from Hacker News

The virtuous mean between time drunkenness and work martyrdom

by casca on 2/25/24, 8:17 PM with 90 comments

  • by Ecoste on 2/26/24, 12:53 AM

    "Time drunks deeply intuit this, and their procrastination-induced state of timelessness should not be considered a terrible character flaw but rather an act of spiritual rebellion against modernity."

    Thank you, I needed that. Time to continue procrastitating.

  • by bawolff on 2/26/24, 12:46 AM

    The article defines the opposite of being a workaholic ("work matyr") as

    > “Time Indifference – We put off what must be done and do not use our time to support our own vision and further our own goals.”

    Personally i can't really identify with that view. I find work hardest to focus on when it is opposed to my own vision/goals (other then the goal to pay my rent). I suppose its still the same thing as a second order effect, spending time procrastinating is usually more time then just straight up doing it, which is less time on your own goals.

  • by zitterbewegung on 2/26/24, 12:59 AM

    It’s strange that we even work more or even at the same amount of time as 100 years ago.

    We have systems that increase worker productivity and even software by itself for the most part should be decreasing the amount of work to be done since it’s supposedly a large force multiplier for productivity.

    Economists predicted we would be working less (but they are bad at predicting most things) so while there might be a few more jobs why should work hours have stayed constant? I’m not even saying we have bs jobs either.

  • by UncleOxidant on 2/26/24, 4:17 AM

    > To be time drunk means to be so “drunk” that one forgets time exists. This forgetfulness is presented as a bad thing, given its inefficiency in the market economy. However, forgetting time is the right move when it comes to sacred considerations.

    But isn't the flow state also where people forget time exists? And isn't the flow state said to be the most productive state people can be in?

  • by Terr_ on 2/26/24, 2:38 AM

    > To be time drunk means to be so “drunk” that one forgets time exists.

    Hold up, there's something off about this terminology.

    When alcohol-drinks are drunk on alcohol, they may forget many things, but the existence of (more) alcohol is not typically one of them!

  • by madaxe_again on 2/26/24, 2:45 AM

    I learned these lessons the hard way.

    I have, through my life, oscillated from one extreme to the other - at school, this manifested as an utter indifference to lessons, preferring to read under the desk, yet a week of frantic learning in which I would absorb the year or term’s lessons. I was mostly time drunk at this point.

    Come graduation, I had an urgent need for income, to support both myself and family members who suddenly found themselves in a hard place. I worked a day job, a night job, two side gigs, and burned the candle fiercely for four years.

    One of the side gigs grew, became a business. Ten more years of utterly relentless and increasingly miserable grind. Lucre, too, but at a steep cost.

    2016. Burned out. Health so bad I earnestly thought I would probably soon die. Quit.

    Three years of time drunkenness. Travel. Drugs. More travel. More drugs. Lots of time staring into space and wondering who I was. Nothing was fulfilling, even doing things I knew I once dreamt of one day doing - the memory of desire was there, but the actuality, absent. I had utterly internalised the idea that my labour was my identity, and that I was without want or need. It seemed intractable, and no amount of r&r found me any improved.

    Then, we moved off grid. Seemingly the last step in a spiral, instead found me suddenly very much occupied with the basics of modern life. Water. Power. Shelter. Floods. Fires. You name it.

    That, and therapy, have finally found me at a virtuous mean. My cycles are no longer decadal, but hourly. I work. I play. I learn. I waste time. I use it well.

    I find myself with a child now, to boot - and she is the virtuous mean embodied - work and play, all in one.

    Anyway. These lessons are easily spoken, but hard earned.

  • by sibeliuss on 2/26/24, 3:57 AM

    My colleagues would consider me a 'work martyr', but what they don't understand is that my strategy is to get everything done as fast as possible and then to significantly chill. With deadlines covered and all the details buttoned up way ahead of time, it leads to a much less stressful life.
  • by chasd00 on 2/26/24, 3:56 AM

    All I got out of this article was “work/life balance is important”. I wish brevity was easier to monetize…
  • by porompompero on 2/26/24, 10:38 AM

    Are there 2 distinct ways of being time-drunk, one of calmness and one of excitement?