoHe didn't say the OP was stupid, just the comparison. I would say a variation of that, but might actually say 'stupid', depending on how amiable the group/person is, and how well I could inflect my voice to my funny instead of mean.
- brymaster 13y agoEr, I didn't say that he said the OP was stupid either > E.g. "That is an idiotic thing to say;
- mgkimsal 13y agoThat's a poor example then. "Calling names" generally refers to attacking the person/people, not ideas/things. I saw nothing uncivil about the 'stupid' post, unless you chose to read it in an iflammatory tone of voice.
- lukeholder 13y agoPossible, but you don't know what effect this has on his family.
- michaelgrafl 13y agoI don't follow John Carmack closely, but I remember him telling in an interview that his wife took care of their newborn child for the most part so he could sleep 8 hours a night, which he needed to be able to work. Not saying that his accomplishments aren't impressive, but being John Carmack probably helps doing the things John Carmack does.
- snowwrestler 13y agoHe is also fully in control of his own destiny, being independently wealthy and running his own company. If he wants to delay the next Quake engine by a couple days so he can speak at a conference, no problem. He can afford it, and it's up to him when his next product comes out. Most people either answer to a boss, or are not rich enough to purposefully pass up on new business. So it's not impossible, but to do it well takes a level of means that most people don't have.
- dquail 13y agoI'd frame this as: "You get to choose 3 between: work, spending time with your children, exercising regularly, maintaining a house, domestic duties, having a social life." And I'd totally agree ... I choose work, children and exercise ... but am lucky enough to be able to offload these other tasks
- precisioncoder 13y agoDepends what else you cut out, for instance I would add commuting in there. If you prioritize living close to work (or working remotely) then exercise can be your commute. IE Run or bike to work. Or if that's not an option do a karate class or get a climbing gym membership with your kids and exercise while spending time with them. Combining things you want to do is a great way to check off more things on the list.
- chacham15 13y agolol, how do you offload "having a social life"?
- lmm 13y agoYou stop going to social events. It's not hard (or rather, the reasons it's hard are not the practical difficulty)
- wikwocket 13y agoA good way to look at it, but you need to add "get remotely enough sleep" to your "choose 3" list. :)
- LTheobald 13y agoI was also about to come here & highlight that phrase. It's completely true. I don't regret having a child for one single second because she is amazing. But sitting down in front of a computer late in the evening, after another night of interrupted sleep & trying to solve complex issues is not easy.
- pge 13y agoPG's essay on thinking about how you invest your time (and how much easier time is to misinvest than money) is relevant here. http://www.paulgraham.com/selfindulgence.html http://www.paulgraham.com/selfindulgence.html I found when I had kids, I became a much better time investor, by necessity.