'Work-Life Balance' Will Keep You Mediocre

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/work-life-balance-will-keep-you-mediocre-25bdf073

by impish9208 • 11 months ago

5 29 11 months ago

impish9208• 11 months ago

Gift link: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/work-life-balance-will-keep-you-...

To clarify, I posted this because it’s interesting enough for its stupidity, not because I agree with it. Also note that it’s a commentary article in the opinions section — not an actual news article.

bigbuppo• 11 months ago

And that's bad? The average person is pretty darned average.

downrightmike2• 11 months ago

Hey, don't go bringing stats into this!

fuzzfactor• 11 months ago

That's what I was thinking, anybody can achieve mediocrity if they work at it hard enough :)

techpineapple• 11 months ago

I’m not a religious person, but sometimes I wonder if the downfall of religion in society really fucked some people up. Where happened to our values? What happened to family, and being involved in your community. Now I’m a failure if I haven’t built 2 companies by the age of thirty?

rogerkirkness• 11 months ago

Yeah I agree, there is a total absence of values from silicon valley at this point. It is no different from 1980s wall street basically.

quantified5• 11 months ago

Possibly more money, more concentrated money?

King-Aaron2• 11 months ago

People broadly do still learn and hold good values, for the most part. I would wager an upbringing on Star Trek will give you a far better moral compass than ANY religion would.

Unfortunately what you're identifying here is the effects of unchained capitalism which demands more and more while returning less and less, as it's core function. It is fundamentally unsustainable and the effects you're highlighting here (fracturing of family, fracturing of community) is the result of that pressure.

duxup• 11 months ago

Maybe, but I'm not so sure, the religious right in the US is happy to cut funds to help care for god's children ... they seem more interested in imposing their religion on others via law than evangelizing or even loving others.

Religious history is hardly peaceful. Nobody seems to bring the hate as efficiently as the religious at times.

I remember religion growing up challenging you to give to others and care for them, even more so when you might not want to / for others who are different. But when religion has power? That doesn't seem to be the case.

The religion I see at work day to day seems far more negative, and I really don't see much objection by others who are religious, not on a religious basis.

quantified5• 11 months ago

Religion has fucked those values. Have you seen any televangelists or megachurch preachers? Look at the grifters around the White House.

sojournerc2• 11 months ago

Televangelists should not be your gauge of all religion or religious people

codingdave• 11 months ago

Cool. A happy mediocre life is better than living as a burned out husk.

JohnFen• 11 months ago

Between the two, the happy life is the exceptional one.

quantified5• 11 months ago

Optimize for what you need, I guess. Financial freedom is nice. So are friends who aren't just all about the money, family relationships, etc. In the WSJ, money and ownership is all there is. Don't forget that working all the time is no guarantee of financial success, ask any agricultural worker.

King-Aaron2• 11 months ago

"financial freedom by 30" is such a freaking slim chance for such a tiny, tiny percentage of people. It feels like this generation's "study hard and you can be whatever you want" trope.

downrightmike2• 11 months ago

I heard everyone should learn to code!

fennec-posix2• 11 months ago

"Mediocre" by what standard I ask. Wealth? Maybe. Happiness/Life Satisfaction? Not all roses, but hardly.

AnimalMuppet2• 11 months ago

"What is the measure of your success?" - Steve Taylor

In fact, because it's on topic, here's the full lyrics: https://www.streetdirectory.com/lyricadvisor/song/ucoowl/wha...

People are seeing that that version of "success" isn't worth your whole life. They're deciding to not chase it. That may not fit with the WSJ's version of the world, but from where I sit, it looks more like wisdom.

AnimalMuppet2• 11 months ago

Absence of work-life balance can burn you out to the point where mediocre would be a step up.

But even if it doesn't... "Money is like gasoline while driving across country on a road trip. You never want to run out, but the point of life is not to go on a tour of gas stations." - Tim O’Reilly.

BLKNSLVR• 11 months ago

(Haven't read the article, and probably won't given impish9208's reasoning for posting)

The terminology "Work-Life Balance" gives too much importance to work. It should be "Life Balance" in which there is at least a handful of mostly-unrelated things that should be maintained in order to achieve balance in one's life.

I've said in a past comment or two about having enough "things" going on in one's life that, if one or two are going badly, then one of the others can be 'retreated to' for comfort or solace or distraction. Decentralised happiness.

I'm happily mediocre. I'm mediocre across a number of things, but the sum total of all the mediocres is, I think, great.

Focus too much on one thing, build your entire self-worth upon it, and one mistake, not even in your own control, could be like a horse breaking a leg in a race.

Life balance, work should be but one leg of four or five.

(There is more nuance to this, but I think on the whole it's more right than wrong)

Finnucane• 11 months ago

"I plan to become a billionaire by age 30. Then I will have the time and resources to tackle problems close to my heart like climate change, species extinction and economic inequality. "

"I will spend the first part of my life excelling in the very practices that cause the problems that I will solve in the second part of my life."

fennec-posix2• 11 months ago

yeah, that's what my line of thinking was reading this part. Though with a lot more stuff I cannot add here at risk of being banned :D

quantified5• 11 months ago

I will not put that vow into any legally enforceable document, as I reserve the right to change my mind and spend it on only the most worthy people (me and my entourage).

rhelz• 11 months ago

Mediocre at what?

Millennium• 11 months ago

Yes, we already know techbros are trying to normalize workaholism within the general populace.

begemotz• 11 months ago

I figured this would show up on HN. I'm really puzzled why the WSJ would publish this as an 'editorial'. But here is my cynical take -- companies want you to buy into the hustle at 20 so they can exploit you until 30 and spit you out for the next generation of gullible workers.

"There’s no sugarcoating the mental-health struggles, the physical deterioration or the social isolation that came with this intensity...I plan to become a billionaire by age 30. Then I will have the time and resources to tackle problems close to my heart like climate change, species extinction and economic inequality."

I hope this doesn't come across as obnoxious, but *golly* -- the simple, unaware naivete of youth! First, the assumption that he will become a billionaire, second the assumption that he will live long enough to then turn to the things 'close to his heart'. This really does seem like he is trying to convince himself that all the struggles he outlines above is "worth it". In all honesty, I hope he makes it and I hope that, in 40 years, he writes another "editorial" that reads "It was worth it".

lbrito• 11 months ago

For financial freedom by age 30, optimize ruthlessly during your peak physical and cognitive years.

_If_ you get to 30 in the first place - and in good health.

Ah, the moronic bravado of the young!

'Work-Life Balance' Will Keep You Mediocre

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