The Finite, Irreplaceable Hours of Your Life

http://www.enemyairship.com/2/The_Finite__Irreplaceable_Hours_of_Your_Life/#b

by aeontech • 14 years ago

68 31 14 years ago

aeontech5• 14 years ago

A well-written reminder, I'd say. Even more so for startup founders - are you working on it because of sunk costs, or are you working on it because it is still the thing that you love to do.

ilaksh6• 14 years ago

Definitely first world problems here. I mean, I am with him on the point about being selective when choosing entertainment, but.. maybe we have too much entertainment to choose from and too much free time?

I mean I know that you will see things like that Hans' guys' TED talk about how much better everything is for everyone now, but things are still pretty fucked up for a LOT of people in the world. Look at Mexico.. or even a number of countries in Europe are having a really hard time now.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have morally bankrupt hedonistic worldviews where human life really has little or no value and their only long term goals are to "have fun". This is a common problem with our culture.

Your goals for life should not be to have a few thrills or entertain yourself. Your goals should be to effect positive change in the world. There are many suffering people, many problems to solve, lots of innovations and changes that could really improve things for everyone. That's the meaning of life. Not getting a few chuckles. And everyone can potentially make a very significant positive impact if they take their lives seriously.

Also I think we need to start innovating outside of the computer. We have real problems to solve. Its definitely easier to say than do -- I am a software developer -- but I really wish that this programmable matter stuff would take off, or at least maybe people would really start to take seriously ideas like ultra-local food and energy production.

mike_esspe• 14 years ago

Just a question to better correlate your position on hedonism: do you believe in after-life?

ilaksh6• 14 years ago

No. What does that have to do with hedonism?

aeontech5• 14 years ago

I think you're rather missing the point. What I took away from the article is not "choose better entertainment". It is that many people waste the time of their life on things they do not even particularly enjoy, simply out of habit, and that it is a good idea to give some thought to how you spend your time, and to re-evaluate your choices periodically and see if they still make sense.

This is valid advice and a good reminder for any time investment, whether entertainment, work, your own business, or, as you say, improving the world. Replace "watching Lost" with "fixing leaking roofs in Mexico" and the point still stands - there are more and less effective ways of improving the world, and if you do not take the time to re-evaluate your choices, you will waste time and energy that could help more people. Sure, you could go and become a carpenter in Mexico and build houses. Or you could create a small business loan system to lend money to a thousand carpenters in Mexico. The point is, be flexible and free to change your direction if you see a better way.

ilaksh6• 14 years ago

He spent a lot more time talking about entertainment than anything else.

You make a good point about being open to changing direction, but I think that is your point, not one made in the article.

stratomorph• 14 years ago

"Your goals should be to effect positive change in the world."

Should it? Why? What makes positive change a more valid goal than making more mans? (http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2481) And in turn, what's so morally bankrupt about the pursuit of fun? With a focus on the individual, it would seem to value human life more than simply measuring the size of the shadow you cast.

ilaksh6• 14 years ago

The type of moral code that I have described is more constructive both for civilization and for the individual.

As far as Darwin or simple propagation, our science and technology have taken us beyond natural human evolution.

The pursuit of fun without regards to positive social change or individual growth does not create medium or long term benefit for the individual or society.

Generally moral codes which explicitly take into account social responsibility are more beneficial for society. The current state of affairs in our consumerist capitalist society disproves the common belief that individual interest magically translates into common interest.

lolcraft• 14 years ago

First, please don't force your ideology down my throat. Specially, not through guilt. You are better than a Viagra salesman or a priest.

Second, please don't dismiss my own fucking problems as ``first world'', as if you know shit about other people's life. Again, you are not a douchebag, so don't behave like one. Yes, I know there are Foreign People suffering now. They can suck it up. We are all grown-ups now, we have problems too, and we have to take care of ourselves. We can not spend all of our life feeling sorry for others.

Third, you don't understand very much about hedonism, morality, philosophy or living. Let's try to be humble and not spit "morally bankrupt!" at every lifestyle with which you disagree. For example, Kant didn't arrive to the conclusion that, to be moral, he had to give all his belongings to the poor. Figure why.

ilaksh6• 14 years ago

Thanks for all of the insults. I must have really touched a nerve. Maybe you will consider your lifestyle and world view closely.

You almost imply that Kant wouldn't have a problem with hedonism. That doesn't sound very educated or well thought out.

vacri2• 14 years ago

I see you are trying to fill your reply with as much remarkable experience as possible.

reasonattlm• 14 years ago

They're not irreplaceable. Suitable investments of time and money can lead to an ultimate net gain in time - which is a change over the past state of affairs. If, of course, you choose to take advantage of this. See:

http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/02/what-is-wealth.ph...

and

http://www.fightaging.org/take-action/

aeontech5• 14 years ago

I firmly plan to live to a hundred and fifty or die trying, but I do not believe we're going to see immortality any time soon, therefore I still think that the time we do have is pretty much irreplaceable, especially time in relatively prime physical condition.

brooksbp• 14 years ago

do you eat raw fruits and vegetables?

mattdeboard• 14 years ago

What does it mean to "firmly plan"?

dageshi• 14 years ago

Forgive me, perhaps it's the cranky Britishness in me coming out like an uncontrollable fountain of bile, but sweet jesus this bloke is an insufferable hipster.

anthuswilliams• 14 years ago

My favorite part of the article: "Sometimes in the middle of a workout ... I can imagine nothing more painful than continuing. Sometimes my hands bleed from doing pull ups." A true hero, this guy.

I actually ended up taking his advice though. Since the article wasn't illuminating, insightful, enjoyable, or in any way worth my time, I renounced any obligation I felt to continue reading it.

Natsu• 14 years ago

Was it that bad? I only sorta skimmed that thing. All I got was that life is short so don't waste it.

So I quit reading.

elbrodeur• 14 years ago

The general stab of this article is great, but it's a little confusing:

The first few paragraphs bemoan people who are willing to suffer through the valleys to get to the peaks, while the middle of the article is all about how difficult it is to find rewarding experiences and how it usually takes a lot of hard work to see rewards manifest.

Despite his protestations, I think the author does have a sense of "time investment" and is probably often glad he "stuck with it."

vasco• 14 years ago

"There are a finite number of irreplaceable hours in a human life and it makes sense to fill those limited hours with as much remarkable experience as possible. "

Goes on to say how he played a computer game for more than 365 hours of his life. I wouldn't count some 360+ hours of the same game as "the most remarkable experiences possible" but that's just me.

newobj• 14 years ago

This article is two years old and amusingly timed because ultimately Shadow Physics got shitcanned. There was a talk at GDC about it just last week.

http://m.kotaku.com/5891076/why-the-indie-game-that-was-supp...

Jun8• 14 years ago

The sweet immaturity of the OP is amusing, but of course, he's in good company in expressing these sentiments. Many people have written about it but I think Paul Bowles nailed it in The Sheltering Sky:

"Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."

vacri2• 14 years ago

Going through a gruelling workout and feeling happy afterwards is okay, but going through a gruelling TV series and feeling happy afterwards isn't? This guy is moving the goalposts.

charlysisto• 14 years ago

That's life in a supermarket and happiness is on the shelves. Believing you can optimize you're life with only the best parts like on some market place has an interesting bias : the ideology of consumerism.

wccrawford• 14 years ago

His friends chose to watch Lost because it was the best option at the time. They may have given other reasons, but they all made the same choice: "Watch Lost, or do something better."

As for spending as much time on amazing things as possible... There are many people who believe you need lows to properly appreciate highs. If everything is amazing, then everything is actually normal... And nothing is amazing.

For years, I had a boss who would ask me how I was doing, and I'd reply, "Meh. Okay." And he'd respond, "So pretty good, huh?" He got me. He knew that I had a good life, and I was happy. And that it was relatively free from problems. When I had a weekend of playing video games and generally just having fun, that was perfectly normal. For others, that would be ignoring their responsibilities and goofing off.

I'm not saying not to have fun, just that life is easier to appreciate if you have a proper scale.

The Finite, Irreplaceable Hours of Your Life

Related Stories