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What are you willing to spend 2 hours on?

2 points by psadri ↗ HN
I'm finding that as I get older, I'm becoming more picky in committing to things that require time commitments - even watching a film that I'm not sure about.

It's understandable, I'm aware of my limited time.

But a major drawback is that it reduces random exploration / serendipitous discovery by trying unknown things out and sometimes being positively surprised. I have always found that kind of intellectual and physical wandering to be hugely valuable in creating alpha.

How do you deal this?

5 comments

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noir_lord
I ignore my impending death and remember that I regard any day I didn't learn something new/do something interesting as a waste.

Sometimes you just have to live in the now and let the future (and past) take care of themselves.

toomuchtodo
Do what brings you joy, discard what doesn’t. Stay curious, keep learning.
hashem19
I grapple with the exact same issue. I'd say def ignore toomuchtodo's comment on only doing things that brings you joy! it's a trap. stay open to exploring new things. sure, sometimes it goes nowhere but the experience is absolute joy, teach you a lot, gives you insight and prepare you for making hard decisions (did you say more alphas?). it's always good to wander: not all who wander are lost!
ZYZ64738
sometimes just doing nothing - i mean really absolutely nothing (while staying awake ;-)) - for 2 hrs. is exactly what needs to be done. There is a significant chance that you will know what topic to pick up afterwards... at least you tried s.th. new by doing nothing for 2 hrs. which can be beneficial and therefore isn't wasted time.
fuzzfactor
I'll still spend 2 hours getting 4 hours worth of accomplishments done just about any time.

>as I get older,

It's even easier after a few extra decades, you can get a lot better over time if you put your mind to it.

This is one of the very things I've probably been working on the longest and it's really helped the most.